Navy shipbuilders get lucrative contracts despite worker safety violations; Baltimore airport executive cited in worker retaliation case; thousands of California workers have potentially harmful blood lead levels; and immigrant workers lose their jobs after joining national protests.
Environmental Health
Andrew Schneider: “I rarely ignore whistle blowers, no matter how crazy they sound.”
From gaps in airline safety and railcars filled with toxics, to the respiratory hazard of food flavorings and an asbestos disaster in Libby, Montana, Andrew Schneider made his mark on public health. The investigative journalist and two time Pulitzer Prize winner died on February 17 at age 74.
Government
Study: Disparities in occupational injury highlight need for greater focus on hiring practices
Fewer economic opportunities may be exposing black and Hispanic workers to an increased risk of workplace injury, according to a new study.
Labor Rights
“Fake Silk” unravels a sordid history involving a deadly chemical, suicides and even Nazi slave labor”
A recently published book– “Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon” by occupational health physician Paul Blanc – is an historical investigation of the use of carbon disulfide throughout the world to make products. The book describes how the making of rayon led to suicides and caused neurologic deaths of workers exposed to the toxic chemical… and it “names names” of those involved … during two World Wars. We have all heard about lead and asbestos and the legacy of death they created… but none of us has heard this meticulously researched investigative story before.
Seven years ago this week, six workers were killed in a massive explosion at the site construction site for the Kleen Energy power plant in Middletown, CT. Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT), along with Democratic colleagues from the House Education and the Workforce Committee, marked the occasion by introducing the Protecting America’s Workers Act.
California
A strategic response to Trump’s “ripping off the Band-Aid” to workers’ health and safety: Defense of the status quo ante is not enough
The Trump Administration is gearing up to make Federal OSHA as under-resourced and ineffective as it can. Our strategic response has to be more than simply defending the status quo ante; we have to rebuild the social movement that was powerful enough 50 years ago to force another right-wing Republican president, Richard Nixon, to support and sign the OSH Act in the first place.
Obama-era labor veterans worry about the future of worker protections; a draft Trump executive order would allow employers to discriminate based on their religious beliefs; coal miner rulings offer a look at the legal philosophy of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee; and Iowa Republicans move to gut union rights.
Not violating federal labor law seems like a commonsense precursor for being awarded lucrative federal contracts. House Republicans, however, disagree.
Global Supply Chain
Government, industry crackdown in Bangladesh threatens health & safety improvements; clothing brands petitioned to respond
Mass firings, blacklisting of fired workers, indefinite detentions of union leaders and worker rights advocates in Bangladesh threaten the fragile gains in workplace health and safety in the garment industry. International clothing brands and retailers are being petitioned to reverse the firings, release the detained, and respect the basic rights of garment workers.
I can thank the Trump Administration for providing a new phrase to describe how the poultry industry distorts information about working conditions in its plants. Assertions about injury prevention and medical treatment are debunked in a new paper published in the Journal of Safety Research.