Category: Worker Safety
Amid deadly tornado, texts show Amazon threatened to fire driver if packages not delivered
“I’m literally stuck in this damn van without a safe place to go with a tornado on the ground!” by Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams Friday, December 17, 2021 More damning information about last week’s deadly workplace…
Arizona study examines health risks faced by female firefighters
By Emma Ascott/Cronkite News April 15, 2021 PHOENIX – Nicole Minnick had been a firefighter for seven years when she gave birth in 2008 to her first child, a girl named Kyndal. A few months later,…
NLRB says Amazon firing of workers illegal retaliation
The workers are demanding better climate, labor policies. “It’s clear that Amazon has been violating the law when it tries to silence workers who speak out,” said Christy Hofmann, general secretary of UNI Global Union. by…
Dept. of Labor takes paid leave away from low wage healthcare workers
by Wade Rathke New Orleans This is complicated, so hang with me, but here is what you need to know. Nursing home workers and other frontline healthcare providers like home health aides, and community home workers…
Foreign Masks, Fear and a Fake Certification: Staff at CSL Plasma Say Conditions at Donation Centers Aren’t Safe
Trump’s FDA authorized emergency use of plasma therapy for COVID-19, despite a lack of proof that it saves lives. Staff at CSL Plasma, an industry leader, raised alarms about faulty masks as donors flooded in, but…
Workers demanding pandemic protection
by Wade Rathke September 18, 2020 New Orleans Local 100 United Labor Unions members continue in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas to speak up and confront their employers, both public and private, about the inadequate health…
Where’s the health and safety plan?
by Wade Rathke Friday, September 11, 2020 New Orleans Leaders and members of Local 100 United Labor Unions finally had enough of working on the frontlines without proper protection against the coronavirus in nursing homes, supported…
Workers caught in the middle on Covid-19
by Wade Rathke Little Rock School teachers and their unions are being forced into Hobson’s choices all over the country about whether to return to work as politicians, parents, school officials, and every mother’s child…
Trump, Health Secretary, say US healthcare workers ‘Don’t get infected’ with Covid-19
94,000 healthcare workers have contracted the virus. While the true toll Covid-19 has taken on healthcare workers is not yet known, one investigation found that more than 760 have died from the virus. by Jake Johnson, staff…
Meat industry sacrificed workers during pandemic to keep exports moving
‘It Was a Fake Meat Shortage’ “Our country sacrificed the lives of meat workers to protect the business of meat companies.” by Eoin Higgins, staff writer Wednesday, June 17 As workers in meat processing plants around…
‘How the Trump White House sees you’: top economic adviser under fire for calling workers ‘human capital stock’
“They’ve always been indifferent to human life. And in the face of mass death, the masks are coming off.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer Tuesday, May 26 In a remark critics characterized as further evidence that…
Getting OSHA on the job
by Wade Rathke Pearl River If there were ever a time that workers needed to feel safe on the job, it’s got to be now in the middle of a pandemic. Even with the lifting…
Inside one of Amazon’s hardest-hit warehouses: ‘Why aren’t we closing the building?
by Will Evans May 20, 2020 In late March, workers at an Amazon warehouse near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, got the dreaded announcement. Over the loudspeaker, a manager’s voice rang through the warehouse: “We have recently learned of…
Workers and bosses are caught in a reopening Catch-22
Pearl River In the United States when dealing with a program that is touted as a lifesaver for what will likely be fifty million unemployed workers and another program that is designed, ostensibly, to help…
Why offering businesses immunity from coronavirus liability is a bad idea
by Timothy D. Lytton, Georgia State University Governors around the country are attempting to restart the economy by easing restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The prospect of returning to “normal”…
On May Day, pro-worker groups demand protections for frontline whistleblowers who expose corporate disregard for labor safety
“The current crisis has elevated workplace whistleblowing and collective action to a matter of national health.” by Andrea Germanos, staff writer Friday, May 1 As workers marked May Day with sickouts and walkouts across the U.S….
The Trump Administration has put workers at coronavirus risk, Senators say
Citing ProPublica’s reporting, 22 Senate Democrats have asked the White House to explain its management of federal employee safety. by Maryam Jameel Wednesday, April 29, 3:40 p.m. EDT Democratic senators are questioning the Trump administration about…
Workers gear up for major May Day strike in pushback against unsafe conditions amid pandemic
One organizer explained that the goal is to “push back with large numbers against the right-wing groups that want to risk our lives by reopening the economy.” by Andrea Germanos, staff writer Workers at some of…
Abbott’s fast COVID test poses safety issues
by Rachana Pradhan April 23, 2020 Lab personnel say worries are mounting over the safety of a rapid coronavirus test by Abbott Laboratories that President Donald Trump has repeatedly lauded ― particularly, the risk of infection…
