Uploaded January 2018 | Updated September 2026, 9 hours ago
Frank Wallick, labor editor and activist, was an early leader of and an inspiration to the occupational health and safety movement in the United States. This 1973 speech is from the first conference organized by the Occupational Health Project of the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) for workers and unions. This conference was held in Chicago at the University of Illinois School of Medicine, co-sponsored by the Medicine School and many union locals. The first COSH Group, the Chicago Area Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (CACOSH) grew out of this conference. COSH groups are private, non-profit coalitions of labor unions, health and technical professionals, and others interested in promoting and advocating for worker health and safety. Today’s National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is a federation of local and statewide "COSH" groups – Committees / Coalitions on Occupational Safety and Health. For more about COSH Groups, link to
coshnetwork.org/. Wallick helped lead the fight for passage of the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act, along with Tony Mazzocchi, Jack Sheehan, George Taylor and Sheldon Samuels. As Editor of the Washington Report for the United Auto Workers, he publicized workplace hazards and encouraged legislators in Washington to do the right thing. He was a mentor to a whole generation of young health and safety advocates in the trade union movement. He helped build a network of activists and encouraged their work. He led fifteen health and safety tours to Sweden and other Nordic countries, during the 1970s and 1980s, for groups of union members, activists and scholars to study workplace safety conditions. In 1972, Wallick wrote the book The American Worker: An Endangered Species, as a primer on how to promote and create a healthy workplace. The book was praised by union activists and health and safety professionals as serving as a catalyst for the then-nascent movement for occupational health and safety. In 1984, his book was republished and expanded as Don’t Let Your Job Kill You. Wallick became one of America's foremost labor journalists, editing the United Auto Workers Washington Report from 1963 to 1987. Under his editorship, this unique publication covered a broad spectrum of issues ranging from environmental concerns to worldwide problems of working people. The newsletter appeared weekly and was sent to UAW leadership, but was also read by many opinion-makers outside the labor movement. For more on the life and work of Frank Wallick, read Ruth Ruttenberg’s article, Frank Wallick, Labor Editor, Health and Safety Activist, 1923–2010, in the New Solutions Journal at
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/NS.21.1.e?journalCode=newa. The Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) was an organization of doctors, nurses, and other health care providers devoted to promoting civil rights, reaching out to minority groups, and improving the delivery of health services in the United States from 1964 to 1980. MCHR established its Occupational Health Project after OSHA began in 1971with the goal of forming permanent local organizations dedicated to grassroots health education and organization – now known as COSH Groups. For more on the MCHR, link to journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2014/09/mhst1-1409.html. Thanks to Peter Orris for providing this video from this 1973 conference.
Frank Wallick, labor editor and activist, was an early leader of and an inspiration to the occupational health and safety movement in the United States. This 1973 speech is from the first conference organized by the Occupational Health Project of the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) for workers and unions. This conference was held in Chicago at the University of Illinois School of Medicine, co-sponsored by the Medicine School and many union locals. The first COSH Group, the Chicago Area Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (CACOSH) grew out of this conference. COSH groups are private, non-profit coalitions of labor unions, health and technical professionals, and others interested in promoting and advocating for worker health and safety. Today’s National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is a federation of local and statewide "COSH" groups – Committees / Coalitions on Occupational Safety and Health. For more about COSH Groups, link to
coshnetwork.org/. Wallick helped lead the fight for passage of the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act, along with Tony Mazzocchi, Jack Sheehan, George Taylor and Sheldon Samuels. As Editor of the Washington Report for the United Auto Workers, he publicized workplace hazards and encouraged legislators in Washington to do the right thing. He was a mentor to a whole generation of young health and safety advocates in the trade union movement. He helped build a network of activists and encouraged their work. He led fifteen health and safety tours to Sweden and other Nordic countries, during the 1970s and 1980s, for groups of union members, activists and scholars to study workplace safety conditions. In 1972, Wallick wrote the book The American Worker: An Endangered Species, as a primer on how to promote and create a healthy workplace. The book was praised by union activists and health and safety professionals as serving as a catalyst for the then-nascent movement for occupational health and safety. In 1984, his book was republished and expanded as Don’t Let Your Job Kill You. Wallick became one of America's foremost labor journalists, editing the United Auto Workers Washington Report from 1963 to 1987. Under his editorship, this unique publication covered a broad spectrum of issues ranging from environmental concerns to worldwide problems of working people. The newsletter appeared weekly and was sent to UAW leadership, but was also read by many opinion-makers outside the labor movement. For more on the life and work of Frank Wallick, read Ruth Ruttenberg’s article, Frank Wallick, Labor Editor, Health and Safety Activist, 1923–2010, in the New Solutions Journal at
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/NS.21.1.e?journalCode=newa. The Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) was an organization of doctors, nurses, and other health care providers devoted to promoting civil rights, reaching out to minority groups, and improving the delivery of health services in the United States from 1964 to 1980. MCHR established its Occupational Health Project after OSHA began in 1971with the goal of forming permanent local organizations dedicated to grassroots health education and organization – now known as COSH Groups. For more on the MCHR, link to journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2014/09/mhst1-1409.html. Thanks to Peter Orris for providing this video from this 1973 conference.
