Manufacturing workers in the border city of Ciudad Juárez organize for better working conditions; a stretched OSHA struggles to ensure safe workplaces in Houston; Fight for $15 makes it to the U.S. Capitol; and OSHA investigates the death of a FedEx worker in Memphis.
Child Labor
7-Eleven workers organize against workplace violence: ‘Convenience store workers deserve to be safe’
In February 2015, a group of 7-Eleven night shift workers in Buffalo, New York, filed a complaint with OSHA. Sick of enduring regular bouts of verbal harassment, racial slurs and even death threats from customers — threats they often experienced while working alone with no security guard — they hoped OSHA could help bring about safer working conditions. Unfortunately, the agency decided not to investigate.
The Center for Public Integrity investigates occupational illness and the workers’ compensation system; federal officials accuse coal mining operator of worker retaliation; OSHA penalties finally rise to meet inflation; and low-wage workers go on strike across the nation for better wages.
Environmental Health
Worker center success: Houston workers organize for safer conditions at insulation plant
When Mirella Nava began her new job at Rock Wool Manufacturing Company in Houston, Texas, she had no intentions of becoming an advocate for worker safety. But when she witnessed how fellow workers were being treated and the dangerous work conditions they faced on a daily basis, she felt compelled to speak up.
Investigative series explores worker health and safety on the farm; California enacts toughest pay equity law in the country; OSHA proposes biggest fine in Nebraska’s history; and Labor Secretary Tom Perez stops by Gawker.
Former employees at the Blue Bell ice cream plant in Texas report dangerous work conditions; federal health researchers announce new study of oil field workers; Democrats propose new labor rights legislation; and North Dakota legislators announce efforts to hold big oil companies responsible for worker deaths.
Paid sick leave, new rights for temp workers, and extending OSHA protections to public sector employees were among the many victories that unfolded at the state and local levels in the last 12 months and that we highlight in this year’s edition of “The Year in U.S. Occupational Health & Safety.”
Women in the trucking industry face severe sexual harassment, rape and retaliation; advocates call out chemical giant DuPont on their safety consulting business; home health care workers gain new wage protections; and Texas cities take action on living wages.
Child Labor
Worker database documents 1,073 occupational deaths so far in 2015: ‘Every one of these deaths is preventable’
More than 1,000 U.S. workers have died due to job-related events in the first seven months of 2015, according to new data from the U.S. Worker Fatality Database. Researchers estimate that total fatalities will likely reach 4,500 by the end of the year, which would mean that the nation’s occupational death rate experienced little, if no, improvement over previous years.
Department of Labor
Congressional budget proposals slash OSHA funding, push back on silica exposure standard: ‘These cuts and these riders are unconscionable’
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is no stranger to budget cuts — the agency is already so underfunded that it would take its inspectors nearly a century, on average, to visit every U.S. workplace at least once. In some states, it would take two centuries. Unfortunately, appropriations bills now making their way through Congress don’t bode much better for OSHA.