South Africa’s mining industry has been plastered across international headlines in recent days following the massacre of 34 protesting platinum mine workers in Marikana. This week, thousands of striking workers marched to protest the assault on labor rights and economic security by both the police and corporations. But while the media’s gaze has fixed on …
Sickened South African Mine Workers Seek Justice in Courts Read More »
New infographics from E-Training and Compliance and Safety show that as the U.S. budget for workplace safety continues to rise, the number of deaths dramatically falls. In 2010, the United States spent a then-high of $558 million dollars a year on workplace safety, and a record low of 4,600 workers died on the job. (Infographic …
The aroma of hot buttered popcorn evokes all sorts of childhood nostalgia, but for many workers, those savory vapors pose a modern industrial health hazard. Evidence has been building over the years of a respiratory illness primarily afflicting factory workers exposed to the microwave-popcorn butter flavorant, diacetyl (DA). Now, researchers have discovered another potential hazard …
Research Raises More Toxic Health Concerns for Popcorn Workers Read More »
What’s the value of a worker’s life? According to the calculus of corporate efficiency, it’s often still cheaper to put workers at risk than to spend money to protect them. And the federal government generously rewards those who have perfected this cost-containment strategy in industries where workplace hazards are just part of business as usual. …
When Safety Becomes Voluntary: Workplace Self-Policing Program Under Scrutiny Read More »
You shouldn’t have to suffer to be beautiful. But many women suffer for the beauty of others, polishing nails and styling hair with a toxic pallette of chemicals. Working long hours amid noxious fumes, salon workers, typically women of color, are in constant contact with chemicals linked to various illnesses and reproductive health problems. While …
Workplace Toxics Reveal the Beauty Industry’s Ugly Side Read More »
From birth control pills to equal pay, women are a favorite target in the country’s most heated political wars. But a much quieter struggle is being waged over women’s bodies in their neighborhoods and workplaces, where a minefield of pollutants threaten working mothers and their children. According to new research from the the National Birth …
Working Women’s Bodies Besieged by Environmental Injustice Read More »
Workers around the world commemorate April 28th as a day of remembrance honoring those who’ve died or been seriously injured on the job. The date for Workers Memorial Day coincides with Congress passing the Occupational Safety and Health Act forty-one years ago. Though the Act remains a promise that every worker deserves the right to …
We Remember the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living! Read More »
Federal action comes almost exactly one year after USW members were locked-out of Illinois plant by international company When union workers were locked out over a year ago at the Honeywell uranium facility in Metropolis, Ill., they warned that the unskilled scabs being brought into the plant would cause accidents at the uranium enrichment facility …
OSHA Fines Honeywell, Citing 17 ‘Serious Violations’ at Uranium Facility Read More »
Stephanie Moulton reportedly loved her job as a social worker serving mentally disturbed people living in group homes under the care of the state—many of them having ended up there as a result of criminal charges. Moulton was brutally killed by one of the schizophrenic men in her care, Deshawn James Chappell, while the 100-pound …
How Budget Cuts and Privatization Endanger Workers in Psychiatric Hospitals Read More »
TORONTO—After a bitter strike by nickel miners in Sudbury, Ontario, the Brazilian mining company Vale last year instituted a brand new safety policy, according to miners speaking at a conference in Toronto on Saturday. It was based on a premise that has become increasingly popular among multi-national companies and smaller employers in North America and globally …
From Sudbury to Chicago, Complaints About ‘Blame the Worker’ Safety Read More »
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
