UAW Commentary
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS INJURY AND ILLNESS SURVEY FOR THE YEAR 2000

The Bureau of Labor Statistics annual injury and illness survey for the year 2000 again demonstrates the effectiveness of UAW negotiated ergonomic programs over the long run. Unfortunately, the rate of improvement was uneven across sectors. For the year 2000, progress was disappointing for the vehicle assembly sector, although quite satisfactory in motor vehicle parts and automotive stamping.

The UAW believes that 1994 is the appropriate baseline year. Injury recording practices had stabilized after record-keeping enforcement of the late '80s. This was also the approximate time when ergonomics programs, which began in the late '80s, became fully effective.

From 1994 through year 2000, the total injury-illness rate in vehicle assembly was reduced by 10.5 per hundred employees. The injury rate alone was reduced by 7.5 cases per hundred, while illnesses, which are overwhelmingly repetitive trauma disorders, were reduced by 3 per hundred. These are approximately 30 percent reductions from the baseline year of 1994.

A comparison can be made between the reduction in the rate of injuries in the auto sector and the reduction in the rate of injuries found in general industry. These absolute reductions were four and a half times greater for total cases, nearly four times greater for injuries and as much as 10 times greater for illnesses compared to reductions in all private employment. In the auto parts sector, the rate reductions were close to 40% compared to the national average. In absolute terms these reductions were almost three times larger for injuries alone, and nearly seven times larger for illnesses alone, compared to the national average. For automotive stamping, the seven-year rate was down nearly 70% for injuries, and nearly 80% for illnesses.

Reductions in injuries alone are almost certainly due to ergonomics programs. The injury category is actually dominated by strain and sprain injuries.

Back disorders are also recorded in the injury category. The UAW believes that most strain and sprain injuries, attributed to overexertion, are better characterized as acute flare-ups of chronic conditions arising from repetitive motion. Lifting assist devices, and material handling improvements, such as lift tables and tilt tables, are very widespread in the industry. Perhaps more progress has been made in this area than in improvements to prevent hand, arm and shoulder problems.

The availability of direct measures of cumulative trauma disorders for various industry sectors over this time frame is uneven. For vehicle assembly it was 24%, for motor vehicle parts it was 35%, for automotive stampings it was 37%, for engine electrical equipment it was 44%, and for household refrigerators and freezers it was 58%.

The troubling result was seen between 1999 than the year 2000 in the vehicle assembly sector. Here, the injury and illness rate combined stayed the same at 22.7 per hundred, while the recorded illness and CTD rates actually increased slightly.

Despite our successes, typical UAW industries remain a very high risk. Vehicle assembly workers are at nearly four times the risk of injury, and 10 times the risk of illness of workers generally. For automotive stamping, the injury risk is 4.25 and the illness risk is seven times the average for all private employment. For motor vehicle parts, the injury risk is 2.85 and the illness risk nearly seven times the average.

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