Shaping the Future: Ten Years of the Occupational Health Internship Program

The Occupational Health Internship Program (OHIP) was initiated in 2003 to recruit a new, diverse generation of occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals and to advance OSH within union and community-based initiatives. It retains the principles of the original OCAW/Montefiore internship program while adapting to the changed landscape of the 21st-century workplace. Case studies of OHIP projects illustrate how students have contributed to key OSH policies—to regulate silica exposure among construction workers, apply principles of green chemistry with Vietnamese nail salon workers, and integrate OSH into “green” jobs in the recycling industry. They have supported innovative campaigns with immigrant workers in contingent jobs—from taxi drivers to warehouse workers. The students, in turn, have been inspired to enter the OSH arena as professionals and worker advocates with the potential to contribute new energy to an OSH movement.

[1]  Jeffrey V. Johnson,et al.  Long working hours, occupational health and the changing nature of work organization. , 2006, American journal of industrial medicine.

[2]  Bruce Western,et al.  Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality , 2011 .

[3]  M. Silverstein.  Getting home safe and sound: occupational safety and health administration at 38. , 2008, American journal of public health.

[4]  P. Bohle,et al.  The Global Expansion of Precarious Employment, Work Disorganization, and Consequences for Occupational Health: A Review of Recent Research , 2001, International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation.

[5]  B. Commoner,et al.  Fear at work: Job blackmail, labor, and the environment , 1982 .

[6]  Seven Challenges for the Future of Occupational Safety and Health , 2010, Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene.

[7]  Craig Slatin.  Environmental Unions: Labor and the Superfund , 2009 .

[8]  C. Peek-Asa,et al.  Workplace violence prevention programs in psychiatric units and facilities. , 2009, Archives of psychiatric nursing.

[9]  R. Milkman.  Immigrant Organizing and the New Labor Movement in Los Angeles , 2000 .

[10]  J. Rosen.  A labor perspective of workplace violence prevention. Identifying research needs. , 2001, American journal of preventive medicine.

[11]  My Tong,et al.  Developing a Proactive Research Agenda to Advance Nail Salon Worker Health, Safety, and Rights , 2012, Progress in community health partnerships : research, education, and action.

[12]  S. Schurman,et al.  Teaching for Change: Popular Education and the Labor Movement. , 2002 .

[13]  C. Peek-Asa,et al.  Incidence of non-fatal workplace assault injuries determined from employer's reports in California. , 1997, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[14]  M Linder Tia.  History and Mission , 2014 .

[15]  R M Nester,et al.  Occupational Safety & Health Administration , 1996, AAOHN journal : official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses.

[16]  L. Murray.  Sick and tired of being sick and tired: scientific evidence, methods, and research implications for racial and ethnic disparities in occupational health. , 2003, American journal of public health.

[17]  Michael Quinlan,et al.  The Implications of Labour Market Restructuring in Industrialized Societies for Occupational Health and Safety , 1999 .

[18]  R. E. Kutscher.  Historical trends, 1950-92, and current uncertainties , 1993 .

[19]  A. Kalleberg.  Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition , 2009 .

[20]  Gail Bateson,et al.  Student Internships with Unions and Workers: Building the Occupational Health and Safety Movement , 2013, New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS.

[21]  A. Robbins,et al.  The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi , 2008 .

[22]  N. Wallerstein,et al.  Empowerment Education: Freire's Ideas Adapted to Health Education , 1988, Health education quarterly.

[23]  J. Fine.  Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream , 2006 .

[24]  Megan M. Barker.  Manufacturing Employment Hard Hit during the 2007-09 Recession: During the 2007-09 Recession, Employment in Manufacturing Declined Sharply. When Combined with Other Manufacturing Indicators, the Job Loss Shows That Manufacturing Was Particularly Hard-Hit during the Downturn , 2011 .

[25]  Abraham T. Mosisa.  The Role of Foreign-Born Workers in the U.S. Economy. , 2002 .

[26]  K. Kreiss,et al.  Contingent workers and contingent health: risks of a modern economy. , 2008, JAMA.