Worker Health & Safety | The Pump Handle

APHA Annual Meeting Honduran women’s and labor rights organization wins APHA Occupational Health and Safety Section’s International Award

November 9, 2016 Garrett Brown

The Honduras Independent Monitoring Team (EMIH) won the 2016 International Award of the Occupational Health and Safety Section of the American Public Health Association at the APHA’s annual conference in Denver. Lynda Yanz, Executive Director of the Maquila Solidarity Network, based in Toronto, Canada, accepted the award on behalf of EMIH at the November 1st awards luncheon.

Environmental Health Occupational Health News Roundup

November 8, 2016 Kim Krisberg

Hispanic hotel workers in Las Vegas are becoming a powerful political force; families of miners who died from black lung disease sue Johns Hopkins Hospital; Milwaukee officials approve a living wage ordinance for county workers; and women in France and Iceland walk off the job to protest the gender wage gap.

Labor Rights “Hazards of the gig economy” – Temp workers at greater risk for workplace injury but poorly protected, say labor advocates

November 4, 2016 Elizabeth Grossman

During the week when OSHA renewed its alliance with the American Staffing Association, National COSH held a press call to draw attention to the temp industry’s failure to adequately address health and safety problems faced by temp workers.

Worker Health & Safety Labor-law violations and the kind of economic climate we encourage

October 31, 2016 Liz Borkowski, MPH

An injunction temporarily prohibits implementation of an executive order requiring companies bidding on large federal contracts to disclose whether they’d been cited for violating labor laws in the past three years. This demonstrates a need to give businesses with safe workplaces the same kind of deference we give small businesses.

Worker Health & Safety Working life in latest corporate supply chain “Promised Land” – Vietnam

October 28, 2016 Garrett Brown 1Comment

Workers’ wages in China are now deemed to be “too high” by consumer product brands seeking to “source” their products in Asia — so Vietnam has become the new “promised land” for international brands selling clothes, electronics and sports shoes, among other products. Vietnamese workers are now facing sweatshop working conditions, like Chinese workers before them, in the global corporations’ “race to the bottom” in wages, working conditions and rights.

Department of Labor Occupational Health News Roundup

October 26, 2016 Kim Krisberg

Reporters investigate the man whose research is used to deny veterans’ claims about Agent Orange exposure; former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship goes back to court to appeal his conviction; voters in five states will cast ballots on raising the minimum wage; and OSHA’s new worker retaliation rules are delayed.

Agriculture New York farmworker, worker centers sue for organizing rights: ‘This would be a huge victory’

October 21, 2016 Kim Krisberg 2Comment

In September 2015, New York farmworker Crispin Hernandez was fired after his employers saw him talking with local workers’ rights advocates. But instead of backing down, Hernandez filed suit against the state. And if he prevails, it could help transform the often dangerous and unjust workplace conditions that farmworkers face to put food on all of our tables.

US Healthcare System Roughneck’s serious injury: “It changes everything”

October 18, 2016 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

The profile of an injured worker in Wyoming puts a face on the issues raised in a recent Labor Department report.

Cal/OSHA In wake of Chevron Richmond fire, California aims to improve refinery safety

October 12, 2016 Elizabeth Grossman

Safety advocates say, if done right, this has potential to improve process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals nationwide.

Child Labor Occupational Health News Roundup

October 11, 2016 Kim Krisberg

Denver Post reporters investigate the lives and deaths of Colorado’s oil and gas workers; employees from Donald Trump’s California golf club say he only wanted to hire “pretty” women; cobalt mining in Congo comes with dangerous risks for adult and child workers; and Harvard’s dining staff goes on strike for living wages.