worker safety
The Pump Handle
Tag archives for worker safety
Hotel workers at Hyatt struggle for justice, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization supports workers’ cause
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on October 10, 2012 Canceling a hotel contract for a major conference is no small feat, but the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization did just that to support hotel workers call for a global boycott of Hyatt Hotels.
Report on chemical-asthma links a useful resource for workers at risk
Posted by The Pump Handle on September 21, 2012 It really is a chemical world, which is bad news for people with asthma. According to a recent report, at this very moment from where I write, I’m surrounded by objects and materials that contain chemicals that are known or suspected asthmagens — substances that can act as asthma triggers if inhaled.
OSHA rulemaking activity in the year before a Presidential Election
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on September 12, 2012 Since 2000, major regulatory activities by OSHA do indeed slow down during a Presidential election year compared to the year preceding it.
The year in worker health & safety: action (and not) on the federal scene
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on September 6, 2012 In our new report “The Year in U.S. Occupational Health & Safety,” we devote one section to key activities by the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress.
A different kind of Texas-style justice: Two nights at Austin’s Workers Defense Project
Posted by The Pump Handle on August 31, 2012 It’s Tuesday evening and as usual, the small parking lot outside the Workers Defense Project on Austin’s eastside is packed. The dusty lot is strewn with cars and pick-up trucks parked wherever they can fit and get in off the road. I’ve arrived well before the night’s activities begin, so I easily secure a spot. But my gracious guide and translator, a college intern named Alan Garcia, warns me that I might get blocked in. It happens all the time, he says.
OSHA action on worker safety standards during Presidential election years
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on August 28, 2012 During the last seven Presidential election years, OSHA has an interesting record of issuing new rules on worker safety issues despite the heated national campaigns.
‘An issue that affects all of us’: Young workers center takes on wage theft in the Rio Grande Valley
Posted by The Pump Handle on August 27, 2012 For six months, Jorge Rubio worked at a local chain of tortilla bakeries and taquerias in the cities of Brownsville and San Benito, both in the very southern tip of Texas. Rubio, 42, prepared the food, cleaned equipment, served customers. Eventually, he decided to quit after being overworked for months. On his last day of work, his employer refused to pay him the usual $50 for an 11-hour workday.
No shortage of ideas from OSHA staff to improve oversight of agency’s Voluntary Protection Program
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on August 22, 2012 An internal OSHA report on the agency’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) was submitted to agency leadership nine months ago, and released to the public this week. The group made 34 recommendations to improve the program, including several addressing fatalities occurring at VPP sites.
On memorializing miners
Posted by The Pump Handle on August 21, 2012 The newly unveiled granite memorial in Whitesville, WV is a visible reminder of the 29 miners who were killed in the Upper Big Branch mine, but the truest measure of our recognition of their sacrifice is what we do in their memory to protect the living.
Worker falls 70+ feet to his death at ConAgra mill, another at a Pepisco plant, manlifts involved in both cases
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on August 15, 2012 Three multi-national corporations. Three workers dead from manlift incidents. Preventing more deaths from manlifts requires comprehensive fatality investigations.