{"id":1980,"date":"2017-09-13T16:13:13","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=1980"},"modified":"2017-09-13T16:13:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:13:13","slug":"chickens-hurricanes-osha-penalties-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2017\/09\/13\/chickens-hurricanes-osha-penalties-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Chickens, Hurricanes and OSHA Penalties: Media Interest in Workplace Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Media
Photo by Earl Dotter www.earldotter.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One would think with monster hurricanes, threatened nuclear war with North Korea, plans to deport some of America’s best young folk to foreign lands, Russians undermining our already fragile election system and right-wing, family-values-defending Senators accidentally “liking” pornography on Twitter — little issues like workplace safety and health wouldn’t be getting much attention from the media. But if you thought that, you would be wrong. \u00a0There’s surprisingly high interest in worker safety, as evidenced by these most recent pieces (and all of them featuring ex-OSHA and DOL leadership.)<\/p>\n

Fast Food:<\/strong> Faster Poultry Processing Line Speeds hurt workers argues Debbie Berkowitz on Marketplace in response to an industry push to allow poultry processors to increase their line speed by 25 percent. \u00a0But\u00a0Debbie Berkowitz at the National Employment Law Project (and former OSHA Chief of Staff) points out that we’ve been there and done that. The USDA already\u00a0rejected<\/a>\u00a0the same industry argument back in 2014. \u201cThey went through all that data and said there\u2019s enough of a concern about worker safety that we\u2019re not going to allow an increase in line speeds,\u201d Berkowitz said.\u00a0Listen here:<\/p>\n