Finding common ground: How public health can work with organized labor to protect workers from environmental tobacco smoke

Tobacco is not and does not have to be a high priority for all segments of organized labor, but public health advocates should continue to promote the issue and find segments which are open to collaborative efforts to protect workers' health. Even in those unions representing workers for whom smoking and ETS pose a lower health risk relative to other workplace toxins, smoking policy remains a strategic issue for at least two reasons. First, supporting efforts to control ETS exposure is an issue of service to non- smoking union members, and likewise, bargaining for smoking cessation programs is a service to members who smoke. Second, it is in the union's interest to engage with management through collective bargaining to develop smoking policies, rather than to allow management to unilaterally propose and/or implement policies. To remain a strong voice in the worksite, labor needs to defend its unions and members from misdirected and overzealous actions. Within the context of the diversity of opinions from within labor and public health, this policy statement aims to identify our common ground and recommend ways to collaborate in protecting worker health. Specifically, we recommend that the public health community take the following actions: 1) assist unions with smoking cessation services that meet the needs of labor, 2) support labor's efforts to negotiate smoking policies within the context of collective bargaining, 3) include labor in tobacco control coalitions, 4) advocate for regulatory initiatives that include ETS as part of an overall indoor air quality strategy, 5) focus attention on preventing smoking among children of union members, and 6) develop strategies with labor to benefit from savings that employers achieve under smoking restrictions or bans. Smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke represent a threat to the health of workers. Given that the public health and labor movements have a mutual interest in protecting worker health, it makes sense for these two groups to join together on tobacco control policymaking in the worksite.