O[yes] logo

Salem – Teams of students at Hermiston, Silverton, Henley, Parkrose, Crescent Valley, and McLoughlin high schools have earned top prizes in a media contest designed to increase awareness about workplace safety and health for young workers.

High school students across Oregon were invited to participate in the annual contest organized by the Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O[yes]). In its 16th year of putting a spotlight on the importance of young worker safety and health, the 2023-24 media contest challenged participants to create an ad – through either a compelling graphic design or video – that captures their peers’ attention and convinces them to take the O[yes] Young Employee Safety Awareness online training. 

The creative possibilities were multifaceted: Participants got to choose the key message, theme, or tagline they believed would attract their audience and move it to act. Participants were asked to submit either a graphic design or a video that was no more than 90 seconds long. 

Teams of students met the challenge with smart and positive media projects. In attention-grabbing videos and artful graphic designs, students called attention to everything from workplace stress to worker rights on the job. Their projects stayed laser-focused on convincing their target audience – teen workers or teens who are preparing to work for the first time – to take the O[yes] Young Employee Safety Awareness online training to improve their knowledge of how to stay safe and healthy in the workplace.

The top winners in each category were:

Video:

• First place: Silverton High School, “Saying Yes” ($500)
• Second: Parkrose High School, “The Office Ordeal” ($400); McLoughlin High School, “On the Job Lessons” ($400)
• Third: Crescent Valley High School, “Do Not Touch” ($300) 
• Finalists: Lincoln High School, “Choose O[YES]” and Nyssa High School, “Out of the Woods.” 

Graphic design:

• First place: Hermiston High School, “Don’t Burn Yourself Out” ($500)
• Second place: Henley High School, “Safety is a Full-Time Job” ($400)
• Third place: Henley High School, “Ensure Your Safety” ($300)
• Finalists: Henley High School, “O[Yes] Poster,” Beaverton High School, “Shaping Safe Workplaces,” Hermiston High School, “Safety Awareness,” Hermiston High School, “Safety in the Workplace,” Henley High School, “Teen Safety Poster.”

The first-place teams in each category also earned a matching award for their schools.

Check out the winning submissions on the (O[yes]) website, where you will also find videos of the contestants discussing their media projects.

The mission of (O[yes]) is to prevent injuries and illnesses, and promote well-being to young workers. The nonprofit does this through outreach, advocacy, and sharing resources with young workers, educators, employers, parents, and labor organizations. 

The 2023-24 contest sponsors were the Oregon chapters of the American Association of Safety Professionals, Construction Safety Summit, Central Oregon Safety and Health Association, Hoffman Construction, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Oregon OSHA, Oregon SHARP Alliance, SafeBuild Alliance, and SAIF.

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Oregon OSHA, a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, enforces the state's workplace safety and health rules and works to improve workplace safety and health for all Oregon workers. For more information, go to osha.oregon.gov.

The Department of Consumer and Business Services is Oregon's largest business regulatory and consumer protection agency. For more information, go to oregon.gov/dcbs.

The Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O[yes]) is a nonprofit dedicated to preventing young worker injuries and fatalities. O[yes] members include safety and health professionals, educators, employers, labor and trade associations, and regulators. For more information, go to youngemployeesafety.org.

DCBS logo

Salem, OR – It’s a day to remember those who died on the job. It’s a day to grieve with families, friends, and communities. It’s a day to renew our responsibility to create and maintain safe and healthy workplaces for all workers in Oregon.

Oregon workers who died on the job will be honored with a ceremony at noon Friday, April 26, in Salem. The Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) – part of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) – and Oregon AFL-CIO invite all Oregonians to attend the Workers Memorial Day observance.

The event will take place at the Fallen Workers Memorial outside the Labor and Industries Building, 350 Winter St. NE, on the Capitol Mall. The memorial service, coordinated by Oregon AFL-CIO, will feature remarks from union leaders, safety and health advocates, and elected officials.

“Every day, people across Oregon leave their homes and go to work to provide for themselves and their families – and to help make the state a thriving place to live,” Gov. Tina Kotek said. “Today, we honor the Oregonians whose lives were tragically lost doing their job and offer our deepest condolences to their families. Going forward, we will continue our efforts to make working conditions safer, so all workers are better protected.”

During the ceremony, Sen. Deb Patterson and House Majority Leader Ben Bowman will read the names of Oregon workers who died on the job in 2023.

Oregon OSHA Administrator Renée Stapleton and Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor will serve as event speakers. The event will also include remarks from PCUN Representative Liz Marquez Gutierrez and a reading of Gov. Kotek’s proclamation by Vince Porter, the governor’s deputy chief of staff for public administration. 

Oregon workplaces are safer and healthier today than in previous decades. Yet, there are still far too many preventable on-the-job deaths each year. 

“Every worker and their family deserves to know, without question, that they will return home safely at the end of a shift,” Trainor said. “This year, we read the names of 56 fallen workers, which is an increase from last year and the absolutely starkest reminder that workplace safety must be taken seriously. Oregon unions will advocate for safety improvements on the job until there are no names to be read aloud on Workers Memorial Day. This is our most critical mission, and, while we’ve made significant progress, we must always strive for perfection when it comes to keeping working people safe on the job.” 

Through a partnership of labor, business, and government working together to bolster workplace safety and health, Oregon’s fatality and injury and illness rates have steadily declined for decades.

Nevertheless, there is room for improvement.

“As we honor the memories of the lives tragically taken from us, we must also summon our courage, skill, and ethical duty to rekindle our commitment to protecting the safety and health of all workers in Oregon,” Stapleton said. “Everyone who plays a role in the safety and health of Oregon workplaces – employers, managers, safety and health professionals, employees, co-workers – must do this with urgency and clarity. Through our actions and words, we must carry the message forward that workers have an indisputable right to a safe and healthy workplace and that employers are obligated – not just legally, but morally – to protect their workers from harm.”

The annual Workers Memorial Day serves as a nationwide day of remembrance. The observance is traditionally held on April 28 because the U.S. Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act on that date in 1970.

Resources are available to workers and employers to advance on-the-job safety and health in Oregon, including:

Oregon OSHA

• Rights and responsibilities
• Protect against retaliation 
• Keeping employees safe
• Education and training

DCBS Multicultural Communications Program

• Providing outreach to communities with limited English proficiency

Ombuds Office for Oregon Workers

• Independent advocate for Oregon workers, including guidance on workers’ rights and responsibilities in workers’ compensation and workplace safety and health

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Oregon OSHA, a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, enforces the state's workplace safety and health rules and works to improve workplace safety and health for all Oregon workers. For more information, visit Oregon OSHA. 

The Department of Consumer and Business Services is Oregon's largest business regulatory and consumer protection agency. For more information, visit DCBS. 

The Oregon AFL-CIO is the statewide federation of affiliated unions, representing more than 300,000 working Oregonians.  For more information, visit Oregon AFL-CIO.

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Salem – A two-day event in Pendleton will offer employers and workers multiple learning opportunities that will help them make their job sites safer and healthier. Topics include everything from how to improve your safety culture and worker well-being to safety committees and how to address the most common chemical hazards in your workplace.

The 16th annual Blue Mountain Occupational Safety and Health Conference, which will be held June 3-4 at the Pendleton Convention Center, will also feature learning sessions in Spanish. Employers are encouraged to take advantage of those sessions by sending staff members who would prefer to gain important safety and health knowledge in Spanish.

The conference is a collaborative effort by Oregon Occupational Safety and Health (Oregon OSHA) – a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services – Oregon SHARP Alliance, and employers and employees in northeast Oregon.

On Tuesday, June 4, the keynote presentation, “Dominoes, Just Don’t Watch Them Fall,” features safety motivational speakers Brad and Delores Gardner of Helping Hand Presentations. More than a decade ago, Brad lost his right arm in a workplace accident. The accident did not have to happen. The couple will share their story to help people prevent such tragedies and to inspire them to see safety in a new light. 

The two-day event, which includes several pre-conference workshops, offers an extended slate of topics in Spanish. On Monday, June 3, workers who prefer to learn important safety and health information in Spanish will have many topics to choose from. Topics include hazard identification, slips, trips, and falls, fall protection, chemical safety, lockout/tagout, and machine guarding.   

Additional conference topics include:

• Introduction to Occupational Medicine
• I’m on the Safety Committee, Now What?
• Critical Incident Stress Management
• Oregon OSHA’s Heat and Wildfire Smoke Rules
• Worker Well-Being in Five Easy Steps
• What Is Your Safety Culture? How Do You Take It to the Next Level?
• Situational Thinking
• Safe Forklift Operations: Managing a Successful Program
• Is It Luck or Is It PSM? The Elements of Process Safety Management

Registration for the pre-conference workshops on Monday, June 3, is $50. Registration for the conference on Tuesday, June 4, is $115, which includes lunch. To register, go to safetyseries.cventevents.com/blue24.

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Oregon OSHA, a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, enforces the state's workplace safety and health rules and works to improve workplace safety and health for all Oregon workers. For more information, go to osha.oregon.gov.

The Department of Consumer and Business Services is Oregon's largest business regulatory and consumer protection agency. For more information, go to www.oregon.gov/dcbs/.