Workplace Safety

In Heat And Smoke, Workers Fight Negligent Bosses

July 13, 2023 Caitlyn Clark, Labor Notes. Resist! Mutual Aid, Unions, UPS, Wildfires, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

On June 29, the air quality in Detroit was among the worst in the world. “Outside it smelled like burnt plastic, almost like trash,” said UAW member Cody Zaremba, who works at a General Motors plant in Lansing, Michigan. He and his co-workers were experiencing coughing, runny noses, watery eyes, and trouble breathing. But GM didn’t even acknowledge the smoke, Zaremba said, much less offer any protection. “Everybody just had to go about it their own way,” he said. “We can all see it and smell it. But what are we going to do about it?” As wildfires, drought, floods, and scorching heat disrupt the supply chain, the logistics industry is starting to worry about the impact of climate change…on profits.

Columbia Waffle House Workers Strike Over Low Pay, Workplace Safety

July 11, 2023 Hannah Wade, Post and Courier. Resist! Low wages, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

Columbia — On the same day that waitress Naomi Harris helped deliver a letter of demands to the management at Waffle House on Garners Ferry Road, she called the police, saying belligerent customers had poured salt and sugar into to-go cups and threw them across the restaurant’s counter. It wasn’t the first time Harris dealt with violent or unruly customers in her less than two months at the 24/7 diner chain, she said. It’s one of the things that pushed Harris and her coworkers to go on strike the morning of July 8, a week after publicly serving their petition to organize and a list of demands to Waffle House management.

Bell Tolls Once Again In Lac-Mégantic, Marking A Decade

July 7, 2023 Railroad Workers United, Popular Resistance. Educate! Canada, Lac-Mégantic, Railroads, Workplace Safety

Forty-seven chimes rang today at Sainte-Agnès de Lac-Mégantic church to honor lives lost but not forgotten by a community renowned for their strength and their ability to band together in the face of tragedy. Yet, they are now met with a threat determined to tear them apart as a plan to expropriate land in an effort to reroute the rail line rubs salt in a wound not healed. Representatives from Railroad Workers United attended Lac-Mégantic’s 10th Anniversary Memorial March to encourage residents that they're not alone. Canadian railroads are American railroads, their safety is our safety, and their struggle is also ours.

Will Plant Workers Strike For The Right To Strike Over Grievances?

June 15, 2023 Alex Press, Labor Notes. Resist! Pennsylvania, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

Erie, Pennsylvania - “What do you think of the company’s contract proposals?” asked a man at the head of a contingent of workers marching through the mile-long, mile-wide Wabtec locomotive factory. “F— you!” responded members of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 506, their voices echoing off the walls. A few blocks down at Irish Cousins, the bar across from the union hall, one patron’s “How are you doing?” was answered by another with “Waiting on the word.” It was the afternoon of Friday, June 9, and 1,400 workers were preparing for the possibility that when their contract expired at midnight, they would be on strike.

California Set Minimum Staffing Levels For Overworked Nurses

June 11, 2023 Mark Kreidler, Capital and Main. Create! California, Health Care, Nurses, Workplace Safety

When Catherine Kennedy began her career as a registered nurse in California in 1980, staffing situations often resembled the Wild West. On some overnight shifts in San Francisco, Kennedy said, she and one other RN shared responsibility for a 48-bed facility. Their only help was four aides. “It was unmanageable,” Kennedy remembered. “You would work as a team, get through the night, and pray nobody would code [i.e. suffer a cardiac or respiratory arrest].” It took years of prodding, much of it coming from union-organized RNs, to get state legislation passed that mandated far stricter nurse-to-patient ratios than those Kennedy and her colleagues faced back then.

Iowa Governor Signs Dangerous Rollback Of Child Labor Laws

June 8, 2023 Jennifer Sherer and Nina Mast, Economic Policy Institute. Educate! Arkansas, Child labor, Iowa, Workplace Safety

In a March 14 report, we documented how states across the country are attempting to weaken child labor protections, just as violations of these standards are on the rise. The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections. And the recent uptick in state legislative activity is linked to longer-term industry-backed goals to rewrite federal child labor laws and other worker protections for the whole country. Last Friday, this concerted attack on child labor safeguards further expanded. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed an expansive bill enacting numerous changes to the state’s child labor laws.

Ford Parts Workers Strike Over Money, Safety, Discipline

June 3, 2023 Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes. Resist! Auto Workers, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

“I wish to be like eggs,” said Abdullah Saleem, in his third week of striking Constellium Automotive west of Detroit. “You know how eggs used to be a dollar a dozen and now they’re $4,” said Saleem, who has 11 years working at the plant. Pointing to the $18.60 that’s the usual pay for a Constellium operator, Saleem wants his wage to show the same progress as eggs. Constellium, a supplier of aluminum parts and crash management systems to Ford, is refusing to budge on wages, according to bargaining committee member Mohamed Alturki. The workers’ first contract was rushed through three years ago during Covid and contained no wage increase the first year, and just two 3 percent boosts the other two years.

Overworked And Understaffed Dollar General Workers Rally Against Cuts

June 2, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Dollar General, Dollar Store, Tennessee, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

On May 31, Dollar General workers rallied and marched towards the annual meeting of company shareholders to demand safe working conditions in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As workers mobilized, shareholders voted to approve a resolution put forward by a progressive-leaning investment firm to conduct an independent worker safety and well-being audit on the company, despite Dollar General advising shareholders to vote no. The company argues that it already performs its own safety checks and audits, while the investment firm claims that Dollar General is unclear if employee feedback at all informs its safety policies.

The Young Miners Dying Of ‘An Old Man’s Disease’

May 30, 2023 Kim Kelly, In These Times. Educate! Black Lung, Health Care, Miners, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

Adaptation is a way of life for John Moore. He’s worked construction, run a wig shop and now promotes concerts. The wig shop idea came to him because his middle daughter was having trouble styling her thick, curly hair. He didn’t know much about wigs, or hair in general, so he learned and started turning a profit soon after the grand opening. That’s the kind of man he is — someone who’s always looking out for the next opportunity, the next chance to make it. When we meet, Moore is wearing a black puffer jacket, a black durag, work boots and a cautious smile. He’s soft-spoken but firm, and he lights up when he talks about his wife and three kids.

How Some Amazon Shareholders Allied With The Labour Movement

May 29, 2023 Gabriela Calugay-Casuga, Rabble.ca. Strategize! Accountability, Amazon, Shareholder activism, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

During Amazon’s annual general meeting on May 24, a proposal for an independent audit on working conditions in Amazon warehouses did not pass. This was unsurprising after Amazon’s Board of Directors advised their shareholders to vote against the proposal ahead of the meeting. The Board of Directors recommended against passing the proposal because they claim that the company regularly enhances safety processes and programs, they have shared workforce incident rates, they are transparent about their commitment to improve workplace safety and because there are already “independent directors” who review workplace incidents.

Common Good A Big Subject In Oakland Schools Strike

May 20, 2023 Daria Marcantonio Kieffer and Micaela Morse, Labor Notes. Resist! Community Schools, Oakland, Public Education, Walkouts, Workplace Safety

The 3,000 teachers and support staff of the Oakland Education Association walked out May 4, shutting down all 85 elementary, middle, and high schools. Community support was immediate and widespread—parents were already familiar with the cuts the district had inflicted or proposed. Many donated food and joined our picket lines to walk, dance, and chant in solidarity. Eighty-eight percent of teachers had voted to strike, after it became clear that our demands were not being taken seriously at the negotiating table. The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) had stonewalled us—delaying meetings, failing to show up, and presenting vague proposals that demonstrated a limited understanding of what’s really needed day to day in schools.

Gig Work Is Getting Dangerous

May 14, 2023 Veronica Avila and Mariah Montgomery, Scheer Post. Educate! Gig Workers, Uber, Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

In recent months, stories of rideshare drivers and delivery workers carjacked, robbed, or even killed on the job have made headlines around the country. Now, growing research shows that there is an all-out crisis in app-based work. This May, Gig Workers Rising, PowerSwitch Action, and ACRE released new research that suggests the safety crisis among app workers — especially app workers of color — is escalating. They found that in 2022, at least 31 app workers — three-quarters of them people of color — were murdered while working. That’s more app workers murdered than we have been able to identify in any prior year.

Report: Tough Job Conditions Can Seriously Affect Mental Health

May 6, 2023 Deirdre McPhillips, CNN. Educate! mental health, Paid Sick Leave, Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

Certain work conditions – including inflexible or late-night schedules and lack of paid sick leave – can have a significant effect on mental health, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, about 1 in every 37 working adults experienced serious psychological distress, or negative feelings that were severe enough to impair social and occupational functioning and to require treatment, the report shows. The findings were based off of a representative sample of adults ages 18 to 64 who responded to the National Center for Health Statistics’ National Health Interview Survey.

Unions Say Share Buybacks Should Stop Until Safety Improves

April 30, 2023 David Lassen, Trains.com. Resist! Corporatism, Precision Scheduling, Railroads, Workplace Safety

Washington — A coalition of railroad labor unions today called on the Class I systems to pause their stock buyback programs and abandon the low-cost Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model until safety improves. The 14 unions, which combined represent more than 100,000 railroad workers, claim that since 2015 the six publicly-traded freight railroads spent more than $165 billion in stock buybacks, which is $46 billion more than they invested in safety. “For years, rail workers have been sounding the alarm about safety issues. It’s time to listen to rail workers, not rail CEOs,” the union coalition said on their new nostockbuybacks.org website.

‘Dirty Dozen’ Dangerous Employers Named For Workers Memorial Day

April 27, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Jenny Brown, and Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. Educate! Corporations, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs, Workplace Safety

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, commemorating those killed, sickened, or injured on the job. As part of a week of events, today the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health is releasing its “Dirty Dozen” report. Here are four of the employers COSH has picked out for the “Dirty Dozen” distinction in 2023 because they run unsafe workplaces, endangering workers and the public: Swissport, Packers Sanitation, the Class I railroads, and FedEx. Some also have attempted to silence workers who speak up about hazards or are trying to organize a union to make the workplace safer.

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