Occupational Safety and health, social partnership, collective bargaining agreements, trade co-operatives, social insurance, labour inspection, accident prevention. Nowadays all taken for granted! At the beginning of industrialisation, people had to tolerate inadequate workrooms, excessive working hours, risk of injury, child labour, meagre wages and social deprivation. Since then, 150 years of history and numerous events have gone by!

Today, we should be able to take a humane working environment for granted. Not only does that mean avoiding illness or even premature death, but also means that work should provide people with the opportunity of developing their skills and use their knowledge and their senses. People have fought for this. They joined together to fight for their cause and that of their children. The struggle was not easy. Strikes, lock-outs, fighting in the streets, persecution, prison sentences and black lists. Interests were varied. Some fought for better living and working conditions, others for the development of capitalism and social order. Neither did the provisions of the state come into force entirely as a matter of course. They too were disputed and fought for. Occupational safety and health is the result of past achievements which have continued up to the present day. A long series of exciting events. Working relationships are now largely based on specific issues. But can the chapters of history now safely be forgotten? Are the people behind these events with their fates, their hopes and disappointments, all gone and forgotten? Globalization is presenting new challenges – not only concerning qualifications and competition, but on all aspects of future working methods. Looking back over history, learning about how things came about, can help to overcome these challenges. The history of occupational safety and health and the fight for a better working world have shown that by articulating their needs and wishes and joining together, people can change not only their lives but the whole world.