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.
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.
Canada’s Supreme Court ruled on June 24 that breast cancer can be considered work-related under the country’s workers’ compensation law. Three women who were employed as lab technicians at a hospital in British Columbia argued that the hormone-mimicking chemicals in their workplace was a factor in developing breast cancer.
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.
Reveal investigates fraud in California’s workers’ comp system; workers face unnecessary hazards in the recycling industry; anger over union exemptions in Los Angeles’ new minimum wage law; and two miners win their retaliation case against Murray Energy.
Vox explores the mental health impact of medical errors on health care workers; California policymaker announces efforts to protect women janitors from sexual assault; farmworkers call on fast food chain Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program for better wages; and a judge upholds a worker’s social media rights.
State investigations at New York nail salons uncover widespread violations; Oklahoma regulators rule that state law allowing employers to opt out of workers’ compensation is unconstitutional; EPA proposes new safety rules for chemical facilities; and reporters at Reuters investigate labor brokers who recruit and exploit foreign workers.
Sick uranium miners and their families continue to suffer, while Congress sits on expanding compensation; trade associations push back against a safety reporting rule for federal contractors; Maine residents to vote on raising the minimum wage; and a new app could make it much easier for workers to report safety violations.
Federal laws fail to protect workers left out of state workers’ comp systems; electronics recycling workers and their families face dangerous lead poisoning risks; California farmworkers join forces with low-wage food service workers for better pay; and a worker who died during preparations for the Super Bowl is remembered.
Some disabled coal miners have received lung transplants as a treatment for black lung disease. It’s clearly a work-related illness, but workers’ compensation insurance doesn’t seem to be paying the bill for the $1 million procedure.