December 27, 2021
La Grange, IL — Unionized construction worksites may be nearly a fifth less likely to incur OSHA health and safety violations than their nonunionized counterparts, with positive effects on safety even more prevalent in the Midwest, a recent report shows.
Researchers at the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign examined more than 37,000 OSHA inspections of construction jobsites conducted in 2019, nearly 2,900 of which took place at union worksites.
Findings show that the union worksites were 19% less likely to be cited for health and safety violations and, on average, had 34% fewer violations per inspection. Additionally, union worksites in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin had at least 52.2% fewer violations per inspection than nonunion sites in those states. The union difference was greatest in Indiana, where union sites had 64.2% fewer violations per inspection.