HEALTH & SAFETY:
Demanding healthy & safe working conditions

Electronic assemblers exposed to lead and solvents while assembling printed circuit boards having miscarriages.

Garment workers suffering from back and neck problems making it difficult to get dressed in the morning or open jars.

The low-wage industries where Asian immigrant women workers are heavily concentrated, are notorious for unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. Without information available in their native language, most workers are unaware of their rights. Some workers who try to file for workers compensation face a high risk of retaliation in addition to a challenging government system.

In an effort to address industry-wide problems of unsafe working conditions, AIWA has developed three programs that involve immigrant women’s grassroots leadership:

• The Peer Health Promoter’s Program trained 75 women as Peer Health Promoters. These women worked successfully with other immigrant workers to uncover health issues, educate others about health risks, and document the impact of their workplaces on their health. The women listened to their cohorts and subsequently designed the Workers Clinic and Ergonomic Improvement Program to respond to their concerns.
• The Asian Immigrant Women Workers Clinic launched in 2000 was an innovative collaboration between AIWA garment workers and UCSF School of Medicine and School of Nursing. The Worker’s Clinic provided basic treatment for immigrant garment workers for work-related health problems. Physical therapy classes, ergonomic instructions, orthopedic consultations and referrals were also provided. Specialists and immigrant women worked together to conduct training on important physical exercises to reduce work-related pain and injury; and to develop ergonomic workstations. In 2001, AIWA and UCSF released a report with findings from the first two years of the Clinic. The clinic has continued since 2002 under UCSF auspices.
• The Ergonomic Improvement Program, also a collaborative project between health professionals and immigrant women workers, works to specifically address the repetitive stress injuries that garment workers develop. The development of low-cost ergonomic changes to workstations helps prevent injuries (For a brochure Click here for an English version or Click here for a Chinese version). Women workers are involved in the development of these changes; they realize they have the ability and incentive to demand changes in their workplace design.

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