Injury Control & Violence Austin project successfully integrating workers’ rights into larger sustainability goals
June 18, 2012 The Pump Handle 2Comment

When most of us think of sustainability and construction, the usual suspects probably come to mind: efficient cooling and heating, using nontoxic building materials, minimizing environmental degradation — in other words, being green. But in Austin, Texas, a new effort is working to expand the definition of sustainability from the buildings themselves to the hands that put them together.

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Cancer Tony Mazzocchi: a man who hated work and loved labor
June 6, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

Tony Mazzocchi was a visionary who was in the forefront of the labor movement’s efforts to secure protections for working people, including strong workplace health and safety laws. He was inducted this week in the Labor Department’s Hall of Fame.

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Food Safety & Nutrition Public health officials urge USDA to withdraw plan to “modernize” poultry inspection, worker and food safety will suffer
May 31, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 2Comment

The Obama Administration’s quest to appease businesses’ claims about burdensome regulations awoke a giant in the form of the civil rights, public health and workers’ safety communities. From the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Council of LaRaza, to the American Public Health Association, the feedback on USDA’s proposal to “modernize” the poultry inspection process is loud and clear: scrap the idea because faster line speeds will take a grave toll on poultry plant workers.

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Injury Control & Violence Largest Hispanic civil rights group provoked by Obama USDA’s disregard for poultry plant workers
May 18, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 2Comment

The nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization issued an action alert to its members urging them to tell USDA Secretary Vilsack to withdraw a proposed rule that would allow poultry plant operators to increase assembly line speeds to 175 birds per minute. The majority of employees in poultry processing are Hispanic or other vulnerable workers.

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Environmental Health Top notch job by OSHA staff to globally harmonize labels and datasheets for chemicals
March 23, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

Earlier this week, Lizzie Grossman reported here at The Pump Handle on revisions to OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard which align the agency’s 30 year old rule with a globally harmonized system for classifying and labeling chemical hazards. In “Moving from Right-to-Know to Right-to-Understand,” we learn how the changes stem from a 2002 United Nations resolution […]

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Cancer Moving from the “Right to Know” to the “Right to Understand”: Global harmonization of OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard
March 21, 2012 Elizabeth Grossman 3Comment

by Elizabeth Grossman His job, the Metalworkers Alliance of the Philippines union leader told us, was assembling the electronics – the wire- or cable-harnesses – that go into cars. The work involved soldering, using flux, along with epoxies, and various degreasers or solvents. He and his co-workers didn’t know the actual names of the substances […]

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Injury Control & Violence Workers at Hershey’s plant feel vindicated by OSHA’s $283,000 penalty to Exel
March 1, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

Federal OSHA proposed a $283,000 penalty against an employer responsible for staffing a Hershey’s chocolate packaging facilty in Palmyra, Pennsylvania for willfully violating workplace safety regulations. The agency’s action followed a formal complaint lodged by workers at the plant, many of whom were foreign students employed under the State Department’s J-1 visa program. A few […]

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