Workers suffering the ‘lethal legacy’ of a General Electric plant in Canada fight for compensation; OSHA looks into an Arizona commission that routinely reduces penalties for safety violations; advocates ponder the future of OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program; and millions of workers get a raise in the new year.
If the ACA is repealed, miners could lose out on critical compensation for workplace illness; New York farm owner indicted in death of teen worker; possible contender for U.S. labor secretary opposes minimum wage hike; and in good news, Ikea expands paid parental leave for its U.S. workers.
The families of two coal miners are charging that Johns Hopkins University’s Black Lung Program with intent to defraud hundreds of workers from federally earned benefits for work-related disabling lung disease. Appropriate for today’s holiday, both men were U.S. veterans.
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.
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.
The profile of an injured worker in Wyoming puts a face on the issues raised in a recent Labor Department report.
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.
A Labor Department report describes the ways in which our state-based workers’ compensation system is failing injured workers. Will the report become a roadmap for reform or another government report that collects dust?
Oklahoma Supreme Court rules against state’s opt-out workers’ compensation law; asbestos removal companies accused of discriminatory hiring; new research finds New York City’s paid sick leave law barely impacted businesses and hiring; and researchers predict that raising Colorado’s minimum wage will pump millions into the local economy.
From the weakening of workers’ compensation to the lives of America’s nuclear plant workers, it was another year of stellar news reporting on worker health and safety.