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Showing 489 results

David Driesen | June 2, 2016

Airlines’ Bait-and-Switch Scheduling

During the last few years, airlines have increased their reliance on “bait-and-switch” scheduling. They induce travelers to choose their airline based on advertised routes and schedules. They know that especially good routes are valuable and generally charge more for a good route than a bad one. Long after travelers have taken the bait, often paying […]

Matthew Freeman | June 1, 2016

Op-Ed: Prosecuting Safety Violations that Lead to Worker Deaths

CPR’s Rena Steinzor and Katherine Tracy had an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee over the weekend highlighting the reluctance of police and prosecutors to treat worker deaths as if they were anything but mere accidents. In fact, they’re often the result of illegal cost-cutting and safety shortcuts by employers, behavior that sometimes warrants criminal charges. They write: When a worker dies […]

Katie Tracy | May 25, 2016

GAO Confirms Dangerous Working Conditions across Poultry Industry

This morning, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report finding that hazardous working conditions across the meat and poultry industry put workers at risk of on-the-job injuries and illnesses. While injury and illness rates reportedly declined in the decade from 2004 to 2013, GAO emphasizes that the decrease might not be because of […]

Katie Tracy | May 19, 2016

The Silica Standard: A Case Study of Inequality in Worker Health and Safety Standards

Back in March, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) finalized its long-awaited silica standard, requiring employers to reduce workers’ exposure to the toxic, cancer-causing dust so common to construction and fracking sites, among other workplaces. OSHA estimates that the new standard will prevent more than 600 deaths and 900 new cases of silicosis annually. […]

Mollie Rosenzweig | May 12, 2016

Feds Open Criminal Investigation of Dole Listeria Outbreak

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently launched a criminal investigation of Dole Food Company, continuing a trend of criminal enforcement against those responsible for deadly food safety lapses. The investigation stems from a Listeria outbreak in bagged salad that sickened 33 people, four of whom died.  Between September 2015 and January 2016, 33 people […]

Katie Tracy | May 11, 2016

New Oxfam Report: Poultry Industry Denies Worker Requests for Bathroom Breaks

Can you imagine working for a boss who refuses you the dignity of taking a bathroom break? According to a revealing new report published today by Oxfam America, denial of bathroom breaks is a very real practice at poultry plants across the country, and line workers at these plants often “wait inordinately long times (an […]

Matt Shudtz | April 28, 2016

Reflections on Workers’ Memorial Day

Today, a lot of numbers will be thrown around – the staggering number of workers who died gruesome deaths on the job last year, the paltry fines that employers responsible for those deaths paid, the months and years we’ve waited for Congress to revisit the Occupational Safety and Health Act to make it more relevant […]

Mollie Rosenzweig | April 22, 2016

Genetically Modified Mushroom Moves Forward with No Oversight

Just as we predicted back in December, foods created with CRISPR technology (short for clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats) are entering the food supply beyond the reach of federal regulators. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would not regulate white button mushrooms that scientists altered to stop them from browning. […]

Brian Gumm | April 8, 2016

Steinzor in The New York Times: Judgment Day for Reckless Executives

On April 6, U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger sentenced former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship to one year in jail and a $250,000 fine for conspiring to violate federal health and safety standards at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. The mine exploded and killed 29 miners in April 2010.  In an […]