A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
One of the most persistent — and distorted — arguments in the health and safety community is about how best to protect workers: enforcement or compliance assistance? Republicans constantly accuse Democrats of ignoring the benefits of cooperation with employers and accuse them of focusing exclusively on enforcement and confrontation. That accusation is demonstrably false, but…
According to OSHA’s Organizational Chart, Loren Sweatt has now made the long voyage across the National Mall to become OSHA’s new political Deputy Assistant Secretary — and the agency’s first political appointee of the Trump administration. I’m assuming she will be — in effect if not in name — OSHA’s Acting Assistant Secretary, although the…
Worker found dead, pinned in NYC elevator shaft NEW YORK (AP) — Police say a construction worker was found dead, pinned in an elevator shaft after he returned to his worksite to retrieve something he’d forgotten. Stephen Simpson, 53, a Brooklyn resident, was pronounced dead Sunday after fellow workers discovered his body pinned in the shaft…
The Office of Management and Budget released its Spring (very, very late Spring) Regulatory Agenda yesterday. The Regulatory Agenda is what it sounds like: a plan and timeline for each agency’s regulations, what the next steps are and when they are expected. The Regulatory Agenda is released every Spring and Fall. You can check out…
Loren Sweatt, Senior Policy Advisor for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce will reportedly be named Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. Pending a nomination and confirmation of an Assistant Secretary (rumored to be Scott Mugno from FedEx), Sweatt will be the OSHA’s highest official and in effect (if not in name)…
“We need to be protecting our workers as much as protecting our shores.” So says former OSHA head Dr. David Michaels in response to a report by Reveal and PBS about fatalities and injuries at shipyards that receive billions in contracts from the US government. The reporters point out intentional, knowing violations of the law,…
The House of Representatives has released the details on worker safety and health funding in the FY 2018 Labor-HHS appropriations bill and it’s very bad news for American workers whose lives and health depend on the ability of OSHA and MSHA to enforce the laws that protect workers. The House committee bill cuts OSHA’s enforcement…
Five fatalities in Pennsylvania this week and three in Colorado. Work accident kills Mansfield business owner MANSFIELD, PA — A Mansfield business owner was killed Tuesday when he was pinned under a piece of farming machinery. Lane Smith, 57, owner and operator of L. P. Smith Co., was working on farm equipment when a manure spreader…
OSHA released a grant announcement last week for its Susan Harwood Worker Training Grants. But don’t get your hopes up. The Trump administration did not wake up and suddenly realize how important job safety and health training is to high risk and vulnerable workers. These grants are funded by FY 2017 money which has already…
Intrepid Idaho Journalist Showcases Hazards Facing Farmworkers Dairy workers drown in manure pits. Farmworkers poisoned by pesticides. Limbs amputated. Electrocutions. Horrible, but just the tip of the iceberg on Idaho farms, according a remarkable article by Idaho Statesman journalist Audrey Dutton. Drowning and other manure accidents killed farmworkers in Idaho and at least four other states during the…