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Right to Know and the NLRA
NOTE: For those students who do not know any labor law:
Collective bargaining operates with a completely different model. Unions are charged with representing employees in negotiations with employers regarding mandatory subjects of bargaining under Section 8(a)(5) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(5). Occupational safety and health is indisputably such a subject. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Local Union No. 6-418, AFL-CIO v. NLRB, 711 F.2d 348 (D.C. Cir.1983). From this flows a wide variety of union rights relevant to health and safety.
Despite these OSHA standards, most workers’ access to information is still limited. Nothing in the OSHAct allows employees to ask for information the employer may have about hazards that goes beyond the specific information covered in the two rules. Nothing in the Act allows employees to bring experts on site to examine hazards: in the regulatory scheme, that is the role for NIOSH.
Check out the difference if the workers are unionized:
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