OSHA Convenes Conference on Building Partnerships for a Safer Tomorrow

“Building Partnerships for a Safer Tomorrow” was the theme of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s inaugural conference in Washington, D.C. March 16-17 to spotlight successes and best practices of the agency’s National Strategic Partnership Program. The conference was held at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building.

The conference marked the first opportunity for OSHA and its national partners to share ideas, strategies and successes of partnership programs designed to strengthen worker protections throughout the nation.

“The partnerships represented during this conference serve as role models in their industries and throughout their communities,” said Jonathan Snare, acting assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. “Each participant has willingly moved beyond the bounds of individual interest to serve as a safety and health leader. This commitment to workplace safety and health is evidence of the partnership program’s success.”

OSHA staff and conference participants worked to identify common issues, solutions, and ways to leverage resources for continued successful programs. Key discussions centered on partnership management strategies, the use of data collection and analysis to gauge progress, impact on partnerships by both internal and external changes, and sharing of ergonomic best practices.

OSHA launched its Strategic Partnership Program in 1998 and, by the end of last year, had signed more than 350 national, regional and local agreements impacting more than 13,000 employers and more than 720,000 workers across the United States. Currently, 226 partnerships remain open, including 11 national partnerships that impact over 225,000 employees across the United States.

OSHA’s current national partners include: AMEC Construction; the Department of the Army; Johnson & Johnson; Koch Industries; the National Park Service; the National Ready-Mixed Concrete Association; Electrical Transmission and Distribution Construction Contractors and Trade Associations; Tyson Foods; United Auto, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers (UAW)/Ford Motor Company; UAW/Visteon Corporation; and the United Postal Service/American Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO/National Postal Mail Handlers Union.