A few recent pieces worth a look
Construction is the US industry sector with the most worker fatalities. Designing buildings with construction and maintenance workers in mind can make buildings safer, and green buildings truly sustainable.
CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a special role in the West Fertilizer plant explosion. Its Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program will be investigating the factors that led to the deaths of the 10 volunteer fire fighters.
This week is Workers’ Memorial Week, when we remember the thousands of men and women who die on the job each year and work to prevent future deaths by improving workplace health and safety. Events are happening across the US and around the world.
Education
Study: Peer-to-peer training can improve safety, knowledge among Hispanic construction workers
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.
silica
US industrial sand production increases dramatically, yet industry says worker protection too costly
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.
Saving Boston victims’ lives and limbs required a well-coordinated response from emergency medical teams, the city’s emergency command center, and hospital staff. Such coordination requires ongoing planning, and planning requires funding.
A quick review of the bi-partisan Senate immigration reform bill reveals a few provisions related to workplace safety.
Injury Control & Violence
$70 million owed by mine operators for unpaid safety penalties, time for “boot” device equivalent
In many cities, traffic control officers will “boot” are vehicle if it’s racked up too many unpaid parking tickets. It’s time for an equivalent sanction for employers who violate labor laws and refuse to pay the penalties.
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.