Last week, Workers’ Memorial Week events and reports from around the country drew media attention. Dorry Samuels at National COSH has a great writeup of the hugely successful week, including links to several newspapers that covered Worker Memorial Week stories:
- California: ABC News/ Univision and La Opinion
- Illinois: The Telegraph
- Nebraska: Lincoln Journal Star
- New York: The Daily Gazette (subscription required)
- North Carolina: News & Observer
- Massachusetts: The Dedham Transcript, EHS Today, Worcester Mag, MetroWest Daily News (all articles are posted on the MassCOSH site)
- Tennessee: WBIR
- Texas: Houston Chronicle
- Wyoming: Casper Star-Tribune, the Billings Gazette, and WyoFile.
Congratulations to everyone who helped draw attention to the problems of workplace deaths — and the solutions that can make workplaces safer for everyone. Check out Dorry’s post for photos, videos, and accounts from event participants.
In other news:
Reuters: The death toll from a factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh has risen to 411, and the European Union is considering trade action against the country, which currently enjoys preferential access to EU markets for its garments.
In These Times: An interview with Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, offers insight into the challenges and strategies for organizing nannies, caregivers, and housekeepers for better working conditions.
Boston Globe: Enforcement citations against employers violating child-labor laws have dropped dramatically in recent years, and the fall may be due (at least in part) to reduced enforcement activity.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration: For Workers’ Memorial Day, OSHA announced a new initiative to protect temporary workers.
Kaiser Health News: In seven states and Washington, DC, legislatures are considering “safe staffing” bills that would set minimum nurse-patient ratios at hospitals.
Women are more frequently bullied than men. In fact, a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute found that 62 percent of bullies were men and 58 percent of targets were women. The survey also revealed that the majority (68 percent) of bullying is same-gender harassment and that women bullies target women 80 percent of the time.