Authorities make laws and regulations for a reason. When an employer blatantly ignores them, it is problematic.
The National Whistleblower Center explains a whistleblower is someone who reports when an employer is doing something illegal or dangerous.
Reason for the designation
The reason you are a whistleblower when reporting your employer is that the designation gives you protection. You have protection against retaliation from your employer.
The whistleblower laws were put into place to help prevent employers from intimidating and harassing employees so they would not report wrongdoing. Under the protections, you do not have to worry about your employer mistreating you or doing anything negative to you and getting away with it.
Benefits
Having whistleblowers is beneficial to everyone. If you do not come forward, nobody else may either. It can allow an employer to continue to treat you badly or put you in danger due to not doing things properly. The whistleblower laws help to ensure that you can stand up for yourself and fellow coworkers.
Before these laws, employers would simply fire anyone who tried to seek better conditions or correct issues. Sometimes, they would make life difficult for the worker. In addition, it made job stability nonexistent for those working for unscrupulous employers.
Becoming a whistleblower
Being a whistleblower is sometimes necessary. You can always try to resolve issues through normal channels within the company, but if that fails, you can evoke your whistleblower rights.
To become a whistleblower, you just need to report an issue to an authoritative agency, such as OSHA. Once you make the report, you gain the protections under the law.