A quick review of the bi-partisan Senate immigration reform bill reveals a few provisions related to workplace safety.
Education
Cracking down on deadbeat bosses: Wage theft victory a milestone in Chicago’s worker center movement
For Angel Nava, Chicago’s newly adopted wage theft ordinance is particularly personal. Until recently, Nava had worked at the same car wash business in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood for 14 years. The 55-year-old employee did it all — washing, detailing, buffing — for about 50 hours each week. Then, his boss decided to stop paying overtime.
If you serve it, they will eat it. That’s one of the many lessons gleaned from a new report on the national Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.
A new book by President Obama’s former regulatory czar is critiqued by someone who experienced his interference first hand.
In California, a minimum wage worker has to work at least 98 hours in a week to afford a two-bedroom unit at fair market rental prices. In Texas, that worker would have to work between 81 and 97 hours in a week, and in North Carolina it’s upward of 80 hours per week.
Government
All-time high migrant death rate along US-Mexico border: prevention in immigration reform?
The death rate among individuals crossing illegally the U.S.-Mexico border reached an all-time high in 2012. Focusing on labor law enforcement, rather than border enforcement, could be a solution to the death toll.
A recent Op-Ed in the New York Times proposes an end game strategy for ending tobacco use in the U.S.
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.
Education
Study finds high support for public health interventions, few worries about encroaching ‘nanny state’
A new study finds that the public does, indeed, support legal interventions aimed at curbing noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. However, they’re more likely to support interventions that create the conditions that help people make the healthy choice on their own.
Education
In tight fiscal times, National Public Health Week highlights the return on public health investments
In a little less than a month, public health workers in Macomb County, Mich., will set up at the local Babies”R”Us store to offer parents a free child car seat check. The Macomb County Health Department has been organizing such car seat checks for years, knowing that proper child vehicle restraints can save lives and prevent injury. The event also fits in perfectly with this year’s National Public Health Week theme of “Public Health ROI: Save Lives, Save Money.”