What is hurting workers on the job?  What symptoms, injuries and illnesses are workers experiencing?  What and where are the hazards that are causing (or could cause) problems?  How is on-the-job stress affecting workers’ lives?  How can unions involve members and develop strategies for solving health and safety problems?

Unions across the country and around the world are using “mapping” techniques to help answer these important questions. Mapping techniques provide a way for workers to use their own experiences to document workplace health and safety problems. These techniques are participatory methods by which workers gather and analyze their own knowledge and experiences. With the information gained, workers and unions can develop strategies to eliminate or reduce workplace hazards and to improve health and safety on the job.

Mapping techniques are effective because:

• they involve workers,
• they use visual images and do not rely on ability to read or write,
• they get people thinking about their workplaces in a new way,
• they show that workers are not alone, that the problems are collective problems, and
• they help point to collective solutions.

This handout explains how to lead three mapping techniques:

• Body Mapping is an activity that identifies workers’ job-related injuries, illnesses and stresses and demonstrates patterns and trends.
• Hazards/Risk Mapping is an activity that identifies and locates the hazards which are causing injuries, illnesses and stress on the job.
• Life Mapping is an activity that looks at the effect of job injuries, illnesses and/or job stress on workers’ personal lives.

Body Mapping

Body mapping allows workers and unions to identify the particular symptoms, injuries, illnesses and stresses that workers are experiencing. From this information, patterns and trends can emerge. This can lead to identification of jobs, areas, conditions and tasks that are putting workers at risk for particular injuries, illnesses and stresses.

To create a body map, you need the following materials:

• Flip chart paper,
• Flip chart markers,
• Pages of colored “sticky dots” in seven different colors,
• Tape,
• Color code for body mapping of injuries/illnesses (this could be a flip chart page, a handout, or both – see attached example at end of handout).

Tell participants that a body map is a picture that identifies the various injuries, illnesses and stresses workers have experienced from the work they do or have done in the past. Body mapping is a tool that can be used by unions and workers to identify trends in injury/illness experience and develop priorities for hazard correction.

Divide participants into small groups of four to six people. Once participants have been assigned to small groups, have each small group gather around a table or a section of a table.

Distribute the following to each small group:

§         A flip chart page,

§         A flip chart marker,

§         A set of “sticky dots” in 7 different colors, and

§         Activity Handout: Color Code for Body Mapping.

Ask each group to identify an artist in the group. Remind groups that every group always has an artist! That person will draw a large outline of a body on the flip chart page with the magic marker.

Artists should feel free to draw a “front” and a “back” if they choose.

Read aloud the “color code for body mapping,” the “color-code” for their job injuries and illnesses.

Ask each participant to recall his or her own particular work-related injuries, illnesses and stresses from the past and present. Explain that each participant will put the appropriate color dots on the map on the body parts affected. Remind participants that the body map must reflect their own job-related injuries, illnesses and exposures, not those of co-workers or others in their workplaces.

For example, a participant who inhaled a chemical that made him/her ill might put a dark green dot near the nose, where the chemical was inhaled; or, s/he might put the dark green dot in the lung area if his/her lungs were affected by breathing in the chemical. For occupational stress, some participants might put a yellow dot on the body’s head; others might put it in the neck/shoulder area if that is where they experience tension; still others might put it in the stomach area to show stomachaches.

Give small groups about 10 minutes to do their body maps.

After 10 minutes, ask someone from each group to explain their body map. Each group should tape their map to a wall where it can be seen by all participants.

Ask participants if they notice any patterns of injuries or illnesses emerging – either on a particular group’s body map or on all of the body maps taken together. Have them identify the kinds of injuries and illnesses that appear to be the most common.

Tell participants that behind every dot is a hazard or condition that needs to be fixed.  Ask participants to think about the hazards and workplace conditions that caused these injuries and illnesses. The next step is to identify those hazards and conditions, and their location in the workplace. Then a plan can be made to get these problems corrected.

Hazard/Risk Mapping

A hazard/risk map is a drawing of a workplace or a part of a workplace on which workers and unions identify the hazards and unsafe and unhealthy conditions that are causing workers’ symptoms, injuries, illnesses and stresses. The union is then able identify priorities for correction. There is no one who knows more about the hazards and concerns on a job than the workers who confront them every day. This mapping activity gathers that important experience together.

To create a hazard/risk map, you need the following materials:

• Flip chart paper,
• Flip chart markers,
• Pages of colored “sticky dots” in six different colors,
• Tape, and
• Color code for hazard mapping (this could be a flip chart page, a handout, or both – see attached example at end of handout).

Tell participants that a hazards/risk map is a map of a workplace or section of a workplace which shows the location of particular hazards and conditions that are causing (or could cause) workers to be injured, made ill or stressed on the job. Hazards/risk mapping is a tool that can be used by unions and workers to identify hazards for correction.

Divide participants into small groups based on their department, workplace or industry. If participants are all from the same workplace, you can ask participants from the same or similar departments or job classifications to group together. Or, if participants include people from the same or similar types of workplaces/industries, they can be grouped together. Once participants have been assigned to small groups, have each small group gather around a table or a section of a table.

Distribute the following to each small group:

§         A flip chart page,

§         A flip chart marker,

§         A set of “sticky dots” in 6 different colors, and

§         Activity Handout: Color Code for Workplace Hazards Mapping.

If participants are from more than one workplace, ask each group to choose one of the workplaces represented in the group to map. If participants are all from one workplace, have each group draw a particular department or area.

Explain that one participant should draw a floor-plan or map of the workplace or department or section of a workplace, noting the following:

§         different areas or sections,

§         major pieces of machinery and equipment, and

§         major steps of the work process (work flow).

Next, hazards should be noted on the map by using the sticky dots according to the color code. Read aloud the color code. Participants should think of all the injuries/illnesses and stresses workers are experiencing, and identify the hazards causing those problems on this map. Remind participants that hazards are anything in the workplace that can cause or contribute to worker injury, illness or stress.  Tell other participants in each group they can help by asking questions about particular hazards that may be present.

Give small groups about 10 - 15 minutes to do their hazards/risk maps.

Then each group should tape their map to a wall where it can be seen by all participants.

Ask groups, one at a time, to summarize the range of hazards identified on their maps.

After each group has explained their map, ask them:

§         what are the main health and safety concerns?

§         where are people most injured or in pain?

§         where have there been changes in work process (in how the job is done)?

§         what are the concerns that affect the most people on the worksite?

Ask participants how they might go about prioritizing hazards for attention and correction.

Once effective strategies are put in place to get a particular hazard eliminated, the associated “sticky dots” can be removed from the map; as new hazards are identified, “sticky dots” can be added to the map.  The review and updating of the map is very important as it allows workers to see the progress, or lack of progress, in correcting hazards.

LIFE MAPPING

Life mapping allows workers and unions to identify the effects of work-related injuries, illnesses and/or stress on their lives outside the workplace. Too often, job injuries, illnesses and stress are thought of just in terms of what it means for workers’ abilities to do their jobs. The fact is that when workers are stressed at work, this can have significant impacts on many different aspects of their lives. A “life map” also helps to show that workers are not alone in their suffering; that many of their experiences are shared experiences rather than individual problems. And collective problems have collective solutions. This understanding can help to build involvement in action to get the hazards and the sources of stress on the job eliminated or reduced.

To create a life map, you will need the following materials:

§      Flip chart page on which you have drawn a small picture of a worker in the middle of the page (this can be a stick figure!) – tape this to a wall where there is space around the page,

• Flip chart markers (enough for one marker per participant),
• Colored 8 ½ x 11 paper, enough for one sheet per participant, and
• Tape.

Distribute the following materials to each participant: a piece of colored 8 ½ x 11 paper and a flip chart marker.

Ask participants to think about the injuries, illnesses and/or stresses they experience on the job, and then think about the effects of these problems on their personal lives – their lives outside of work. Ask each participant to draw a picture that represents one of the ways that job stress, injuries and/or illnesses are affecting their life outside of work.

You can give several examples, such as:

§         If someone is too tired to walk the dog, she could draw a stick figure of herself and the dog with a line through it;

§         If someone is having trouble sleeping, he could draw himself in bed with his eyes wide open;

§         If someone is so stressed she is yelling a lot at family members, she can draw a mouth yelling at stick-figure children.

§         If someone does not have time or energy for a love life, he can draw a heart with a diagonal line through it.   

EXAMPLE OF LIFE MAPPING

Ask participants to come to the area of the room where you have hung your flip chart page with the stick figure in the middle, and using pieces of tape, hang their pictures around the picture of the “worker” in the middle.

Once all the pictures have been hung, ask for volunteers to describe what they have drawn.

After everyone who wants to share their drawing with the group has told about their picture, ask participants if they see similarities or common themes in the drawings participants have created on the “life map.”

Explain that this activity helps to show a broad range of effects that our jobs are having on our lives.

Ask participants to identify some of the sources of stress on their jobs. List these on a flip chart.

Ask participants how such a “life map” could be used by a health and safety committee or union.

Explain that life mapping can make the “harder to see” workplace hazards more visible. Hazards at work can involve problems we can see or identify fairly easily, such as: a broken ladder, an unguarded machine, noxious fumes that are making workers sick. But there are hazards that are not so easily seen: fatigue from 12+ hour shifts; exhaustion from “continuously improved” production processes that have reduced staffing and increased workload; and mandatory overtime. All hazards can have negative impacts on many aspects of our lives including our lives outside of work.

Explain that once we can identify a problem – including conditions on the job that can lead to stress or fatigue – we can begin to think about what needs to happen to eliminate or reduce those problems.