A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Life at the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are in chaos with a growing number of open high-level positions, resignations and Senate failure to move on confirmations. Meanwhile the government shutdown has put a crimp in the leadership’s dream of rolling back regulations. And it doesn’t look to get better anytime soon.
Happy Birthday! Forty-four years ago today, on October 18, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford and Secretary Peter J. Brennan laid the ceremonial cornerstone of the new Frances Perkins Department of Labor building. In February 1975 the first wave of employees moved in. I spent over ten years taking the Red Line down to the Perkins building — some of the…
Lots happening these days: the grizzly murder of a Saudi journalist, baseball championships (Go Dodgers!!), mid-term elections, Presidential temper tantrums about “Horseface” and “Pocahontas.” The usual. But by far the most important thing happening today is the Fall 2018 Regulatory Agenda. Release of the Regulatory Agenda is a much anticipated (for regulatory geeks) semi-annual event…
Happy New Year!!! Hope you’re not still hung over from celebrating the dawn of Fiscal Year 2019. Well wake up, we have some shocking and fairly good news (considering…) For the first time practically in recorded memory, the Labor-HHS-Education budget, which includes OSHA, MSHA and NIOSH, was passed and signed into law before the beginning…
The Trump administration today proposed to merge the Department of Labor into the Department of Education. While some have suggested that the new department be christened the “Department of Child Labor,” the Trump administration has come up with the “Department of Education and the Workforce.” Some may be experiencing a sense of déjà vu at…
Although the sad news has been known to many of us for a while, Bloomberg Law officially announced the retirements of four very senior Department of Labor Solicitors (attorneys) who will, between them, leave the agency with probably well over 100 years of valuable experience. The four are Jeff Nesvet, the department’s top counselor for employment…
OK, it’s the weekend, so we can kick back and gossip and spread rumors. If you read last Monday’s Punching In by Bloomberg Law crack reporters Benn Penn and Chris Opfer, you know that there are some management attorneys who are less than enamored of Alex Acosta’s less-than-stellar deregulatory accomplishments and wish President Trump would…
I had the pleasure of attending the unveiling of former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis’s official portrait yesterday. Nancy Pelosi, Rich Trumka and Steny Hoyer were all there and a good time was had by all…. Until I stumbled upon the Labor Hall of (dis)Honor. (cue the horror music) Thanks Alex…Yeah, you.
These are some of the members of the US Department of Labor Hall of Honor. Which of these is different from all of the other ones? Why? Explain your answer. Edward (Ted) M. Kennedy The Chinese Railroad Workers Esther Peterson Bayard Rustin Dolores Huerta Tony Mazzocchi The Workers of the Memphis Sanitation Strike 911 Rescue…
Following today’s attempt in the Supreme Court to kill public employee unions, the Department of Labor will top off “Kill the Labor Movement Week” by dishonoring American labor with the official induction of Ronald Reagan into the Labor Hall of Honor this Thursday at 1:00 p.m. EST. I’ve already written about Ronald Reagan’s Workplace Safety Legacy,…