Statement from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on scientists urging stronger workplace protections:
The AFL-CIO welcomes the message released by leading scientific experts urging stronger protections for workers and the public due to proof that inhalation is the major route of transmission causing COVID-19 infections and outbreaks. The AFL-CIO has called on the federal government to do more to protect working people from the deadly coronavirus to ensure that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Mine Safety and Health Administration clearly recommend and require preventive measures that protect workers from inhalation exposures. We support the Biden administration’s promise to develop workplace COVID-19 policies based on science, which must include ventilating workplaces and indoor spaces and providing respirators for people whose work involves prolonged, close contact with other workers and the public. Protecting people at work is critical to minimizing transmission of this virus, pulling us out of the pandemic and rebuilding our economy.
Contact: Carolyn Bobb (202) 637-5018