A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Firefighter battling SoCal wildfire dies from ‘thermal injuries, smoke inhalation’ SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A firefighter died Thursday while working a colossal wildfire burning in coastal mountains northwest of Los Angeles that has become the fourth largest in California history. Cory Iverson was an engineer with a state fire engine strike team based in…
At a Congressional hearing last month, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta extolled the virtues of compliance assistance, cooperation over confrontation and the Voluntary Protection Program. But he also repeated several times that the agency’s compliance assistance program “has to be balanced by a vigorous enforcement program” and especially when the employer engages in repeated and willful…
Auto shop worker fatally pinned in Montevideo MONTEVIDEO, Minn. (AP) — Police say the death of an auto shop worker in Montevideo is accidental. Authorities said Monday 55-year-old Richard Fultz was pinned between a pickup truck and a tool chest that was up against a concrete wall when the owner of Backstreet Auto accidentally stepped…
Tim Craig has written a very good, if disturbing article in the Washington Post about hazardous conditions for dairy farm workers in Idaho. Alberto Navarro Munoz had been working on the farm for only two weeks when he encountered one of the most gruesome hazards that a dairy worker can face. His tractor tipped over…
Worker Dies in Industrial Accident at Northern Idaho Mill ATHOL, Idaho (AP) — Authorities say a worker at a northern Idaho lumber mill died in an industrial accident on Friday. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s office says the 45-year-old man was fatally injured while trying to clear a broken piece of wood from a machine at the Merritt Brothers…
Kudos to Idaho Statesman Reporter Audrey Dutton for a first-rate article about the hazards of residential construction — how many employers refuse to protect their workers and how OSHA saves lives. Dutton’s story begins with the tragic story of Brandon Ho’Rine, who went to his first day on the job one morning, tearing shingles off a house, fell…
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 [Note: His actual name was Jimmy Jay Baker], 45 of Houston…
Since I restarted this blog last month, I’ve mostly focused on policy and political issues, because, well….we’ve been overwhelmed by daily attacks by Congress and the Trump administration that undermine workplace safety standards and OSHA’s budget. But ultimately, we’re only fighting the policy and political issues because working people are getting hurt and killed every day in the…
An average of 13 workers die every day on the job. Every day news articles are written, investigations are conducted, and citations are issued. And then it starts all over the next day. These are not “accidents” or random occurrences. They are generally caused by unsafe working conditions in clear violation of OSHA safety and…