A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
A recent study by Harvard University professor Michael Zoorob showed that unionization saves lives. That’s the good news. But it doesn’t happen automatically when you sign the union card. The beneficial effect of unions on worker safety is the result of action by educated union members supported by union staff. Unfortunately, the Service Employees International…
The workplace safety movement lost two of its heroes over in March — one fairly well known (enough to get an article in the NY Times) and one not so well known except to the people he worked with and the workers he worked for. Samuel Epstein (1926-2018): Sam Epstein was warmly remembered by those…
There’s always so much to talk about. Luckily, you have me to distill it for you. Zatezalo to MSHA: The Senate voted 52-46 along party lines to confirm David Zatezalo as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety. Zatezalo will how head up the Mine Safety and Health Administration with which he has some familiarity…
Exporting Cancer and Miscarriages: An upsetting but must-read article by Cam Simpson at Bloomberg Business Week looks at American semi-conductor companies who discovered in the 1980’s that chemicals they were using in the production of micro chips were causing cancer and reproductive problems in women working in their plants. So they did the honorable thing…
More Budget Follies – CDC Edition: We’ve discussed Trump’s FY 18 budget proposal. OSHA and MSHA don’t come out too badly (except for the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program.) NIOSH and the Chemical Safety Board, on the other hand, not so well. Somewhat overlooked in terms of worker (and public safety) is the Centers for…
Tragic story about the killing of Yadira Arroyo, a 44 year-old emergency medical technician with the New York Fire Department by an apparently mentally ill man, Jose Gonzalez. Arroyo was the mother of two sons who were trying to follow her into the profession. Her death plunged the city’s medical workers into mourning and sent ripples beyond…