A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Things have been somewhat quiet lately in the world of mine safety and health. We wrote earlier about the troubling rise in black lung cases, but thankfully mining fatalities are down slightly this year after they spiked last year. In 2018, we’ve seen 9 coal mining deaths and 16 worker deaths in meal/non-metal mines. Last…
The last hearing of the soon-to-be late, great Republican-controlled House Education and Workforce Committee of the 115th Congress was supposed to be held yesterday. The subject: “Mandating a $15 Minimum Wage: Consequences for Workers and Small Businesses”. (Subtext: How a mandatory minimum wage will doom small businesses and starve their employees.) Unfortunately for Republicans…
District Court rejects OSHA’s motion to dismiss Public Citizen recordkeeping lawsuit claiming the agency violated the law.
In one of the first moves of the soon-to-be Democratic Majority in the House of Representatives, Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott has been elected Chair of the newly christened House Education and Labor Committee. Yes, you read that right: (Re)Introducing the House Education and Labor Committee. The House Education and Workforce Committee is no more. What’s in a…
Workers in chemical facilities and those living nearby can sleep easier after the US Congress declined to include language in the long-awaited Farm Bill that would have forced OSHA to write regulatory language into the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard that would have threatened the lives of chemical plant workers and those living nearby. PSM…
OSHA has submitted its rollback of its electronic recordkeeping rule to White House review ahead of schedule. What’s going on?
A list of a few of the workers in this country who died on the job last week.
Whatever you celebrate — or if you’re just into Winter Solstice gift-giving, you can give the gift of books to friends and family that you want to indoctrinate into the wonderful world of labor and occupational safety and health. They will thank you. And you will thank me for giving you lots of good ideas.…
Introducing a new occasional service of Confined Space: job announcements for health and safety or labor activists. We’re just getting started here, so I’m sure there are more out there. If you want your job opening listed, send it to me at confinedspace2017@gmail.com The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health is seeking an…
As the sun sets on the 115th Congress and the mid-point of this term of the Trump administration, the sun also seems to be setting on any chance of seeing an Assistant Secretary for OSHA in the foreseeable future. Or maybe not…. You may recall that former FedEx Ground safety director and Chamber of Commerce…