Injury Control & Violence Houston, we have a workers’ rights problem: Profile of a worker justice center in Texas’ biggest city
July 9, 2012 The Pump Handle 3Comment

Last month, more than 70 ironworkers walked off an ExxonMobil construction site near Houston, Texas. The workers, known as rodbusters in the industry, weren’t members of a union or backed by powerful organizers; they decided amongst themselves to unite in protest of unsafe working conditions in a state that has the highest construction worker fatality rate in the country.

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Injury Control & Violence Austin project successfully integrating workers’ rights into larger sustainability goals
June 18, 2012 The Pump Handle 2Comment

When most of us think of sustainability and construction, the usual suspects probably come to mind: efficient cooling and heating, using nontoxic building materials, minimizing environmental degradation — in other words, being green. But in Austin, Texas, a new effort is working to expand the definition of sustainability from the buildings themselves to the hands that put them together.

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Cancer Cost of work-related injury and disease higher than cost for heart disease, cancer
January 20, 2012 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 1Comment

Money talks, as the saying goes, and a recently published paper on the annual cost of work-related injuries and illnesses should get policymakers to listen up. The number is staggering: $250 Billion, and it’s a figure on par with health conditions like cancer, coronary heart disease, and diabetes that attract much more attention and research […]

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Labor Rights No way to treat a guest (worker) or U.S. workers for that matter
September 22, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 2Comment

At a recent congressional hearing called “Workforce challenges facing the agricultural industry,” one Minnesota employer explained why he relies on “guest workers” to fill his seasonal jobs: “…few Americans who are seriously seeking work will apply for, accept, and remain in seasonal and intermittent employment, especially in the agricultural sector. Many who are hired do […]

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Injury Control & Violence Teenage workers lose legs at work, their employer didn’t have workers’ comp insurance
September 16, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 13Comment

[Update (10/11/2011) below] Phyllis Zorn of the Enid (OK) News and Eagle reports that the employer of the two teenage workers who lost legs last month in a grain auger failed to maintain workers’ compensation insurance. She writes: “Oklahoma Department of Labor has fined the company $750 for failing to comply with workers’ compensation law, […]

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OSHA OSHA news releases rarely name company’s work comp carrier
August 29, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 3Comment

When OSHA proposed penalties in January 2011 totaling nearly $1.4 million against two Illinois grain handling companies, I noticed the agency’s news release mentioned the employers’ workers compensation insurance carrier. It was the first time that I’d see this in an OSHA news release, and I wondered if it was the start of something new. […]

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Injury Control & Violence Willful violations assessed by OSHA in grain elevator deaths, insurers named in announcement
January 25, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 10Comment

OSHA proposed penalties totaling nearly $1.4 million against two Illinois companies for violations of safety standards that led to the deaths of three workers last summer in grain elevators. Haasbach LLC received 24 violations, including 12 classified as willful, for failing to take steps to workers from engulfed 30 feet deep in corn. Alex Pacas, […]

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Mining Law firm doing dirty work for coal industry?
June 17, 2009 The Pump Handle 5Comment

The Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward Jr. reports that one of West Virginia’s oldest and largest law firms, Jackson Kelly PLLC, is being sued for hiding evidence of coal miners’ black lung disease.  Ward writes: “Earlier this year, an investigative panel of the state’s Lawyer Disciplinary Board filed misconduct charges against Douglas A. Smoot.  Smoot hid a key […]

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Worker Health & Safety Workers Comp Nightmares and Opportunities
March 31, 2009 The Pump Handle 2Comment

The New York Times’ R.N. Kleinfield and Steven Greenhouse offer us a glimpse of the nightmare known as the workers’ compensation system.  In their article A World of Hurt: For Injured Workers, a Costly Legal Swamp,* they report from the Queens NY office of the NY State Workers’ Compensation Board and explain that injured workers: “come to the board […]

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Injury Control & Violence Protecting Workers on the Job: an Agenda for 2009
January 7, 2009 The Pump Handle 3Comment

What do the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the Migrant Clinicians Network, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, and 65 other organizations have in common?  They’ve all endorsed the “Protecting Workers on the Job Agenda”, a collaborative product of the American Public Health Association’s Occupational Health and Safety Section and the National Council for Occupational Safety and […]

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