NYCOSH

Tony Straka, Safety and Health Specialist

Tony Straka, a NYCOSH Safety and Health specialist, focuses on training workers in construction safety and health and confined space entry as well as providing technical assistance to workers and employers. He leads NYCOSH’s annual series of confined space entry courses for the NYC Central Labor Council’s Construction Skills program. He has taught more than 130 OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety and Health courses since 2002, and previously ran a hazardous materials worker training project for SEIU local unions on the East Coast. Tony also creates and edits curricula for NYCOSH, including Confined Space Entry and the Electrical Safety section of Focus 4 Construction Safety & Health. Before joining NYCOSH in 1998, he was a staff representative and later a safety and health representative at Connecticut Employees Union Independent (CEUI)/SEIU Local 511, a public sector union. There he conducted investigations and interventions on workplace hazards, negotiated safety and health contract language, and testified before the Connecticut state legislature on proposed worker safety legislation. He has been an adjunct instructor at the Harry Van Arsdale, Jr. Center for Labor Studies at Empire State College since 2005.