Labor Rights
The Pump Handle
Category archives for Labor Rights
New study lifts the lid on unhealthy kitchen conditions in migrant farmworker housing
Posted by The Pump Handle on February 22, 2013 For many migrant farmworkers, the health risks don’t stop at the end of the workday. After long, arduous hours in the field, many will return to a home that also poses dangers to their well-being. And quite ironically for a group of workers that harvests our nation’s food, one of those housing risks is poor cooking and eating facilities.
Carnival workers’ reality: “If we complain, they’ll send us back to Mexico”
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on February 21, 2013 A report about the H-2B guest worker program describes the mistreatment and abuse suffered by workers in the U.S. carnival and fair industry.
How will USDA respond to environmental justice concerns for poultry plant workers?
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on February 12, 2013 I’m eager to see how USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack responds to the environmental justice concerns raised about the Food Safety Inspection Services’ proposed regulation on poultry plant inspections.
Florida farmworkers’ wages: Pick 32 pounds of tomatoes, earn 50 cents, and Senators admit they know it
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on February 4, 2013 Subsistence wages, unsafe working and living conditions and hard labor describe the work life of many U.S. farm workers. The Senate’s bi-partisan immigration reform plan may help to change this reality.
New report confirms Texas’ abysmal record on construction worker safety
Posted by The Pump Handle on February 1, 2013 Texas may boast a booming construction sector, but a deeper look reveals an industry filled with wage theft, payroll fraud, frighteningly lax safety standards, and preventable injury and death. In reality, worker advocates say such conditions are far from the exception — instead, they’ve become the norm.
This takes the cake: Kentucky company sues coal miner who complained about safety problems
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on January 29, 2013 HuffPo’s Dave Jamieson writes this week about a Kentucky worker who raised concerns about safety problems at Armstrong Coal, was fired for doing so and complained about it to the Labor Department, and is now being sued by his former employer for making his claim.
Demands for safer working conditions, fair wages drew Martin Luther King to Memphis
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on January 21, 2013 Today we commemorate the life of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated in Memphis, TN in April 1968. The civil rights leader was visiting Memphis to support hundreds of city sanitation workers in their demands for safer working conditions and dignity on the job.
Austin’s Construction Career Center providing a path toward safer, better-paying jobs
Posted by The Pump Handle on January 18, 2013 In Austin, Texas, a growing movement to transform working conditions for construction workers is underway and the new Construction Career Center is playing a pivotal role.
Precarious work arrangements deserves attention and action by new Secretary of Labor
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on January 15, 2013 The report, “At the company’s mercy,” should serve as the new Secretary of Labor’s roadmap to improve working conditions for temporary and other precarious workers.
New, first-of-its-kind Canadian study to chronicle the impact of occupational cancers
Posted by The Pump Handle on January 14, 2013 Dr. Paul Demers says he frequently finds himself having to make the case for why studying workplace exposures to carcinogens is important. Oftentimes, he says, people believe such occupational dangers are a thing of the past. But a new four-year study he’s leading could change all that.