A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
A worker was killed last Wednesday after falling into the water basin of the primary cooling tower at the Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. The worker, Jerome Matthews, was a contract worker employed by HydroChemPSC. He fell into the 15-foot basin, which prompted a shutdown of the entire refinery after multiple recovery attempts were…
OSHA issued a new policy document last week for its Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), weakening measures taken in the last administration that were intended to restore the program’s integrity which had been threatened by uncontrolled growth during the Bush administration. VPP is a program, created under the Reagan administration, that recognizes sites that have “implemented effective safety…
The House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections will hold a hearing on Tuesday entitled “A More Effective and Collaborative OSHA: A View from Stakeholders.” This will be the first — and probably the only — oversight hearing held in this two-year session of Congress. The Committee has not yet made witness names public. (Hint: not me.) Republicans will…
Goodyear Tire and Rubber makes tires. They also seem to be good a killing people in a variety of different ways — in cars because of their defective tires, and in workplaces because of their defective safety procedures. Reveal (Center for Investigative Reporting) writer Jennifer Gollan discusses Goodyear’s special talent in her article Treading dangerously: Lax…
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta testified last Thursday at a hearing before the full House Education and Workforce Committee, and although I take great pleasure in (deservedly) criticizing Trump administration appointees, he wasn’t terrible — as Trump appointees go. Now let me qualify a bit. I’m focusing only on workplace safety issues, not on any…
Over the past month, two workers have been killed at companies participating in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs: Nucor Steel in Decatur, Alabama where Melvin Gant Jr. fell into a vat of the waste products of finished rolled steel, and a contractor at Valero Oil Refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, Ezequiel Guzman Orozco, who died after allegedly falling…
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…
OSHA will hold a stakeholder meeting on Monday (and another in the Fall) to discuss how to improve the agency’s Voluntary Protection Programs. So, now might be a good time to review what’s good and what’s bad about the program and how it could be improved. History of VPP As part of the Reagan administration’s…
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta testified yesterday before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on the Department of Labor’s FY 2018 budget proposal. As expected, there were very few questions dealing with worker safety and health, and unfortunately none on the Susan Harwood Grant program which is slated for…