It's not surprising that stricter enforcement of workplace safety and health regulations would reduce workplace deaths. But you wouldn't necessarily expect to see as direct and clear a relationship between the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's budget and the number of deaths on the job. We Party Patriots' Steve Cooper
lays it out:
Of the years researched by the report, 1994 saw the highest fatality numbers with 6,632 victims. That year, OSHA’s budget was around $300 million. As OSHA’s budget grew, the number of victims dropped. There was a slight spike during the Bush Administration in 2006 when workplaces claimed 5,840 victims despite a rise in OSHA budget. From that year on, though, the number of fatalities plummets to 4,547 by 2010, a year in which the OSHA budget was $558 million.
Cooper notes that the recession may have played a role in the drop seen in the final years covered by the infographic—but by then, the relationship is well established. And if deaths are going down, it's likely that injuries and work-related illnesses are also declining.
Just a little something to remember when Republicans are wailing about job-killing regulations: lack of regulations is people-killing.
(Continue reading below the fold.)
A fair day's wage
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Read Jeff MacGregor's full piece.
- The Chicago Teachers Union's president has been authorized to give 10 days notice for a strike, though she has not yet done so and says no decision has been made. School will start on time on Sept. 4, though teachers could still strike after the beginning of the school year.
- Vision Pro became the second New York City Cablevision contractor to unionize, with 55 technicians joining the Communications Workers of America on a 43 to 3 vote.
- Find a Labor in the Pulpit/on the Bimah/in the Minbar event.
- College professors making $10,000 a year? Welcome to the wonderful world of adjuncting.
- First Lady Michelle Obama announced that 125,000 veterans and military spouses have been hired or trained by the more than 2,000 businesses that are part of her Joining Forces initiative.
- The union workers who make Twinkies and other Hostess products have been presented with management's "last, best, and final" offer, and it sucks. But that's private equity for you.
- Georgia unions and small businesses are finding common ground in a campaign to bring jobs home.
- We should know more than this about a major sector of the economy:
Who are freelancers and contingent workers? The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics has not done an official study since 2005, when it estimated that they were 10 to 15 percent of the U.S. workforce. If their income is reported on a 1099 tax form instead of on a W-2 form with deductions, its monthly payroll surveys won’t count them as having jobs. Its household surveys will count them as employed, but don’t ask about their job arrangements.
- If your employer is ignoring evidence that your job will lead to traumatic brain injury, by definition there's no way you're getting a fair day's wage. And speaking of football, members of the Atlanta Falcons are participating in a voter registration event with the Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council on Wednesday.
- After the Castlewood Country Club locked out its workers, jpmassar writes, "Still No Health Care. Still No Job. But 907 Days Later, One Vindicating Court Decision."
- More unemployment stories collected by Gawker's Hamilton Nolan.
- Laundry workers on Long Island join a union after a year of organizing.
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