(Department of Labor)
Politico:
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on Wednesday slammed labor policy in Texas—which has been overseen by Gov. Rick Perry for the past decade—by saying "there is a lot of need" to better the plight of workers in the state.
Politico sees it as a slam, but Solis' comments were not all that harsh:
"I have spent some time out in Texas, and there are some great concerns that I have with respect to worker protection," she told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "We’re called upon by many advocates, stakeholder groups in the construction industry because there are a large number of fatalities among construction workers in Texas."
The Labor Secretary said her criticisms of Texas "aren’t directed towards any individual."
According to the report Construction Emergency, issued by Build a Better Texas, Texas is the only state that does not require employers to offer workers' compensation, even in dangerous industries like construction: "One in five construction workers is injured on the job; yet only 45% of workers have workers' compensation," and every 2.5 days a Texas construction worker dies on the job. The AFL-CIO's Death on the Job report (PDF) notes that Texas has just one OSHA inspector for every 96,664 workers.
Saying that you have "great concerns with respect to worker protection" given those facts should hardly be controversial. But like the fact that, Rick Perry's claims about Texas job creation notwithstanding, the unemployment rate in Texas is not so great and job creation has mostly come in the form of minimum wage jobs and government jobs, coverage of the Texas miracle mirage hasn't tended to focus on these major safety issues.