A STRATEGIC RESPONSE TO THE OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH ESTABLISHMENT

The experiences of occupational health and safety ''activists'' in Can ada reveal the limits of achieving reform in working conditions by tec hnical efforts in combination with rank-and-file activation. The autho r argues that the way union ''activists'' approach occupational health and safety limits workers in dealing with their actual experiences an d understanding about workplace hazards and risk, then discusses the c onditions for the awakening of their critical consciousness as a basis of acting on hazardous working conditions. The first movement in the way the worker apprehends the work environment is a movement of negati on and is the prior condition to a critical and disclosive discourse a bout workplace hazards. It is the positive side of ''No!'' and the tak ing seriously of workers' rights. It is this negation of the negative that holds out the greatest hope for solidarity and a liberatory commu nity in workplaces, since legislated workers' rights as the basis of p rotection have become a facade. Workers can respond with the power of saying ''No!'' in solidarity with suffering workers, and then work thr ough appropriate principles, ends, or strategies avoiding entrapment b y a ''telos'' in the first instance. By laying out these ''ends'' or a strategic paradigm, one introduces a ''conversation stopper'' for wor kers and atrophies their activation.