Description

The Global Threats to Workers’ Health and Safety on the Job

Brown documents the daily violence of a “normally” functioning world economic order arrayed against workers and communities worldwide. The essay reviews the recent record of globalization in undermining the fundamental human right of every working person to be able to return home at the end of the workday alive and healthy. As evidenced by the 3,330 workers around the world who die on the job every day, Brown details how the “global race to the bottom” affects developing and developed economies alike as transnational corporations roam the world looking for the lowest wages, the most vulnerable workforces, and the least regulation of environmental and occupational health. The essay also provides examples of promising nascent worker and community movements against the destructive effects of unfettered capital mobility, for which there are important supportive roles for U.S. health professionals to play.

globalization, health care, occupational health, workers’ health and safety

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 29, No. 3 (2002): 12-25