Actions on workers' health are relatively ineffective towards changing working conditions as well as reducing the number of accidents and occupational diseases. One indication of this is the way chronic situations still persist in sectors such as the construction industry. Besides the difficulties which are peculiar to each institution or social practice devoted to improving working conditions (such as the lack of information about the causes of diseases and accidents, workers lack of organization or economic determinations), social interventions aimed at preventing accidents and diseases may become more effective by means of coordinated supra-institutional actions, by aggregating public agents, specialized institutions and economic agents in a cooperative way. This essay discusses this kind of social action and its social organization (agents and institutions). It is supported by two cases within workers' health area: the first one, an intervention project in the construction industry and the other, a Sindimármore experience in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil. Coordinated supra-institutional actions can become a more effective locus of multidisciplinary knowledge agglutination around practical actions. They fill the currently existing gaps concerning production of knowledge, legislation, social control and the social agents' demands, which include workers and employers.
workers' health action programs; occupational health; coordinated actions; workers' health forum