When Workers Are Killed on Small Farms, OSHA’s Hands Are Tied
A fateful decision by Congress more than 40 years ago gives the sites unique immunity from safety oversight, even as hundreds of employees have been killed or seriously injured.
Labor
Labor
Labor
With Rise in Chemotherapy for Pets, Higher Risks for Veterinary Staff
As more dogs and cats are treated for cancer, veterinarians and their assistants increasingly face the risk of exposure to hazardous drugs, which are often being handled without proper safeguards.
Labor
Violence Against Emergency Room Staffers Seen as Increasing
A new survey has found that nearly 50 percent of emergency physicians have been physically assaulted on the job.
Labor
Nebraska Firm and Its Owners Hit With Criminal Charges in Blast That Killed 2 Workers
The Justice Department announced a 22-count criminal indictment against a Nebraska railroad services company and its owners related to an April 2015 explosion that killed two workers.
Labor
Feds Extract Penalties in Crashes That Killed Five Migrant Farm Workers
For the second time in recent months, the U.S. Department of Labor has extracted penalties from a California farm business blamed for the deadly crash of a vehicle transporting migrant field workers to their jobs.
Labor
With Death of Port Worker, Checkered Safety Record of Cargo Handler Comes into Focus
For the third time in six years, a branch of one of the world’s largest cargo-handling companies has been accused by workplace safety authorities of a willful violation linked to a worker’s death.
Labor
Study Links Declining Union Strength to More Workplace Deaths
It’s no secret that the waning power of American unions has contributed to stagnant wages. But a new study suggests that this trend hasn’t affected just worker income. It also may have cost thousands of lives.
Labor
California Conservation Corps Failed to Heed Warning Signs Before Fatal Van Crash
A deadly collision that killed three members of the California Conservation Corps appeared to be a simple case of one person’s carelessness. Yet facts and circumstances never disclosed until now tell a more complicated story about the state agency’s own role in the incident.
Environment
Pesticide Use on California Farms at Near-Record Levels
Farmers in California, the nation’s top agricultural state, are applying near-record levels of pesticides despite the rising popularity of organic produce and concerns about the health of farmworkers and rural schoolchildren.
Environment
High-Stakes Pesticide Battle Pits Farmer Against Farmer
Dicamba, an herbicide sold by agribusiness giants Monsanto, BASF and DowDupont, doesn’t just kill weeds. Last year, dicamba damaged an estimated 3.6 million acres of soybeans across 25 states when it drifted from farms planted with seeds genetically engineered to resist the chemical onto regular soybean fields.
Labor
A Lawyer’s Weapon Against Farm Worker Complaints: Deportation
As an attorney representing California Central Valley farmers and labor contractors who rely heavily on undocumented workers, Anthony Raimondo has become widely known for performing a sort of magic trick. He can sometimes make legal complaints against his clients—and the people who file them—disappear.
Environment
Noisy, But That’s Not All
Five years after starting his first job with a landscaping crew in the suburbs of Seattle, Fredi Dubon decided he had enough and called it quits. The work days were long, sometimes 12 hours, but a bigger problem was having to inhale exhaust from his gas-powered leaf blower.
Labor
U.S. Senators Ask: What’s Up at OSHA?
In the four months since President Trump took office, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued four news releases announcing penalties for job safety violations. By the end of May last year, it had issued 199.
Labor
Cone of Silence on Enforcement News from U.S. Labor Department
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration hasn’t issued a single news release about penalties or other enforcement actions by federal authorities since Inauguration Day 2017. The same goes for a second Department of Labor division, Wage and Hour.
Labor
A Grim Pattern: Presidential Voting and Workplace Deaths
More than 4,800 American workers are killed on the job each year. But in states that were carried by Donald Trump, the chances of dying at work are higher than in states that Hillary Clinton won.