A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
In Memorium, Adrienne Markowitz: The health and safety movement has lost another of its legends. Adrienne Markowitz, former safety and health Director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union died of breast cancer last week. As her obituary describes “She worked with, and for, the New Jersey teachers union, identifying threats from mercury,…
Some of you may have had the misfortune over the last few nights to see this commercial. Produced and paid for by ex-convict Don Blankenship, the commercial features Gwen Thomas, sister of Grover Skeens, one of the 29 miners killed in the April 2010 Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine explosion. She defends Blankenship and blames…
As deaths in coal mines rise, President Trump last Friday nominated retired coal mining executive David Zatezalo to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Now there’s been a lot of outrage and alarm that Trump would appoint a coal company executive to head MSHA. But what did you expect? There are basically four types of people…
Last week in the workplace: Of note, three fatalities related to forklifts. Also, while OSHA removes workplace fatalities from its homepage and buries them on their website without victims’ names, you’ll continue to find them here. Union Bridge man killed in agricultural accident Union Bridge, MD — A 32-year-old Union Bridge man died as the…
President Trump is heading to West Virginia coal country tonight to give the best-speech-ever-made to the largest crowd the state has ever seen. (Tickets can be purchased here if you happen to be in the neighborhood.) You may recall that Trump was just in West Virginia to give the best-speech-ever-made to the Boy Scouts. Being as…
“We need to be protecting our workers as much as protecting our shores.” So says former OSHA head Dr. David Michaels in response to a report by Reveal and PBS about fatalities and injuries at shipyards that receive billions in contracts from the US government. The reporters point out intentional, knowing violations of the law,…
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…
UGI worker killed in Pa. home explosion, company confirms Lancaster, PA — A UGI worker was killed and two others were injured in a house explosion early Sunday afternoon in Lancaster County, according to the Reading-based gas company. A woman was told to leave the home while UGI and a Lancaster Area Sewer Authority employee checked on a gas…
So what’s going on here? OSHA investigates second fatal explosion in a month at Barbour Co., WV plant ARDEN, W.Va. (WDTV)-– One worker is killed in an explosion at Midland Resource Recovery, in Barbour Co., WV, less than one month after a similar explosion there killed 2 workers and seriously injured another. “Apparently when they…
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…