Workers' Rights

Addressing Emerging Risks

All workers have the right to a safe and healthful workplace and to a fair wage that offers them an opportunity to realize the American dream. Over the past century, we’ve tried to breathe life into that value by enacting hundreds of labor laws and establishing numerous federal agencies to implement and enforce them, like the Department of Labor (DOL), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), among others. States also play a major role in protecting workers’ rights by administering state-level programs that carry out the minimum federal requirements and any supplemental state protections.

But the American workplace has changed dramatically since many of our labor laws were last updated, and so have the inherent hazards for workers. New, bigger, more powerful equipment has come online. New chemicals and other toxic substances have come into routine use. New production and construction methods have been introduced. At the same time, more and more employers rely on “contingent” workers instead of permanent employees to perform jobs at all levels. Employers are also fighting grassroots efforts to raise the minimum wage, denying sick leave and family medical leave, misclassifying workers to avoid overtime pay, and retaliating against workers who report wrongdoing.

Outdated Labor Laws

Our labor laws have not kept pace with these new and emerging technological and economic developments. At the federal level, many agencies have been starved of the resources they need to keep up with regulatory challenges and burdened with analytical requirements by adverse court decisions and congressional action. The result is that new safety standards can take a decade or more to implement, and enforcement of existing standards is sporadic at best. Thus, many workers and advocates are beginning to look at states and localities to strengthen protections. Achieving meaningful, long-lasting reform will require improvements to laws and regulations at the federal, state, and local level. Working with government officials, workers and advocates must find creative and focused responses to existing and new challenges in the workplace.  

CPR’s Member Scholars and policy analysts have conducted extensive research and analyses that provide numerous legal and policy recommendations that can be pursued by government decision-makers and allied organizations. Please read more about securing workers’ economic rights, reforming federal labor laws and policies, and winning safer workplaces by advocating for strong worker protections at the state and local level.

Crimes Against Workers Database

Worker deaths or injuries resulting from conditions that violate workplace safety laws are all too common. Often, rather than treating these violations of the law as subjects for criminal investigation, prosecutors simply defer to OSHA or comparable state agencies, thus significantly reducing the scope of possible penalties. As a result, many workplace injuries or deaths resulting from illegal conditions are punished with fines, and light fines at that, letting violators off too easily and eliminating the deterrent effect that might prevent future incidents. Some prosecutors have recognized the need to treat such incidents as the crimes they are, prosecuting employers who've broken the law. CPR's first-of-its-kind Crimes Against Workers database catalogs state criminal cases and grassroots advocacy campaigns against employers responsible for workers being killed, maimed, or serious endangered on the job. It provides a one-stop shop for finding case files, media clips, and advocacy resources related to state criminal enforcement against companies and individuals in cases of serious worker injuries and deaths. 

Our Latest Work

• CPRBlog Posts. Read recent Workers’ Rights posts on CPRBlog.
• Joint Letter to Fairfax County, Virginia, Commonwealth's Attorney re deadly worksite trench collapse. CPR’s Rena Steinzor, Katie Tracy, and David Flores joined with 19 individuals and organizations calling on Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh to open a criminal investigation into a worksite trench collapse on July 23, 2019 in Fairfax County, Virginia, killing a teenager and injuring an adult male, August 19, 2019.
• Joint Letter on Heat Stress Legislation. Read a joint letter from 100+ organizations, including CPR, in support of the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act (HR 2668), directing OSHA to issue a standard on the prevention of excessive heat in the workplace, July 17, 2019.
• Joint Letter to Chemical Safety Board. CPR Policy Analyst Katie Tracy joined more than 50 health and safety activists on a letter to the Chemical Safety Board expressing objection to the exclusion of the victim’s names in the agency’s investigation report of the 2018 fatal blowout at the Pryor Trust gas well in Oklahoma, June 17, 2019. 
• OSHA Whistleblower 11(c) Testimony.  Read remarks of Katie Tracy on 11(c) Whistleblower Protections at OSHA Stakeholder Meeting, May 14, 2019.
• Whistleblower Comments. Read joint comments from CPR and 65 other organizations to OSHA recommending improvements in its administration of whistleblower protection provisions under Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, May 7, 2019. 
• Chemical Detox for the Workplace Manual: Read CPR's manual for workers and advocates working to secure workplaces safe from toxic hazards, April 2019.
• Letter to Department of Labor on Heat Stress, for Workers' Memorial Week. The Center for Progressive Reform joined 100+ organizations in a Workers’ Memorial Week letter to the Department of Labor calling for a federal heat stress standard to protect workers from the growing dangers of climate change and rising temperatures, April 26, 2019. 
• Joint comments on OSHA’s NPRM on tracking workplace injuries. Read a letter to OSHA from CPR Member Scholars Tom McGarity and Sid Shapiro and CPR Policy Analyst Katie Tracy opposing provisions that would roll back requirements in the 2016 final rule, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, September 28, 2018. 
• Letter on Ag Bill Exemption re Hazardous Chemicals. Read a joint letter to House and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairs and Ranking Members from Tom McGarity, Sid Shapiro, and Rena Steinzor opposing section of the House Farm Bill (H.R. 2) that would codify exemption of high-risk retail facilities that sell hazardous chemicals to commercial end users from OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard, September 24, 2018.
• Letters to Maryland Gubernatorial Candidates re Worker Safety. Read letters from CPR's Rena Steinzor and Katie Tracy to Maryland gubernatorial candidates Larry Hogan and Ben Jealous calling for a strengthened Maryland Occupational Safety and Health division, September 21, 2018. 
• Joint letter to Redwood City, California, DA urging investigation.  Read a joint letter from CPR and other workers’ rights organizations and advocates calling for the Redwood City, California, District Attorney to investigate the July 27, 2018, workplace trench collapse death of Abel Sauceda Quinonez, August 17, 2018. 
• Heat Stress Petition to OSHA. CPR and more than 125 organizations joined together to petition OSHA to begin a rulemaking process leading to a rule protecting workers from heat stress, July 17, 2018. 
• Trench Collapse Prosecution op-ed. Read Rena Steinzor's "Baltimore employer of smothered worker should be held criminally accountable," June 8, 2018, The Baltimore Sun.
• Chemical Safety Rollback op-ed. Read Thomas McGarity's op-ed on the fifth anniversary of the West, Texas, chemical plant disaster, West-inspired EPA rules destined for ashes as chemical industry wins big, May 22, 2018, in The Waco Tribune-Herald.
• Joint FSIS letter. Read a joint comment letter from CPR Member Scholars Martha McCluskey, Tom McGarity, Sid Shapiro, Rena Steinzor, and CPR Policy Analyst Katie Tracy, calling on USDA/FSIS to withdraw proposed “Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection” rule because it raises serious concerns for worker health and safety, Apr. 30, 2018.
• MOSH Op-Ed. Read Katherine Tracy's Workers' Memorial Day op-ed in the Baltimore Sun about the Maryland Occupational Safey and Health division's lackluster inspection and enforcement of workplace safety standards, April 25, 2018.
• Maryland Testimony. Read Katherine Tracy and Matthew Shudtz' testimony (submitted) to Maryland General Assembly House Standing Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Education & Economic Development on appropriations for the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health division of the Department of Licensing, Labor, and Regulation, February 8, 2018. MOSH’s limited budget hampers its ability to ensure the health and safety of Maryland workers.
• Letter to the Department of Labor on Tip Rule Data Cover-up. Joint letter from CPR Scholars and staff calling for withdrawal of proposed Tip Rule after a report that Department leadership buried a cost-benefit analysis it deemed unfavorable. Co-signed by James Goodwin, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor and Katherine Tracy, February 5, 2018.
• Crimes Against Workers Database. Check out CPR's database tracking prosecutions against employers whose corner-cutting causes worker injuries or costs lives. 
• Albany Times Union op-ed. Raise Maximum Fine to Deter Unsafe Working Conditions, by Martha T. McCluskey and Matt London, August 2, 2017, The Albany Times Union.
• HIMP and NPIS Letters. Read June 2017 letters to federal agencies, co-signed by Katherine Tracy on the the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-based Inspection Models Project (HIMP) in the Hog-Processing Industry, and the New Poultry Inspection System Attestation Requirements.
• Maryland Worker Safety Testimony. Read Matthew Shudtz and Katherine Tracy's February 15, 2017, wiritten testimoney to the Maryland General Assembly's Standing Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Education & Economic Developments on funding for worker safety standards enforcement.
• Maryland Worker Safety Testimony. Read Katherine Tracy's March 6, 2017, written testimony to the Maryland General Assembly's Economic Matters Committee on public works contracts and contractor occupational safety and health requirements. Also read Matthew Shudtz and Katherine Tracy's February 15, 2017, wiritten testimoney to the Maryland General Assembly's Standing Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Education & Economic Developments on funding for worker safety standards enforcement.
• Workers' Compensation Op-Ed. Read Thomas McGarity and Sidney Shapiro's November 6, 2016, op-ed in The San Antonio Express on the weakening of workers' comp laws. Or read it in or in the November 3, 2016,  Austin-American Statesman. 
• OSHA's Feeble Fines & Danger Discounts. Read CPR's June 2016 report, OSHA's Discount on Danger: OSHA Should Revise Its Informal Settlement Policies to Maximize the Deterrent Value of Citations.
• Workplace Safety & Criminal Prosecution. Read CPR's March 2016 manual, Preventing Death and Injury on the Job: The Criminal Justice Alternative in State Law.
• New York Times Op-Ed: Read Rena Steinzor's New York Times op-ed on what the Don Blankenship conviction and jail term portends for future worker safety prosecutions, April 7, 2016.
• Prosecution and Workplace Death Op-Eds.  Read Worker Deaths Should Lead to Punishment for Companies, Executives, by Rena Steinzor and Katherine Tracy, May 29, 2016, in The Sacramento Bee, and When a Workplace Tragedy is Also a Crime, by Rena Steinzor and Katherine Tracy, May 31, 2016, in FairWarning.
• Worker Safety Op-Eds. Read two CPR op-eds in Huffington Post: The President's Schizophrenia on the Working Class by Rena Steinzor and Matthew Shudtz, July 1, 2015; and Kill a Worker? You're Not a Criminal. Steal a Worker's Pay? You Are One, by Steinzor, July 20, 2015.
• OSHA and DuPont op-ed. Read Rena Steinzor's op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, With DuPont, OSHA's tough talk falls faint, May 24, 2015. 
• Texas City Refinery Blast Anniversary. Read Rena Steinzor's op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, March 20, 2015, on lessons -- learned and otherwise -- from the BP Texas City oil refinery explosion in 2005.
• Hiding Behind Small Business. Read The Small Business Charade The Chemical Industry’s Stealth Campaign Against Public Health, CPR Issue Alert 1501, by CPR President Rena Steinzor, CPR Executive Director Matthew Shudtz and CPR Senior Policy Analyst James Goodwin, February 2015. Read the executive summary and the day-of-release blog post.
•  Winning Safer Workplaces. Mindful that federal OSHA has been rendered slow to respond and comparatively toothless, CPR Member Scholars collaborated in 2014 on Winning Safer Workplaces: A Manual for State and Local Policy Reform to provide state and local advocates a tool to use to accomplish reforms that address the changing nature of work in the United States.