By Ted Rohrlich on October 3, 2017
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. In at least seven cases where workers…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates | Tagged Workplace |
By Stuart Silverstein on September 19, 2017
Leaf blowers can make an infernal racket, and environmental officials say that exhaust from blowers and other gas-powered lawn and garden equipment is a surprisingly big source of air pollution. But are landscaping workers who use the equipment day in and day out exposed to potentially harmful emissions? A 2006 study by the U.S. Environmental…
| Tagged Air Pollution/Toxic Exposure, Environmental Safety and Health, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Paul Feldman on May 30, 2017
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. The recent reticence has spurred six U.S. senators, all Democrats, to ask what’s up at OSHA. In…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Paul Feldman on March 2, 2017
Editor's note: See update at bottom of story.
In November, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced fines against businesses with workers who were killed when they were pulled into a wood chipper, burned in a refinery fire and crushed in collapsing grain bins and construction trenches. In all, OSHA issued 33 enforcement news releases that month, and over 50 more from…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates | Tagged Whistleblowers, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Paul Feldman on February 23, 2017
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. With a single exception, the states that voted Republican had at least three job-related deaths per 100,000 workers, according…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Rena Steinzor and Katherine Tracy on May 31, 2016
When we hear about shootings, bank robberies, or home invasions, we expect the perpetrators to be arrested, tried, and punished appropriately if they are found guilty. When a drunk driver kills an innocent bystander, we treat that death as a criminal act punishable with fines and jail time. When an employer ignores workplace safety and…
Posted in Commentary | Tagged Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Brian Joseph on April 12, 2016
Darkness had enveloped the Newell Recycling yard by the time Erik Hilario climbed into a front-end loader on a cold evening in January 2011. Just 19 years old, Hilario, an undocumented immigrant, had followed his father from Mexico to an industrial park in East Point, Ga., near Atlanta, where they worked as low-skilled laborers amid…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates | Tagged Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Stuart Silverstein on April 11, 2016
For nearly five years, Darrell Whitman was a federal investigator who probed whistleblowers’ complaints about being fired or otherwise punished for exposing alleged corporate misconduct. He wanted to help whistleblowers, viewing them as a crucial line of defense against employers who violated health and safety standards or wasted taxpayer dollars. But now Whitman, 70, is…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Aviation Safety, Environmental Safety and Health, Whistleblowers, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Brian Joseph on March 24, 2016
After years of inaction, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration today unveiled tougher standards, widely opposed by industry, to protect workers from exposure to silica dust. Commonly found in sand, concrete and stone, silica has long been recognized as a critical workplace hazard when pulverized into dust. Miners, stonecutters and other laborers who have…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Brian Joseph on March 23, 2016
After years of inaction, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected to unveil tomorrow tougher standards, widely opposed by industry, to protect workers from exposure to silica dust. Commonly found in sand, concrete and stone, silica has long been recognized as a critical workplace hazard when pulverized into dust. Miners, stonecutters and other…
| Tagged Environmental Safety and Health, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
When a Workplace Tragedy is Also a Crime
By Rena Steinzor and Katherine Tracy on May 31, 2016
When we hear about shootings, bank robberies, or home invasions, we expect the perpetrators to be arrested, tried, and punished appropriately if they are found guilty. When a drunk driver kills an innocent bystander, we treat that death as a criminal act punishable with fines and jail time. When an employer ignores workplace safety and…
Posted in Commentary | Tagged Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health | 6 Comments