Education Study: Peer-to-peer training can improve safety, knowledge among Hispanic construction workers
April 19, 2013 The Pump Handle 1Comment

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.

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silica US industrial sand production increases dramatically, yet industry says worker protection too costly
April 18, 2013 Elizabeth Grossman 1Comment

Since the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) began reviewing the Labor Department’s proposed rule to reduce by one-half the permissible workplace exposure to respirable crystalline silica more than two year ago, the US has seen a dramatic increase in industrial sand mining, a major route of workers’ exposure to silica dust. Industry groups claim the more-protective standard would be too expensive.

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Education Cracking down on deadbeat bosses: Wage theft victory a milestone in Chicago’s worker center movement
April 15, 2013 The Pump Handle 2Comment

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.

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Occup Health News Roundup Occupational Health News Roundup
April 11, 2013 Liz Borkowski, MPH

Wage theft, employee misclassification, and unsafe workplaces are alarmingly common in the Texas construction industry; the Philadelphia City Council fails to override a veto of a paid sick leave law; and immigrant workers in the US with temporary visas face uncertainty.

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