Click the Like button below to be entered! Be entered to win FIVE prizes each month for $20 and $10 Amazon and Starbucks e-gift cards. Participants will be entered any time they do one or more of the following (you can pick just one option OR multiple options for a "double-entry"):* Like Emery Reddy on Facebook (for new fans only) If you already like us, comment on an Emery Reddy Facebook post Get a Facebook friend to like us (you will BOTH be entered) Bonus: Automatically … [Read more...]
The Department of Labor and Industries reports that a Bellevue firing range is being charged with 17 violations of health and safety regulations following a construction project and lead-salvage operation where dozens of workers were exposed to dangerous levels of toxic lead. The Seattle Times reported on the work injury case yesterday in their article Bellevue gun shop cited, fined for lead-related safety violations. On Tuesday, L&I announced that it had fined Wade’s Eastside Gun Shop … [Read more...]
Washington Governor Jay Inslee has designated May as Safe Jobs for Youth Month in anticipation of the coming summer jobs season, when many teens seek full and part time employment. While a number of teens simply feel lucky to get a job, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) is reminding Washington youth, as well as parents and employers, that the number one priority needs to providing a safe workplace, and minimizing job injuries and accidents. In a statement released earlier … [Read more...]
Following mounting evidence that temporary laborers are injured at much higher rates than regular employees, federal regulators have just implemented several new measures to protect an estimated 2.5 million temporary workers in the U.S. In December, the Center for Public Integrity and Chicago Public Media publicized the case of Carlos Centeno, a temporary worker who was severely burned in a Chicago factory in 2011 and died after three weeks in the hospital. OSHA records (Occupational Safety … [Read more...]
While employers across the country are taking measures to address obesity in the workplace, much work remains to be done, and businesses need additional tools and resources, especially among small and mid-size organizations. These findings were reported following a survey of more than 500 businesses conducted by the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) and the National Safety Council (NSC). The study was undertaken to better understand the employer attitudes and needs regarding obesity … [Read more...]
A growing number of job-seekers are facing new requirements: “no smoking.” And this doesn’t just apply at work, but in their personal and home life as well. As smoking bans spread across the country, more and more employers — primarily hospitals — are also banning smokers themselves. They refuse to hire applicants whose urine tests positive for nicotine, which includes not only cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, but also patches. These tobacco-free hiring policies are meant to … [Read more...]
Workplace Fatalities On the fishing docks of New England, almost everyone knows a fisherman who died at sea. Joe Neves, a boat captain for over 30 years, remembers when one of his crew was knocked overboard. "We heard him screaming 'Help me!' " Neves recalls, looking at his shoes. "But you know, on the water at night, your head is like a little coconut." The crew never found him. Another man on the docks, Mike Gallagher, found a friend who was wrapped up in still-running hydraulics. "I … [Read more...]
Six protesters who were involved in the Seattle May Day clash with police were charged on Thursday, with prosecutors charging five more who are suspected of attacks against the police and other bystanders. Those eleven individuals were arrested during an unauthorized demonstration on Wednesday evening, which participants designated as an “anti-capitalist” protest. Those event occurred just a few hours after orderly marches by immigration reform groups, labor advocates and others … [Read more...]
Every day, the media covers hundreds of stories on jobs, income, unemployment and the U.S. economy. But what happens when we step back and ask a few bigger, simpler questions: What do Americans do for a living? And in what way has the employment landscape changed over the last 30 years? Planet Money has answered these questions with two graphs. Jobs where people manufacture goods now constitute significantly fewer of the total employment landscape. Americans still made a lot of … [Read more...]
Bloomberg recently ran a story titled Texas Explosion Seen as Sign of Weak U.S. Oversight; following that article, the Washington Post published another story posing the question: “Was lax oversight to blame for the Texas fertilizer explosion? Countless other regulators, labor lawyers and workers rights advocates are looking into details surrounding the tragic incident at the West Fertilizer Co. retail facility last Wednesday, which killed 14 people and injured over 200 others; out of this … [Read more...]
Medical experts traditionally believed that after banging your head in contact sports or a car accident, the concussive effects (headache, memory problems, dizziness) would quickly subside with some rest. But a recent University of Oklahoma study suggests that combat-related symptoms like traumatic brain injury can persist for years without any notable improvement. The research effort was made public last month at the American Headache Society, which studied over 500 veterans from the Iraq … [Read more...]
