The crowds demanding that Republican Gov. Scott Walker “kill the bill” he proposed to eviscerate collective bargaining rights in the state have grown larger by the day here, with numerous estimates putting Saturday’s attendance around 60,000. But despite workers ratcheting up the pressure in the streets, and unions making clear they are willing to accept pay and benefit concessions, Walker has shown no intention of leaving collective bargaining rights intact.
By carpool and caravan, populists are crowing the capitol to stand up for working people. Millions of Americans are standing together today saying “we are all Wisconsin workers.” All eyes are on Madison, watching to see whether America’s public service workers will continue to have a voice on the job and whether — by extension — any of us will.
The shooting deaths of two federal agents last week and three in two months highlight the heightened risk to federal investigators who are confronting increasingly violent fugitives, drug traffickers and other criminals, authorities said.
Freshman Congressman Larry D. Bucshon (R) of Evansville, Indiana is a cardiothoracic surgeon. His father was an underground coal miner and a member of the United Mine Workers Union for 37 years. Both his grandparents were coal miners. But last week he said the following at a congressional hearing: “I see a lot of patients with workplace related respiratory problems, some of which, to put it bluntly, are their own issue because they refuse to wear safety equipment regardless of whether there are regulations in place to do so or not.”
In the last two months, we’ve discussed two categories of employees who are exempt from minimum wage and overtime requirements under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Not surprisingly, these employees are referred to as “exempt” employees. Exempt employees generally must qualify as executive, administrative or professional employees.
It may seem harmless at the time, but doing something as simple as sending a text message while driving is proving over and over to result in fatal consequences. Due to this epidemic, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced an education campaign asking employers to prevent work-related distracted driving, with a special focus on prohibiting texting while driving.
Honeywell—a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures various technologies in the energy and other sectors—has broken U.S. federal law by not permitting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) access to one of the union workers at their uranium processing plant in Metropolis, Illinois.
John Konrad vividly recalls the moment he heard there had been an explosion aboard the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, drilling on behalf of British Petroleum (BP) in the Gulf of Mexico. At the time, Konrad was serving as active captain aboard drill ship Deep Ocean Ascension—one of BP’s most expensive and technologically advanced exploratory drill ships—guiding it around the Cape of Good Hope en route to the Gulf.
The state will hold a seminar March 2 to explain the role of MIOSHA compliance officers who inspect construction sites and factories for safety code violations. Geared to those who work in construction or industrial sectors, the seminar is intended to share the process and procedures a MIOSHA compliance officer follows while conducting a workplace inspection and how to respond to MIOSHA citations.
A Rochester company may be looking at a hefty fine. The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration says it cited Bona Via Inc., a manufacturer of pizza shells for failing to correct safety hazards at its plant on White Street.
