Under immense pressure from working people, the Trump administration has reversed its dangerous cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
This is a major victory for worker safety, and it belongs to all of us.
In April, NIOSH faced devastating cuts impacting nearly 90% of the agency’s staff, threatening to dismantle the only federal agency dedicated to groundbreaking safety research. It was one of the largest attacks on worker safety in U.S. history.
But the labor movement and working people persisted, and we were victorious.
Calls to Congress, tireless advocacy, and refusal to accept these cuts worked. When the labor movement comes together and demands that our government prioritize worker safety over corporate interests, we win.
Because of this reversal, life-saving research will continue. NIOSH can resume its critical work developing the tools and guidelines that keep entertainment workers and all American workers safe. The research IATSE kin depend on covering occupational hearing loss, fall prevention, heat and cold stress protocols, and regulations on exposure to so many other workplace hazards will move forward.
This victory proves that when working people organize and fight back, we can protect the agencies that protect us. But we cannot let our guard down. We must continue to defend worker safety as a fundamental right, not a partisan political bargaining chip.
