Dispatches From the Front Lines of Workplace Safety

Lots happening in the world of workplace safety and labor. Nevada lawmakers oppose weakening OSHA enforcement, Boston workers get more heat protection, Elon kills more workers, Trump wants to make America great by again sacrificing the lives of nuclear workers.  And lots more…..

Nevada Lawmakers to OSHA Penalty Decreases: “No Thanks!”

Around a year ago, OSHA announced several new policies that would lower penalties for small employers, employers without a history of serious, willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate OSHA violations and others “in an effort to minimize the burden on small businesses and increase prompt hazard abatement.”  State plan states are required to have OSHA programs — including enforcement– that are “at least as effective as” the federal program. But they can also be more effective.

Nevada legislators have balked on adopting OSHA’s new penalty policies:

The Nevada Legislative Commission, which gives final approval to regulations drafted by state agencies, did not vote on a proposal by the Division of Industrial Relations to align the state’s penalty structure with a more lax penalty structure adopted by the federal government last year. Instead, the lawmakers deferred the proposed regulation to a future meeting.

The deferral came after two Democrats, state Sens. Skip Daly and Rochelle Nguyen, said they believe lowering penalty amounts for employers in violation of occupational safety standards would not benefit workers. The 12-member commission is composed of eight Democrats and four Republicans.

Republicans did not agree:

State Sen. Ira Hansen, a Republican who owns a plumbing company, said businesses sometimes find themselves facing a minimum $25,000 OSHA fine “for a relatively minor thing.” He argued allowing reductions for small businesses that are doing their best is reasonable.

A $25,000 penalty “for a relatively minor thing?” Maybe, but I doubt it. Every time David Michaels or I would testify before Congress, a Republican would inevitably tell a horror story about a small business friend of his who had been fined $100,000 or so for some stupid violation like a staircase railing that was an inch too low. We would express concern and promise to look into it. But inevitably, when we got back to the Congressperson’s office for more details so we could investigate atrocity, they never came up with any information.

Unions supported the refusal to lower penalties:

Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada Chief of Staff Wendy Colborne told lawmakers that, in 2024, Nevada workers suffered “tens of thousands of job injuries that were serious enough to be reported” and “21,000 were serious enough to keep them off the job or on restricted duty.”

“Behind every one of those numbers is a worker,” she continued. “A father, a mother, a son, a daughter, who went to work and didn’t come home the same.”

“In our experience, it’s these fines that force them to make changes and avoid these problems on the job site,” she added.

Elon. Again.

We’ve written numerous times about how Elon Musk, master of the universe and the world’s first trillionaire, doesn’t put much weight on protecting workers from injuries and death in his various companies.  All the way back ten years ago ignoring OSHA standards protecting his Tesla workers, forgetting to record injuries and how a phone call to the Nevada Governor’s office inexplicably made several willful violations disappear from Nevada OSHA. (But don’t worry, federal OSHA says nothing to see there, move along….)  And who can forget the book-burning at OSHA and destruction of NIOSH (most of which has been restored.)

And then there was the time Elon said he’d make his Tesla facility safe if workers would just give up their organizing campaign. Sounds fair.

Most recently Gaige Davilla writes in The Texas Observer about various serious injuries and fatalities at SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas and how the company had an injury rate that’s more than five times the national average for comparable space vehicle manufacturing facilities in the United States.  This follows excellent reporting from Reuter’s correspondent Marisa Taylor about workplace safety and health problems at SpaceX a few years ago.

OSHA has cited Elon’s companies before, but he generally contests those citations he can’t disappear.

Because we know that OSHA penalties are onerous and are destroying jobs and the American economy. But in case you were wondering, $1 trillion would fund OSHA for a million and a half years at its current budget level. Just saying….

Less Heat: Boston

Following closely on New York City’s heels, the city of Boston has passed an ordinance to protect “all employees working for the City of Boston or under City of Boston contracts, leases, and licenses” from heat hazards. The ordinance calls for City of Boston departments whose employees perform work in a setting at risk of causing Heat Illness to develop and implement a Heat Illness Prevention Plan that will provide shade, rest, and water, an emergency response plans and training.

Contractors and Subcontractors must provide a Heat Illness Prevention Plan Affidavit and make available to their employees information on the requirements of the heat program and how to submit complaint if their employer is not providing the required protections.  If a contractor fails to comply with the ordinance after a warning by the city, they may be fined up to $100 per day, face termination of their  contract and/or be ineligible for future contracts with the City.

More Radiation for Nuclear Plant Workers

The Trump administration has decided that worker exposure to radiation isn’t really that bad.  According to the Washington Post, “Workers at nuclear power plants could be exposed to higher levels of radiation under a proposal by the federal nuclear regulator to loosen safety limits.” The proposed rule  would end a requirement that plants limit workers’ radiation exposure to “as low as reasonably achievable”

Why? Is there new science that radiation isn’t that bad? No. “The commission said in a statement Wednesday that the rule is an “unnecessary regulatory burden” that does not ‘reflect current science and decades of operation experience.'” The proposed rule follows an executive order signed by Trump in May 2025 that attacked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as overly focused on “insulating Americans from the most remote risks without regard for the domestic or geopolitical costs of its risk aversion.” Which means we’re going back to the good old Cold War days of sacrificing workers for “national security.” The once-independent NRC is now required to route its decisions through the White House for approval before issuing final rulings.

What if Union Density Tripled?

Union membership in the U.S. ticked up in 2025, breaking a decades-long trend of declining unionization.  But we need more organized workers. Far more. The Economic Policy Institute has issued a report documenting the benefits to the American economy and society if union membership reached 30% as it was in the 1950s, instead of the 10% today. To summarize, significant increases in workers’ incomes, less inequality, narrower racial wage gaps, more people with health insurance, stronger communities and a stronger democracy. As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich writes in the introduction, “That’s because when workers have bargaining power, they win better wages, benefits, and working conditions.” Read the full report for all the details.

OSHA Training Grants

OSHA has announced the availability of $12.7 million in Susan Harwood Training Grants  for nonprofit organizations, many public or state colleges and universities, labor unions, employer associations, joint labor-management associations, Indian tribes, OSHA On-Site Consultation entities, and OSHA Training Institute Education Centers. The only OSHA training program directly focused exclusively on workers, Republican administrations have attempted every year since 2001 to abolish the program. There are two types of grants: – Targeted Topic Training: Support educational programs that identify and prevent workplace hazards and require applicants to conduct training on OSHA-designated workplace safety and health hazards, and Training and Educational Materials Development: Support the development of quality classroom-ready training and educational materials that identify and prevent workplace hazards. The application deadline is midnight, July 31.

OSHA Enforcement News

A few interesting citations issued by OSHA.

• A building contractor and a staffing company were cited after 63-year-old Baltazar Rubio Olvera suffered fatal injuries while operating a mini-excavator beneath an elementary school in Converse. OSHA cited D L Bandy Constructors Inc. for $276,399 with one willful violation for removing the rollover protective structures from mini-excavators and adding fabricated parts so the equipment could fit inside the crawl space. The agency also issued 15 serious violations related to confined space hazards, including failing to identify and evaluate permit-required confined spaces, conduct required atmospheric testing, provide adequate ventilation and communication, train employees, designate confined space personnel, and implement required entry and rescue procedures. And Pacesetters Personnel Services received two serious violations totaling $23,170 for failing to ensure permit-required confined space entry procedures were followed and for failing to provide confined space training to temporary workers assigned to the project.
• OSHA cited One Way Environmental Services LLC for 18 willful egregious and five serious violations and $3,045,452 in penalties. after investigators found the employer sent workers to clean up the chemical spill without adequate training, respirator fit tests, or safety measures. Coastal Environmental Solutions Inc.. which was hired to cleanup the spill, faces $392,501 in proposed penalties for two willful and five serious violations that include a lack of training, a safety and health program, an emergency response plan for hazardous waste operations and emergency response, and deficiencies related to use of respirators. And BWC Terminals was cited with six serious violations for exposing workers to chemical burns, failing to provide hazmat training, and deficiencies relating to the use of respirators. OSHA proposed $82,750 in penalties. Cumulatively, proposed penalties against the three employers total $3,520,703.
• Two workers had their jobs and wages restored after OSHA found they had been illegally retaliated against for exercising their health and safety rights. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd was ordered to rescind the employee’s 20-day suspension and pay all back wages plus interest after the employee was suspended for reporting a train collision and safety concerns. Legacy Energy and Distribution LLC was ordered to reinstate and compensate a terminated worker who reported safety concerns during installation of a natural gas pipeline in Watonga, Oklahoma. The employee had used “stop work authority” to halt the installation and contacted an independent, third-party testing company to verify observed concerns, which Legacy later confirmed as valid.

Interesting Articles

• Eileen Sullivan and Rebecca Davis O’Brien write in the NY Times about how workers in federal buildings suffer from rats, mold, broken elevators, Legionnaires disease — problems that Congress doesn’t want to provide money to fix. Of course, appropriating money just to fix up old buildings is never very sexy when you’re campaigning for re-election. Nevertheless, all workers — even federal employees — deserve a safe workplace.
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• Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is weighing in on OSHA’s failure to issue a heat standard.  Noting that OSHA “is weakening the agency’s own heat standards by removing specific inspection goals” in its recent emphasis program (which I wrote about here), accusing OSHA head David Keeling of “retreating from worker safety.”
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• Shalini Ramachandran and  Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky at the Wall St. Journal report that the recent chemical disasters in Longview Washington paper plant, when a 900,000-gallon tank containing a toxic chemical used to make paper collapsed, killing 11 workers, and an evacuation of more than 40,000 residents from Garden Grove, Calif. after a chemical tank overheated signaled a alarming trend: “Serious chemical accidents are on the rise in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data submitted to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.”

There were 131 serious chemical accidents in 2025, the data show, up 20% from the year before. Of these, 89 resulted in at least one death or serious injury. All told, chemical accidents killed 48 people in 2025—almost double 2024’s toll—and seriously injured 142.

There are articles covering the same issues by Tom Perkins at the Guardian and Julie Zenderoudi at The New Lead.

• Former Wage and Hour director David Weil explains in the American Prospect how Uber and Lyft use the myth that  worker flexibility can only come at the price of rights and protections — in order to justify classifying drivers as “independent contractors.” Why? Because “independent contractor status releases the companies from obligations that our worker protection and labor standards laws require.”  Weil explains that evidence shows that “Drivers don’t have flexibility because they want it. They have it because it is the essential core of Uber’s and Lyft’s business model.” In fact, despite their accusations that government is trying to take away driver’s flexibility, “There is nothing keeping any company from offering flexible work schedules to its employees and no necessary connection between independent contractor status and flexibility.”
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• Dr. David Michaels and Dr. Robert Harrison wonder in the The Conversation why companies like Costco, Home Depot and Lowes are still selling artificial countertops that are killing workers. (We’ve written more about the hazards of quartz countertop fabrication here and here.) “In California alone, more than 550 workers have been diagnosed with silicosis caused by this engineered stone – a deadly disease that is totally preventable and for which there is no cure.” Ikea has stopped selling the stone, but “until manufacturers stop manufacturing and retailers follow Ikea’s lead and stop selling engineered stone countertops containing crystalline silica in the U.S., thousands of workers will continue to be exposed to deadly dust, and far too many will develop preventable silicosis or cancer.”