WisCOSH works for employee safety

Jim Schultz knows a thing or two about how to stay safe at work. As an occupational health and safety trainer, Schultz has conducted countless classes to inform workers about workplace hazards, as well as inform people of their rights to a safe work environment. As a steelworker and the son of a steelworker, Schultz also knows a lot, maybe too much, about the damaging effects of workplace injuries – and not just on workers, but on entire families.

"I grew up in a family touched by workplace injury. My father was run over by a truck while working in a foundry," says Schultz. He survived, but the recovery took many months and was hard not only physically on his father, but emotionally and economically on the whole family.

Consequently, Schultz has been on the board of the Wisconsin Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (WisCOSH), for almost 12 years and served as the executive director. WisCOSH, 1535 W. Mitchell St., is an information advocacy group whose aim is to promote safe workplaces in all of Wisconsin. It does this through workplace training on OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations and provides outreach for workers and interested businesses on workplace hazards and rights.

Schultz has been hurt a few times at work, too. One of these was in 1997, when Schultz went in for Saturday overtime at the foundry. Having just worked 24 of the previous 36 hours, Schultz went in to continue helping the company meet its deadlines, but instead suffered injuries that almost killed him.

During the process of melting iron, glass, dirt and other impurities rise to the top of the molten mix and need to be skimmed off. The skimming tools, being metal themselves, need to be treated to help the tools resist the heat. The coating on the tool Schultz was using that Saturday wasn't as dry as it appeared, and when he inserted it, the coating interacted explosively with the iron, causing melted iron to shoot back onto him, causing first, second and third degree burns on over 20 percent of his body – all over his torso, arms, face and neck.

It took one-and-a-half years for the burns to heal sufficiently for Schultz to undergo the plastic surgery he needed. It was another 18 months before Schultz was deemed able to return to work. He is still recovering.

Schultz attributes his workplace injury to the sped-up conditions at the plant, the overtime, the reduced number of workers in his department and that there was no planning and no safety equipment. The only other person in the area at the time was Schultz's supervisor, and since he was not standing right next to Schultz, no one was there to give immediate aid.

Although his steelworkers union at the time was already a member of WisCOSH and Schultz had attended a few of their events, after his injury he really got involved in workplace safety and the organization.

According to Schultz, WisCOSH has provided assistance to between two and three thousand people annually and directly trains about 500 workers each year in health and safety issues at their jobs.

WisCOSH was originally organized, under a different name, around getting an OSHA office in the state of Wisconsin. In 1978, this group founded WisCOSH as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. WisCOSH is currently a member of the Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee, a workplace-giving organization that campaigns for charitable giving in area businesses.

Under the OSHA law, passed in 1970, employers are required to have workplace safety trainings in place.

"But safety is usually the first thing to get cut when the economy goes bad," says Schultz.

WisCOSH's advocacy efforts extend to work on legislation, for example pushing for the Protecting America's Workers Act, which would give the first updates since the mid-70s to OSHA as well as include federal and state employees who are not covered by OSHA regulations. WisCOSH was also part of a coalition with 9to5-Wisconsin to implement the Paid Sick Days ordinance in Milwaukee.

"We had to be involved. Paid sick days is a huge health issue for workers and the public," says Schultz.

Schultz grew up in Milwaukee and Waukesha, attended Waukesha North High School and currently resides in Riverwest. Schultz has served as the executive director of WisCOSH, but is currently on unpaid personal leave from the directorship.

Schultz's significant other has been battling throat cancer for the past year. After radiation and chemo treatments, doctors believed they got all the cancer, but now they're not sure, so Schultz and his two step sons continue the struggle.

And Schultz continues to struggle for worker rights. He remains on the WisCOSH board and, for the past few years, Schultz has been thinking about developing a training group co-operative, to provide workplace safety seminars and increase information sharing. He recently began developing the idea with local branch members of his union, the Industrial Workers of World (I.W.W.).

In addition to trainings, WisCOSH helps people with worker's compensation issues and offers many services to the unemployed, offering advice and lining up help from other organizations. Although it is made up of members, including labor unions, community organizations, businesses and individuals, Schultz says people don't have to be a member of WisCOSH to receive their assistance.

"We're here for the general public," he says.

Schultz recalls, a couple years ago when WisCOSH shared office space with Voces de la Frontera, 1027 S. 5th St., that a man came into Voces looking for help with a workplace issue.

"The worker, a Spanish-speaking immigrant, lost two of his fingers while working a machine at a locally-famous shoe manufacturer. The machine didn't have the proper guards in place that would have protected the man. He lost a finger up to the first knuckle and another to the second knuckle," says Schultz.

While WisCOSH was working with the man, a salvage yard in the area called the office and informed Schultz that they had received a machine in the yard with fingers in it.

"The company had moved the machine out of the factory before any investigation could begin," says Schultz.

According to Schultz, WisCOSH was able to help the man secure worker's compensation, including reconstructive surgery for what remained of his fingers, and receive prosthetics and payments for losing his fingers.

WisCOSH is offering free OSHA training classes. Attendees of each class will receive information about basic OSHA regulations, employer's and worker's rights and responsibilities, training in job-site hazards identification, information on ergonomics issues and strategies for starting, or reinvigorating, workplace safety committees.