Health and Safety Fund

The NYS Laborers' Health and Safety Fund is a perfect example of how labor and management, working together, can make a difference in members' health, safety and wellness and improve jobsite productivity.

Recognized in the construction industry as one of the most ambitious programs of its kind, the Health and Safety Fund is constantly thinking of new ways in which to make workers healthier and their worksites safer. This translates into a more productive workforce, which, in turn, improves the bottom line. It develops a variety of education, awareness and promotional programs for Laborers and their families and also works to contain health care and workers' compensation costs.

Most recently, the Fund purchased a training bus to make health and safety presentations at worksites around the state. This on-site safety training bus is an example of the innovative approaches the union is developing to solve common problems facing the industry. Knowing that members can't always leave work to travel to a training site and that conditions on many construction sites are not ideal to hold even a short safety training class, the New York State Laborers took the initiative to bring the "mobile classroom" to sites across the state.

The Health and Safety Fund:

• fosters safety in highway and building construction
• protects members engaged in the environmental trades
• helps employers meet, and often surpass, government safety and health standards
• heightens employee and employer awareness of various diseases and health risks that workers face
• supports major health and safety research and prevention programs
• works in conjunction with NYS LECET and the NYS Laborers' PAC to encourage legislation that promotes safe workplace practices
• produces Laborsafe, a quarterly health and wellness publication mailed to all members across the state inside issues of Tri-Fund magazine
• creates a variety of communication tools distributed to construction sites around the state to remind workers of the importance of personal protective equipment and other safety precautions

Health Fairs

The Fund works with local unions and district councils to organize free health fairs that give members, retirees and their families vital access to direct-care health services, such as cholesterol and blood pressure screenings and pulmonary function testing.

The fairs also provide the latest information about:

• injury and illness prevention
• health care costs
• cardiovascular, heart and musculoskeletal disease
• cancer prevention and treatment
• smoking and substance abuse
• other issues that affect Laborers on the job and at home