Mexico’s Consulate General in Chicago has signed an alliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to foster a partnership aimed at providing Mexican and Latino workers in Illinois and Wisconsin with access to training, education and resources that seek to both protect workers’ rights and advance health and safety in the workplace.
Michael Connors, the OSHA Regional Administrator in Chicago, stated in a press release that the purpose of the alliance is to “provide Mexican and other Latino workers in Illinois and Wisconsin with information and resources that will help them recognize and challenge unsafe and improper working conditions.”
Those involved with the alliance will work to create and implement training programs and improve education quality for Mexican nationals regarding health and safety concerns. A major focus will be the safety issues related to construction, which include: working with guarded or unguarded machinery; unexpected power surges during machine maintenance; exposure to hazardous materials; and falls from elevated surfaces. Alliance participants will be responsible for communicating the recommendations and information derived from the alliance to the intended workers and employees.
The alliance was signed on May 11 at the Mexican consulate by OSHA Regional Administrator Connors and Mexican Consul General Manuel Rodriguez Arriaga, and is a result of OSHA’s Alliance Program. The Program works with groups committed to health and safety in the workplace by pooling resources and expertise in an effort to promote the continued improvement of worker safety and training; the ultimate goal being decreasing and preventing the many injuries and deaths that result from unsafe workplace conditions and uninformed workers.
