MSHA head accused of illegal undermining of mine safety rules; Farm Bill provision could create a huge safety loophole for chemical facilities; hourly workers face hard choices in hurricane evacuations; and labor unions see big bump in millennial membership.
Teachers continue their fight for living wages and fair working conditions; new study sheds light on the working environments of miners with black lung disease; more than 200 delivery drivers sue Amazon for unpaid wages; and McDonald’s workers vote to strike next week over sexual harassment.
A new Kentucky law will likely make it harder for miners to access black lung benefits; hundreds of organizations and individuals petition OSHA to develop a heat exposure standard; one of the world’s largest asbestos sellers starts stamping its products with Donald Trump’s face; and a new study finds corporate tax cuts don’t boost worker wages.
The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund faces the risk of insolvency; Trump signs executive order making it easier to fire civil servants; farmworker advocates call on Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program; and thousands of activists call on Amazon to eliminate forced arbitration for contractors.
Don Blankenship’s Senate run is a heartbreaking ordeal for families of the Upper Big Branch mining disaster; California Supreme Court ruling will make it much harder to misclassify workers as independent contractors; farmworker families struggle with respiratory health problems; and workers around the world take to the streets for May Day.
A reporter goes undercover to expose the conditions facing temp workers; West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin comes out against Trump’s MSHA pick; carpenters union confronts Industrial Commission of Arizona on leniency toward violators; and a Philadelphia union joins an opioid lawsuit against drug companies.
Uber’s new insurance plan won’t do much to protect its injured workers; investigation finds 1,000 additional black lung cases in Appalachia; Washington state welcomes a new paid family leave law; and St. Louis workers face a pay cut after state legislators overturn the city’s minimum wage hike.
California farmworkers living in fear of deportation; Ontario health care workers call on officials to address violence in the workplace; West Virginia legislators consider dramatic loosening of mine safety standards; and thousands of workers get ready to strike on May 1.
Obama-era labor veterans worry about the future of worker protections; a draft Trump executive order would allow employers to discriminate based on their religious beliefs; coal miner rulings offer a look at the legal philosophy of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee; and Iowa Republicans move to gut union rights.
The Center for Public Integrity investigates working conditions inside the nation’s oil refineries; mine safety advocates worry about changes under a Trump administration; garment workers in Bangladesh continue to face abusive conditions; and workers chronicle sexual harassment and retaliation within the National Park Service.