The Teamsters get ready to become a ‘sanctuary union’; a Florida bill would protect immigrant workers injured on the job; low-wage workers return to the streets to fight for $15; and the death of a social worker highlights the risks of occupational violence.
APHA Annual Meeting
Occupational health, environmental protections the focus of new public health policies
The American Public Health Association adopted 13 new policy statements. Six of them address priority topics on worker safety and environmental health.
Reporters investigate the deaths of five workers at Tampa Electric; OSHA removes worker fatality information from its home page; more workers sue Fraser Shipyards for hazardous lead exposures; and the Secret Service runs out of money to pay its agents.
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.
Indonesian workers who make Ivanka Trump’s clothing line report poverty wages and unjust working conditions; Colorado lawmakers adopt law providing workers’ comp for injured workers; Trump administration rescinds more Obama-era labor rules; and Walmart workers report being punished for taking sick leave.
Immigrant workers who get injured at work now fearful about accessing workers’ comp; women ironworkers win six months of paid maternity leave; many home health workers still going without health insurance coverage; and a health care union declares itself a sanctuary for immigrants.
Workers suffering the ‘lethal legacy’ of a General Electric plant in Canada fight for compensation; OSHA looks into an Arizona commission that routinely reduces penalties for safety violations; advocates ponder the future of OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program; and millions of workers get a raise in the new year.
Oklahoma Supreme Court rules against state’s opt-out workers’ compensation law; asbestos removal companies accused of discriminatory hiring; new research finds New York City’s paid sick leave law barely impacted businesses and hiring; and researchers predict that raising Colorado’s minimum wage will pump millions into the local economy.
Detroit Free Press reporters investigate Michigan’s flawed worker safety oversight system; workers in China’s fireworks factories face life-threatening conditions; New Mexico farmworkers win major workers’ comp victory; and OSHA rules in worker’s favor in asbestos retaliation case.
Canada’s Supreme Court ruled on June 24 that breast cancer can be considered work-related under the country’s workers’ compensation law. Three women who were employed as lab technicians at a hospital in British Columbia argued that the hormone-mimicking chemicals in their workplace was a factor in developing breast cancer.