A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Summer vacations, eclipses, white power marches and murders –but one constant: people keep dying in American workplaces One killed in industrial accident on Friday Wichita, KS — A construction worker was killed Friday afternoon when part of a concrete roof fell on top of him. The large warehouse at 29th and Mead was being demolished…
Worker killed after collision with SUV on Fargo airport runway FARGO, ND — A contract worker painting stripes on the runway of Hector International Airport was killed in a collision with an SUV early Monday, July 31, 2017, said Shawn Dobberstein, executive director of the Fargo Airport Authority. The name of the worker has not yet…
Here we are, at the end of July, and OSHA continues to hide the fact that it actually enforces the Occupational Safety and Health Act. OSHA has issued two (2) enforcement-related press releases this month, out of probably 50 cases that exceeded $40,000. In the first three weeks of July there were 13 cases above…
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…
Fourth TECO worker dies after accident at plant Tampa, FL — A fourth person has died from the TECO Apollo Beach industrial accident on June 29. Frank Lee Jones, 55, died Saturday, according to a company spokeswoman. Christopher Irvin, 42, and Michael McCort, 60, died the day of the accident. Antonio Navarette, 21, died Wednesday.…
Press Release Drought Continues When Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta testified last month before the US Senate, he committed to citing employers who have the information about how to make the workplace safe, but don’t do what they need to do to provide a safe workplace. Well, to their credit, OSHA continues to enforce the…
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…