Representatives of U.S. foundries met with White House officials behind closed doors to complain about a not-yet-proposed OSHA regulation. It was the group’s second such meeting. But they wouldn’t be necessary if the White House would simply allow OSHA’s public hearing process to take place.
Municipalities should see a red flag when one of its major construction contractors is found willfully and repeatedly violating worker safety standards.
Cancer
Obama Administration’s silence on silica is deafening, 2 years and counting for OSHA proposal
Imagine an organization that is given 90 days to complete a task, but after two years still hasn’t finished the job. When you ask them ‘when we’ll you be done?’ they respond with ‘no comment.’ That’s what’s happening with a Labor Dept rule to protect workers from respirable silica.
Texas may boast a booming construction sector, but a deeper look reveals an industry filled with wage theft, payroll fraud, frighteningly lax safety standards, and preventable injury and death. In reality, worker advocates say such conditions are far from the exception — instead, they’ve become the norm.
In Austin, Texas, a growing movement to transform working conditions for construction workers is underway and the new Construction Career Center is playing a pivotal role.
The report, “At the company’s mercy,” should serve as the new Secretary of Labor’s roadmap to improve working conditions for temporary and other precarious workers.
With five days left in calendar year 2012, the Obama Administration released its current regulatory plan and agenda, including new rules addressing health and safety hazards in workplaces. Neither OSHA nor MSHA have a good track record predicting when such rules will actually be completed.
The OSHA staff responsible to modernizing the agency’s chemical right-to-know regulation with global standards deserve credit for completing the rule itself. Unlike other federal agencies, they also create a meaningful public record documenting who said what about the proposed changes to labeling and safety data sheet requirements. (Re-post)
Many months have passed since the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) a draft proposed regulation designed to protect workers who are exposed to respirable crystalline silica. (Re-post)
Environmental Health
New DOT policy promises better health and safety protections for flight attendants
After three decades, the FAA has finally acknowledged that its regulations to protect the health and safety of flight attendants are not adequate. A new policy—barring major objections from the airlines—-will extend OSHA protections to airline flight attendants.