Latino Construction Worker Resources Collection

Details

• Personal Author:
  Scruggs, Kelsie ; Gonzalez Arroyo, Michele
• Corporate Authors:
  CPWR--The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Description:
  Introduction: This collection is part of an ongoing CPWR effort to look at projects and research efforts that aim to identify the disparate safety and health risks affecting Latino construction workers, as well as promising strategies to address these disparities. The collection includes: 1. Background. 2. Case Examples. 3. Project, Research, and Resource Highlights. 4. Thematic Challenges. 5. Potential Areas for Future Research 6. Additional Latino Construction Worker Articles and Reports. Background: In 2008 more than 2 million Latino construction workers were estimated to be foreign-born (CPWR Data Center 2009). The construction industry is one of the most dangerous industries for all workers in the United States (Brunette 2004; Abudayyeh 2006; Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2012), but Latino workers in particular have higher work-related fatality rates (Dong 2009, 2013) and are more likely than non-Latino construction workers to suffer work-related injuries, including those severe enough to cause lost workdays (Dong 2010b). Latino construction workers are 30% more likely than white non-Latino construction workers to have medical conditions due to work-related injuries, and those injuries are likely to be more severe (Dong 2010a). Latino construction workers lack access to health care coverage and have significantly lower rates of workers compensation coverage compared to white, non-Latino construction workers (Dong 2007). Latino construction workers typically have little formal education (Brunette 2005) and often face language barriers (Acosta-Leon 2006), which can make safety communication challenging. An estimated one million Latino construction workers speak only Spanish (Brunette 2004). Many more have a basic understanding of the English language, but not of the technical terms used in construction (Nash 2004; Thompson 2007). Translating materials into Spanish helps but is not necessarily a viable safety communication strategy for all Latino workers, as many are not literate in Spanish or English (Evia 2012). One potential contributor to the disparate injury and illness rates between Latino and non-Latino construction workers is the fact that Latino workers are more likely to perform more hazardous construction jobs with less on-the-job training (Dong 2004). Of those that do receive training, many are not receiving appropriate and complete training due to language and literacy barriers (McGlothin 2009). These workers often face enormous pressure to work quickly on the jobsite. They may not have a cultural precedent for jobsite safety and fear employer retaliation if they speak up about unsafe conditions (Roelofs 2011). Additionally, their work safety culture and climate is influenced by pressures to remain employed, being undocumented, cultural values, and masculinity narratives that encourage men to accept danger (Brunette 2004; Menzel 2010; Grzywacz 2007; Arcury 2012, Saucedo 2010). Too often Latino construction workers are willing to tolerate unsafe conditions due to these pressures (Menzel 2010; Roelofs 2011). For example, research has found a "safety status quo" among Latino roofers that may be further perpetuated by workers' traditional values about safety (Hung 2013). [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Demography Fatigue Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Race Factors Safety Vibration Workplace
• Keywords:
  Arm-injuries Carpal-tunnel-syndrome Clinical-symptoms Construction Construction-industry Construction-workers Demographic-characteristics Equipment-design Force Hand-injuries Hand-tools Injuries Muscle-physiology Muscle-tension Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Nerve-damage Nerve-function Racial-factors Repetitive-work Rest-periods Safety-education Safety-practices Safety-research Sociological-factors Tools Vibration-effects Vibration-exposure Weight-factors Work-environment Work-performance Worker-health

  More +
• Series:
  CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications
• Publisher:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Collected Works
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  22 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046789
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, 2014 Feb; :1-22
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Latino construction worker resources collection
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9a45635b3b6db6524083fbf7108c66d2b3a9f058cd52b7cbbd2a9165822b39346bf367210b0a45a1bf705b6bb1c61b9be896d3e0bef60b04d3db69aa7fac040c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213188/cdc_213188_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 196.14 KB ]