OSHA was created in 1970 to carry out the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which declared a national policy of ensuring safe and healthful working conditions for every man and woman. To carry out its mission, OSHA develops and enforces workplace safety and health standards, educates employers and employees about workplace hazards, and along with its state partners,conducts inspections of employers to assess compliance with applicable safety and health standards. Of the approximately 100,000 inspections conducted each year from fiscal year 1994 through fiscal year 1998, about 65,000 were conducted by the 25 states and territories with approved OSHA programs. Four of these states California, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington half of the state inspections. OSHA and its state partners conduct inspections for a variety of reasons. Programmed inspections are inspections that are planned at the beginning of each year and are generally targeted at industries and particular employers with high injury or illness rates. During fiscal years 1994 through 1998, more than half of OSHA’s inspections were programmed. Sixty percent of the remaining inspections resulted from valid complaints (which OSHA is required by law to investigate) and fatalities and catastrophes that occurred in the workplace (which OSHA is required by policy to investigate). Although OSHA has the authority to inspect most types of establishments—from large manufacturing plants to small retail stores— some limitations govern when an inspection can be conducted. For example, OSHA does not have the authority to conduct any type of inspection at a farm that employs 10 or fewer employees and that does not have a temporary labor camp. For an establishment employing 10 or fewer employees in low hazard industries, OSHA does not have the authority to conduct a programmed safety inspection but can conduct other types of inspections.In addition, although OSHA generally can conduct inspections in any industry, it tends to focus its inspection resources on those industries that present the greatest workplace hazards to workers. For example, in fiscal years 1994 through 1998, OSHA conducted about 44 percent of its inspections in the construction industry, which has the highest death rate of any industry. OSHA conducted about 26 percent of its inspections in manufacturing, 11 percent in the service industry, 8 percent in wholesale/retail trade, and the remaining 11 percent in other industries. The term “labor unrest” is commonly used to indicate some type of dissatisfaction among workers, but there is no consensus about the ways in which labor unrest develops or the forms it takes. However, it is clear that there is some relationship between labor unrest and employees’ dissatisfaction with wages and working conditions. For example, a strike, which we are using as an example of labor unrest, may result, at least in part, from unsafe working conditions. On the other hand, a strike also might lead to unsafe working conditions if an employer calls in replacement workers who are less trained and thus may be more susceptible to injury. Allegations of unfair labor practices, another example of labor unrest, can be filed by employees if the employer subjects them to unsafe working conditions, or by an employer if workers conduct a work slowdown, which also could be in response to working conditions. As a result, conditions that lead to labor unrest and those that lead to safety and health violations may be related. The OSHA inspection rate at establishments that experienced labor unrest during fiscal years 1994 through 1998 was 6.5 times higher (8.6 percent) than at establishments that did not experience such unrest (1.3 percent). This may be related to OSHA’s statutory requirement to investigate valid complaints and union employees’ awareness of their right to file complaints with OSHA, in addition to its policy to investigate fatalities and catastrophes. During fiscal years 1994 through 1998, OSHA inspected, on average, about 8.6 percent of the approximately 22,000 establishments each year that experienced labor unrest (about 1,900 inspections a year). In contrast, OSHA inspected, on average, about 1.3 percent of the approximately 7 million establishmentseach year that did not experience labor unrest (about 93,000 inspections each year) (see fig. 1). The percentage of establishments with labor unrest that were inspected during fiscal years 1994 through 1998 ranged from about 5 percent to about 10 percent, while the percentage of establishments without labor unrest that were inspected ranged from about 1.2 percent to about 1.6 percent. The statutory requirement that OSHA investigate valid complaints and its long-standing policy to investigate fatalities and catastrophes may help to explain the higher rate of inspection for establishments with labor unrest. About 68 percent of the inspections at establishments with labor unrest were required because a complaint was filed (60 percent) or a fatality or catastrophe occurred (8 percent). In contrast, only 27 percent of all inspections OSHA conducted during this period were the result of a complaint (22 percent) or a fatality or catastrophe (5 percent) (see fig. 2). Thus, OSHA inspections at establishments experiencing labor unrest were 2.5 times more likely to result from a complaint, fatality, or catastrophe than OSHA inspections in general. Because of OSHA’s requirements to investigate valid complaints and fatalities and catastrophes, an OSHA inspection occurring at an establishment with labor unrest may be wholly separate from any ongoing labor unrest or may in fact be related to the labor unrest. For example, of the four establishments we visited in California that had labor unrest and were inspected by OSHA during periods of labor unrest, two of the inspections were unrelated to the labor unrest that was ongoing at both sites. One inspection resulted because an employee broke his ankle; the other inspection resulted when a parent filed a complaint citing the possible presence of asbestos during the renovation of an educational facility. For the other two inspections, however, there were indications that the filing of the complaint with OSHA may have been a result of, or at least related to, the labor unrest ongoing at the time. In one case, union officials acknowledged that the OSHA complaint the union filed was related to labor unrest, and in the second case, the employer believed that a complaint filed by a union employee was in response to efforts to remove the union from the workplace. Despite the greater representation of complaint-driven inspections for establishments with labor unrest, inspections at establishments with labor unrest were just as likely to result in at least one violation or a violation classified as “serious” as were all inspections conducted by OSHA. For example, for both types of inspections during fiscal years 1994 through 1998, about 62 percent of all inspections resulted in at least one violation and about 90 percent of those had 10 or fewer violations. Similarly, when there were violations cited for establishments with labor unrest, about 51 percent of the violations were classified as “serious,” as opposed to about 53 percent for all OSHA inspections. Approximately 76 percent of the OSHA inspections at establishments experiencing labor unrest during fiscal years 1994 through 1998 were conducted at unionized establishments. In comparison, about 24 percent of all OSHA inspections during this time were conducted at unionized establishments (see fig. 3). According to OSHA officials, the higher rate of inspections for unionized establishments experiencing labor unrest may in large part result from OSHA’s targeting procedures. They said that OSHA concentrates its inspections in high-risk and relatively more unionized industry sectors, which include construction, manufacturing, and oil/gas extraction. According to OSHA officials, the greater dangers in these sectors and the greater presence of unionization may also be related to a higher degree of labor unrest. Regarding complaint-driven inspections at establishments with labor unrest, we found that 63 percent of those inspections at unionized establishments resulted from complaints compared with about 52 percent for nonunionized establishments. However, in general, OSHA inspections resulting from complaints did not vary significantly between unionized and nonunionized establishments, as the percentage of complaint-driven inspections at unionized establishments was only slightly higher than for nonunionized establishments (26 versus 21 percent, respectively). This indicates that during periods of labor unrest, complaint-based inspections are somewhat more likely at unionized establishments than at nonunionized establishments. Union, NLRB, and OSHA officials, as well as employer representatives, said that unionized employees are in general more aware of their worker protection rights and may be more likely to file complaints with regulatory agencies, especially during periods of labor unrest. An OSHA official said that unions are also more aware of the role of regulatory agencies, both in terms of protecting workers’ rights and as a bargaining tool during contract negotiations. Furthermore, according to a researcher well known for work in this area, establishments with labor unrest are probably predominately unionized because these employees are more likely to speak out and file complaints with agencies such as OSHA in times of unrest. Federal and state OSHA policies allow programmed inspections to be delayed if a condition such as a strike is significant enough to prohibit OSHA inspectors from witnessing normal work operations. However, according to federal and most state OSHA officials, this has rarely occurred. Two states highlighted conditions that would affect the decision to conduct a programmed inspection. Kentucky OSHA officials stated that programmed inspections would not be conducted if a picket line existed. The official said that several reasons existed for this policy, including concern for the safety of state inspectors and a desire not to get involved in employer/employee controversies. Vermont OSHA officials said that the state would postpone a programmed inspection if the company was on strike before the start of the inspection, and if a strike began while the OSHA inspectors were on site, OSHA inspectors would leave the premises and continue the inspection after the strike was finished. However, both federal and state OSHA inspection policies follow the statutory requirement that OSHA investigate valid complaints, and state policies follow federal policy regarding the investigation of fatalities and catastrophes. Under these policies, federal and state OSHA officials stated that inspections resulting from complaints, fatalities, and catastrophes are to be conducted even during periods of labor unrest.