|
NYCOSH Newsline
|
July 17, 2013
|
Apple orchard aerial pesticide application in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California, 1996
|
|
Are you a NYCOSH member?
|
|
|
|
| ‘Occupy Bakery’
The New York Times, July 15, 2013
We first met Mahoma López, the subject of this Op-Doc video, in April 2012 at a secret meeting in a McDonald’s on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We’d spent the previous autumn documenting the Occupy Wall Street protests. Mr. López had reached out to the Occupy movement for help with his struggle to improve conditions at his workplace – the original Hot & Crusty bakery and cafe at 63rd Street and Second Avenue. At first he seemed a quiet, humble worker – the kind customers often overlook as they wait in line for sandwiches and coffee. But Mr. López would not be invisible for long.
“Consumers want to buy organic food, and they worry about how animals are treated. But why aren’t these same values applied to people?” (more) |
| Why paid family leave is good for everyone (even people who don’t use it)
The Atlantic, July 8, 2013
The impact of family leave legislation, whether state or federal, is felt well beyond the direct benefit an individual worker receives. Parental leave and similar policies hold potential to reduce workplace bias and stigma faced by all women and men with caregiving responsibilities. When such laws exist, bosses and co-workers reduce their negative judgments about people taking maternity, paternity, or other caregiving leaves-of-absence. Those judgments, in turn, influence positively managers’ assessments of and decisions about leave-taking employees–for example, whether they later deserve raises or promotions.(more) |
| Vacancies and partisan fighting put labor relations agency in legal limbo
The New York Times, July 15, 2013
At the heart of the rancorous showdown between Senate Republicans and Democrats over President Obama‘s blocked political appointments is an unglamorous federal agency that polices labor practices and that has, for Republicans, become a reviled symbol of the Obama administration’s bureaucratic overreach.
The agency, the National Labor Relations Board, has functioned without a full slate of five members, and with its existing appointees in legal limbo, for Mr. Obama’s entire presidency.
This chronic disarray, experts say, has left the 80-year-old agency rudderless, throwing into doubt dozens of rulings on the nation’s thorniest labor disputes.(more) |
| Chemical board to rebuke unacceptable delay on U.S. rules
Bloomberg, July 15, 2013
The Obama administration’s lack of action to impose recommended changes to make refineries, chemical factories and sugar plants safer is set to get a public rebuke from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
The independent investigative agency said yesterday it will consider labeling as “unacceptable” the inaction of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on seven recommended moves in the past decade, when it holds a July 25 public meeting. (more) |
|
European Trade Union Institute, July 15, 2013
Public health surveys in the United States like those in Europe largely ignore the impact of working conditions. The 2010 survey by a United States Health Department agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has put that right. It points up wide health gaps between categories of workers. Hispanic workers and manual labourers come off worst.
Some 20% of the 17 500 workers questioned (out of a survey total of 27 000) reported skin contact when working with potentially hazardous chemicals. This affected 27% of the least-educated workers but just 11% of educational high achievers.
The same finding was made for exposure to vapours, gas, dust and fumes: 25% of all workers are concerned, but this figure rises to 39.5% of the less educationally qualified and 32% among those of Hispanic origin. Looked at by sector, the majority of workers in mining (67%), agriculture (53%) and construction (51%) are concerned by exposure to such substances (more) |
Bisphenol A: study reports harm to checkout operators unborn babies
European Trade Union Institute, July 15, 2013
The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) released in April the results of a risk assessment of bisphenol A for the health of pregnant workers and their unborn children.
The animal study was specifically designed to investigate the risks from handling thermal paper till receipts which contain bisphenol A.
The study’s authors identified four types of harm to the unborn child, affecting the mammary gland (increased cancer risk), brain (learning difficulties), the female reproductive system (ovarian cysts and menstrual cycle disruption) and metabolism (obesity, cholesterol). (more_ |
| Protecting farmworkers from toxic pesticide exposure
The Hill, July 15, 2013
Regulatory authority for pesticide exposure is in the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The regulations known as the Worker Protection Standard have not been updated in over 20 years and are ineffective in preventing exposure in the fields. More than a decade ago EPA admitted that even when there is full compliance with the Worker Protection Standard, “risks to the workers still exceed EPA’s level of concern.” (more) |
| Pesticides taking toll on farmworkers
Earth Justice, July 15, 2013
If the apples in your local store are bug-free because of pesticides, then you might ask who the pesticides hurt before the apples left the farm. That’s because many pesticides are toxic enough to seriously harm the humans who work in the orchards.
A growing number of Americans recognize the hazards of toxic chemicals and as a result have reduced their consumption of produce grown with pesticides to protect their family’s health. But while U.S. consumers are finding ways to protect themselves, far too little is being done to protect farmworkers, who are on the frontlines of exposure to high levels of toxic pesticides. (more) |
| Grayson announces bill to let workers personally sue bosses who retaliate
The Nation, June 25, 2013
“Whereas current law limits workers’ legal recourse for retaliation to the National Labor Relations Board-an agency whose process can take years to reinstate a fired worker-Grayson’s bill would separately guarantee most employees the right to sue their boss in civil court for retaliating, and the chance to seek an injunction to swiftly reverse the alleged retaliation.” (more) |
| Bangladesh pollution, told in colors and smells
The New York Times, July 15, 2013
Bangladesh’s garment and textile industries have contributed heavily to what experts describe as a water pollution disaster, especially in the large industrial areas of Dhaka, the capital. (more) |
|
|
|
NYCOSH Newsline 