ABSTRACT
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Environment Committee began as a sub-committee of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee in 1989. In health and safety, there was less difference between Canada and Britain, since both had health and safety laws, regulations and codes of practice. In the United States, the great promoters of health and safety were the Committees on Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), community organizations with a greater or smaller number of union rank-and-file members. There were two rank-and-file sentiments, which were rather distinct from each other. One comprised those who emphasized the connection between health and safety and the environment. The most obvious example was pollution: the pollutants that poison workers are also the toxins which erode community health outside the workplace and degrade the physical environment. The other grouping was more specifically environmental, in that it had an interest in the relationship between the workplace and the outside environment, rather than health and safety conditions within it.
