Fair working standards for construction workers and financial profit for developers aren’t incompatible, according to a new report from Texas’ Workers Defense Project. In fact, consumers are actually willing to pay more to live in places built on principles of safety, economic justice and dignity.
The US Chemical Safety Board has been criticized for not doing more to press recipients of its recommendations to implement them. At a public meeting later this month, the Board will consider classifying OSHA’s response to several recommendations as “Open-Unacceptable.”
Injury Control & Violence
Third day on the job a deadly one for 22 year old worker, Texas company has OSHA history
It was only his third day on the job when Christopher Michael Cantu, 22, suffered a fatal work-related injury. The company has a history of violating workplace safety regulations, including ones that may have contributed to the young worker’s death.
After a temp worker was killed in August 2012 at Bacardi’s bottling facility in Jacksonville, Florida, OSHA proposed willful violations and a $192,000 penalty. Did the rum producer own up and pay the penalty?
Education
Sequestration and OSHA: Impact so far seems minor, but advocates brace for an uncertain future
Every week, the Austin-based Workers Defense Project welcomes standing room-only crowds to its Workers in Action meetings. And once a month, a local OSHA representative would join the meeting, giving some of Texas’ most vulnerable workers the chance to meet face-to-face with the agency. Unfortunately, due to the federal sequester, OSHA has had to indefinitely suspend its participation. It’s a significant loss.
CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a special role in the West Fertilizer plant explosion. Its Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program will be investigating the factors that led to the deaths of the 10 volunteer fire fighters.
Education
Study: Peer-to-peer training can improve safety, knowledge among Hispanic construction workers
Eric Rodriguez and his colleagues at the Latino Union of Chicago quite literally meet workers where they’re at — on the city’s street corners. Many of the day laborers who gather there are hired to work construction at residential housing sites. Work arrangements are hardly formal and day laborers are frequently subjected to unnecessary and illegal dangers on the job. Unfortunately, worker safety is often kicked to the curb in the street corner marketplace.
Injury Control & Violence
$70 million owed by mine operators for unpaid safety penalties, time for “boot” device equivalent
In many cities, traffic control officers will “boot” are vehicle if it’s racked up too many unpaid parking tickets. It’s time for an equivalent sanction for employers who violate labor laws and refuse to pay the penalties.
Three years ago today, 29 miners died at the Upper Big Branch coal mine.
Texas construction workers who’ve lost their lives on unsafe worksites may be gone, but they certainly haven’t been forgotten. Earlier this week, hundreds of Texas workers and their supporters took to the streets to demand legislators do more to stop preventable injury and death on the job.