Mental health issues – in particular opioid addiction and suicide – are impacting construction workers at alarming rates. Rates of both opioid use and suicides have risen dramatically throughout the US over the past several years, and studies have shown that these are areas of particular concern for the construction industry.^[1], [2]

Click here to find information and resources about opioid deaths, prevention, and pain management alternatives.

Click here to find resources to help organizations and individuals understand suicide prevention, start a conversation, and play a role in supporting friends, co-workers and family members. If you or someone you know needs immediate help, please use the lifeline information on the right-hand side of this page.

CPWR also has a Toolbox Talk on workplace stress available in English and Spanish:
Workplace Stress
Estrés en el Trabajo

[1] Centers for Disease Control. Opioid Overdose: Understanding the Epidemic. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html (accessed November 2019)

[2] SafeBuild Alliance. Mental Health & Suicide Prevention. http://safebuildalliance.com/resources/mental-health-suicide-prevention (accessed September 2019)

The Work Zone Safety page was developed in support of the NORA Construction Sector Council’s initiative to increase awareness of struck-by hazards and ways to prevent them.  It includes materials developed in support of the Stand-Down and other resources that can be used all year long.

CPWR’S Annual Report includes our most important discoveries, achievements, and activities within the past year.

Thursday, May 28^th, 2020 at 2:00pm EDT: Increasing Awareness of Factors that Influence Trench Safety
Presenters: Joe Wise, Regional Customer Training Manager at United Rentals Trench Safety, and Eileen Betit, CPWR’s Research to Practice (r2p) Director.
Trench incidents and fatalities have increased over the past several years – so much so that OSHA, intent on reversing this trend, updated its National Emphasis Program on Trenching and Excavation in October 2018. Learn about a collaborative effort to increase awareness and knowledge of the factors that may contribute to trenching incidents and fatalities and ways to mitigate the risks.

Register Here

The Occupational Safety and Health Act requires construction employers to provide a safe and healthy workplace. To do this, construction industry employers should develop a comprehensive COVID-19 exposure control plan, which includes control measures, symptom checking, social distancing, hygiene and
decontamination procedures, and training. An exposure control plan and the following recommendations should be followed before any onsite worker is found to have COVID-19 because many people with COVID-19 are asymptomatic and can potentially spread disease.

As work is reopening in parts of the United States where it has been shut down, for the continued protection of our members and in our capacity as the bargaining representative for those members, the Building Trades Unions believe these are the minimum standards employers should implement as part of their COVID19 exposure control plan on all jobsites.