Farmworkers in south Texas continue to struggle 50 years after historic worker strike; Illinois governor signs Domestic Workers Bill of Rights; Samsung Electronics accused of withholding deadly chemical exposure information from workers; and OSHA fines a Tyson chicken plant after a worker loses a finger.
Slate investigates a little-used Fair Labor Standards Act provision that could improve conditions for farmworkers; Syrian child refugees face exploitation in Turkey’s textile industry; OSHA cites a Wisconsin shipyard for exposing workers to high levels of lead; and researchers offer new insights into the effects of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law.
An in-depth look at the troubling experiences of women in the trucking industry; a group of Teamsters are stopped by police for leafleting in Georgia; new National Labor Relations Board ruling a win for temp workers; and researchers reveal a big gender wage gap among physicians in academic medicine.
Congress fixed a loophole and OSHA penalties will now be adjusted regularly to account for inflation. But if Labor Secretary Perez is serious about leveling the playing field for those who follow the law, he should consider what’s being called OSHA’s “discount on death.”
Detroit Free Press reporters investigate Michigan’s flawed worker safety oversight system; workers in China’s fireworks factories face life-threatening conditions; New Mexico farmworkers win major workers’ comp victory; and OSHA rules in worker’s favor in asbestos retaliation case.
An in-depth look at how lobbyists squashed an Illinois bill to prevent discriminatory hiring practices in the temp industry; thousands of coal miners in Kentucky rally to save their health benefits and pensions; Chicago gets closer to a sick leave ordinance; and two workers lose their lives in the Bakken oil fields in the span of a few days.
Reveal investigates the toll of nuclear testing on the country’s “atomic vets”; federal labor officials propose new mining safety rules; D.C. officials vote in support of a $15 minimum wage; and an Amazon employee writes a first-person account from inside one of the company’s warehouses.
A ‘hidden’ workforce of foreign workers at a Tesla plant in California; Illinois legislators pass a domestic workers bill of rights; Congress uses a spending bill to weaken safety rules for truckers; and lawsuits over workplace leave policies spike way up.
Child Labor
In the fight for a rest break, Dallas construction workers find their voice: ‘This is not the end, but a stepping stone to something bigger’
Last summer, 25-year-old Roendy Granillo died of heat stroke while he installed flooring in a house in Melissa, Texas, just north of Dallas. His tragic and entirely preventable death marked a turning point in advocacy efforts to pass a rest break ordinance for local construction workers.
California
Report: Lower wages, labor violations part of the ‘race to the bottom’ world of subcontracting
Hardly a day goes by lately without another story on companies like Uber and their model of classifying workers as independent contractors while treating them more like traditional employees and sidestepping traditional employer responsibilities. It’s a model that has serious implications for workers’ rights and wages. However, there’s another form of employment that may be even more damaging to hard-fought labor standards: subcontracting.