labor day
gregladen | September 5, 2016Laborers generally do their jobs, because if they don't they get fired. But there are entire professions where people are not doing their jobs and the rest of us suffer.
Jacob Wetterling was abducted and murdered two and a half decades ago. The guy who did it was known to the cops then, and he had done things like this before, and those thinks were known about. There are all kinds of reasons they should have busted him even before Jacob was murdered, but they weren't doing their job. Turns out that when you look across the country and across decades, you can find FAR more examples of cops…
lborkowski | September 2, 2014As Celeste Monforton and I were putting together 2014 edition of The Year in U.S. Occupational Health and Safety (which she introduced yesterday), we noticed that a lot of the good news about workers winning better conditions was coming from cities and states. Victories include:
Cities and states raise minimum wages: Thanks to laws passed over the past year, eight states and four other jurisdictions will have minimum wages at or above $10 per hour. (They'll join cities that already have minimum wages at or above $10/hour, like San Francisco and San Jose.) Some of these jurisdictions take the…
lborkowski | September 5, 2011The Department of Labor's Labor Day 2011 website features some interesting historical info on this holiday, and an address from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis that focuses on job creation. What I found particularly interesting was an op-ed by Secretary Solis - one of many linked from the site's News page - published Friday in The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. It begins:
On Labor Day, we honor the contributions working men and women have made throughout history to the strength and prosperity of our nation. There are many, and they deserve the tribute.
But throughout our nation's history, there…
egrossman | September 8, 2010by Elizabeth Grossman
"What kind of uproar do you think there would be if CEOs were dying at the same rate as workers, whatever the data?" asked Steve Mitchell UAW Local 974 Health & Safety Representative, just before Labor Day in an online discussion about current U.S. occupational health and safety statistics.
As David Michaels, Assistant Secretary for Labor for Safety and Health, pointed out in his July 19th letter to colleagues marking the 40th anniversary of OSHA, "Fourteen workers die on the job each day, far from the headlines... [and] Every year, more than four million workers are…
cmonforton | September 6, 2010Karen Lubanty recounts:
"He kissed me goodbye, told me he'd call me at work later. He kissed Jennifer goodbye. That was it, he never came home."
Her husband, Walter Lubanty, was killed in October 2006 while working at a Tilcon NY Inc. plant in Wharton, NJ. He was crushed by 75 tons of steel. The company was assessed a $7,500 penalty by OSHA for three serious safety violations.
The young widow tells part of the story of how her life changed that day in a 5-minute video produced by the Machinists Union (IAM). The piece was filmed at a town hall meeting held in Virginia to discuss much-…
grrlscientist | September 9, 2009tags: Obama, health care, AFL-CIO, Labor Day, politics, streaming video
This is a clip of President Barack Obama speaking at the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day Picnic. In this clip he is addressing the cynics and naysayers regarding healthcare reform.
If I am not mistaken, being poor, unemployed or homeless are felonies in the eyes of the GOP, so those Americans who dare commit such horrible crimes deserve nothing less than death.
grrlscientist | September 7, 2009Today is Labor Day in the United States. This holiday is designed to honor those of us who are lucky enough to have employment -- you know, a job that actually pays a living wage. Today, we honor work by ... not working.
Most people in America view Labor Day weekend as the last weekend of summer, so those of us who can afford it usually indulge in a mini-vacation intended for rest, relaxation and partying. To help us along in this endeavor are many clothing store discount sales, new movie releases, college football games (often the first official game of the season), parades and fireworks…