workplace safety
The Pump Handle
Tag archives for workplace safety
Wage theft in South Florida: Nation’s first county with wage theft protections reports on progress and perils
Posted by The Pump Handle on May 14, 2013 Earlier this month, Florida lawmakers wrapped up their latest legislative session. And nearly 500 miles south of Tallahassee in Miami-Dade County, workers’ rights advocates breathed yet another sigh of relief.
Occupational Health News Roundup
Posted by Liz Borkowski on May 13, 2013 A fire at a Bangladesh factory increases the death toll of workers in that country and increases pressure on retailers who sell clothing made in Bangladesh; fast-food workers in St. Louis walk off the job, demanding higher pay and the right to unionize; and retired football players often face high healthcare costs after their NFL insurance has expired.
Preventing fire fighter deaths, learning from the fallen
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on April 23, 2013 CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a special role in the West Fertilizer plant explosion. Its Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program will be investigating the factors that led to the deaths of the 10 volunteer fire fighters.
Study: Peer-to-peer training can improve safety, knowledge among Hispanic construction workers
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 19, 2013 Eric Rodriguez and his colleagues at the Latino Union of Chicago quite literally meet workers where they’re at — on the city’s street corners. Many of the day laborers who gather there are hired to work construction at residential housing sites. Work arrangements are hardly formal and day laborers are frequently subjected to unnecessary and illegal dangers on the job. Unfortunately, worker safety is often kicked to the curb in the street corner marketplace.
$70 million owed by mine operators for unpaid safety penalties, time for “boot” device equivalent
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on April 16, 2013 In many cities, traffic control officers will “boot” are vehicle if it’s racked up too many unpaid parking tickets. It’s time for an equivalent sanction for employers who violate labor laws and refuse to pay the penalties.
Cracking down on deadbeat bosses: Wage theft victory a milestone in Chicago’s worker center movement
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 15, 2013 For Angel Nava, Chicago’s newly adopted wage theft ordinance is particularly personal. Until recently, Nava had worked at the same car wash business in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood for 14 years. The 55-year-old employee did it all — washing, detailing, buffing — for about 50 hours each week. Then, his boss decided to stop paying overtime.
Remembering the 29 men who were killed 3 years ago today at WV coal mine
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on April 5, 2013 Three years ago today, 29 miners died at the Upper Big Branch coal mine.
A hearing on worker safety rule would open public debate, but White House thwarts it
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services on March 20, 2013 Representatives of U.S. foundries met with White House officials behind closed doors to complain about a not-yet-proposed OSHA regulation. It was the group’s second such meeting. But they wouldn’t be necessary if the White House would simply allow OSHA’s public hearing process to take place.
Hundreds of Texas workers protest in memory of fallen construction workers
Posted by The Pump Handle on March 1, 2013 Texas construction workers who’ve lost their lives on unsafe worksites may be gone, but they certainly haven’t been forgotten. Earlier this week, hundreds of Texas workers and their supporters took to the streets to demand legislators do more to stop preventable injury and death on the job.
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.