A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
It’s not all bad news out there. While Washington sucks workers down into an abyss of corporate anarchy, the State of California is showing us that humans can be rational and protective of their fellow beings. Despite efforts by federal EPA to roll back its Risk Management Program improvements, other Trump administration attacks on worker…
Despite the political setback last November, some of us still believe that the arc of justice for working people bends forward — however slowly. But then we come across this deeply disturbing article by Brett Murphy of USA Today, based on a year-long investigation into the abuse of short-haul truckers who transport goods from the…
Construction Worker Dies After Falling From Brooklyn Building: NYPD New York, NY — A construction worker fell from a building and died in Brooklyn on Sunday, authorities said. The 58-year-old man fell from scaffolding at 1382 Nostrand Ave. in East Flatbush, police said. The address is of a brick building that is a couple of…
Milking the Workers? Farm worker advocates have published a survey of mostly undocumented Hispanic workers that describes discrimination and workplace abuse experienced by workers on New York’s large dairy farms. Most of the workers are undocumented. The authors report that nearly half of the workers said they were bullied or intimidated by their bosses, and two-thirds said…
Milford Woman In Norwood Skyline Fall Dies MILFORD, MA — A worker who fell through a skyline on Broadway in Norwood Tuesday has died. Norwood Chief William Brooks announced on Twitter Thursday that the victim has succumbed to injures sustained in the fall. The woman has been identified as Jessica Castro of Milford. Tuesday, police…
America, we have a problem. And it promises to get worse. 2 Killed in Explosion at West Virginia Industrial Plant Insurance Journal, May 30, 2017 Residents Shaken By Oil Tank Explosion CBS, May 26, 207 Chemical reaction forces evacuation of Waco industrial plant May 12, 2017 Officials Blame Mechanical Failure For Explosion at Dow Plant Chem.Info-Mar…
Owner killed in explosion PHILIPPI, WV — After further investigation of an explosion in Barbour County on Wednesday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that one of the two individuals killed was the owner of the gas company. An explosion at Midland Resource Recovery Inc., a gas company located on Barbour County Highway in…
Tesla may make shiny, new, innovative, futuristic American automobiles, but the relentless pace at which it pushes its workers is producing the same old, tired, painful, debilitating and disabling injuries that we’ve always seen in the auto industry. I take that back. Not the “same” injuries, but more of the same injuries. Worksafe, a California-based organization…
The latest list of workers not coming home at the end of the shift Jimmy Ray Baker, 45 of Houston identified as victim of rock crusher accident in Altus Altus, OK — An adjustment to a Terex Finlay Impactor turned fatal when Jimmy Ray Baker, 45 of Houston was pulled into the rock crusher May…
The latest deaths in the workplace, at least as many as I can locate. Lots of vehicle related fatalities this week, and as usual, several who have no names. 25-year-old dies after falling at work; 8th worker death in Michigan this year Kalamazoo, MI — The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports the state’s…