Papered Over: Safety and Health in U.S. Paper Mills

To address the serious safety and health problems in paper, the USW created the Paper Research Action Project to survey conditions in USW-represented paper mills. Based on preliminary discussions with union leaders and local unions, and their own collective experience, the Team decided to focus on seven key areas: union involvement in safety and health; work design; process safety and emergency response; combustible and toxic dusts; machine guarding and lockout/tagout; counterproductive behavioral safety programs; and safety and health training.

This publication details the results of that survey – along with recommendations for action – in each of the seven key areas. The findings show an industry that tolerates serious risks to its workers, where the limited safety and health programs that do exist are based on a flawed view of what causes accidents, and are often counterproductive of safety. But these problems can all be corrected. All it will take is commitment and hard work by management, the union and paperworkers themselves.