Workplace
Nation’s mine rescue system falling short
Ken Ward Jr. reports in the Charleston, W.Va., Sunday Gazette-Mail “the nation’s miners face a mounting risk because of a rescue system that is growing ever short on personnel and is in major need of reforms.” From 2000 to 2002, the number of safety teams approved by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration dropped…
Read MoreUFW strays far from Chavez’s legacy
Miriam Pawel of the Los Angeles Times examines the current state of United Farm Workers to find that Cesar “Chavez’s heirs run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money.” Pawel’s reporting finds there is little to…
Read MoreSome Colo. mines incur more violations than Sago
Katy Human and Jeff Roberts of The Denver Post examined mine safety records for Colorado and found that its “eight underground coal mines paid fines totaling almost $500,000 for hundreds of safety violations in the past two years.” One mine was cited 350 times last year for a total of nearly $50,000. In comparision, the…
Read MoreMine agency more lenient since 2001
Seth Borenstein, Linda J. Johnson and Lee Mueller of Knight Ridder Newspapers used federal data to find that “since the Bush administration took office in 2001, it has been more lenient toward mining companies facing serious safety violations, issuing fewer and smaller major fines and collecting less than half of the money that violators owed.”…
Read MoreIll. mine fined more than $500,000 last year
Jeffrey Tomich, with contributions from Jaimi Dowdell, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used federal data to show that “Illinois’ largest coal mine was fined almost as much for safety violations last year as the rest of the state’s mines combined.” The Galatia mine, owned by the American Coal Co., was fined more than $500,000 by…
Read MoreOSHA fines minimal, despite serious safety violations
Mike Casey of The Kansas City Star examined OSHA’s inspection database for the metropolitan area of Kansas City, Mo., to show that low fines for workplace deaths or injuries are common even when OSHA cites employers for a serious violation. The investigation found that in 80 such fatal and injury accidents, half of the fines…
Read More‘Guest workers’ suffer from exploitation, neglect
A nine-month investigation by Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua of The Sacramento Bee “has found pineros [Latino forest workers in the United States] are victims of employer exploitation, government neglect and a contracting system that insulates landowners — including the U.S. government — from responsibility.” The report, “based on more than 150 interviews across Mexico,…
Read MoreCEO salaries soar at disabled workers’ expense
Jeff Kosseff and Bryan Denson of The Oregonian found that executive pay has soared at nonprofits that often give disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage. "In Texas, one of the biggest nonprofits paid $4.6 million to a management firm founded by its CEO. In Baltimore, another charity’s top executive earned more than $700,000…
Read MoreFunds for workers could drive agencies to bankruptcy
Troy Anderson of the Los Angeles Daily News found that “California’s largest public agencies face setting an extra $108 billion aside in the coming years to pay for promised retiree pensions, health care and workers’ compensation claims.” Experts say the estimate is conservative and that some public agencies might face bankruptcy in the future.
Read MoreChlorine plant is top mercury polluter
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used EPA data and records to show that a chlorine-producing plant in Natrium is West Virginia’s single-largest air polluter, emitting more than 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air every year. Although much of the focus on mercury pollution centers on coal plants, chlorine producers are responsible for…
Read More