Posts Tagged ‘labor’

Labor Day Roundup: Here’s to the Workers

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

As a belated tribute to Labor Day, we offer a smorgasbord of items about work, worker safety, and some of our favorite tributes to workers.
Celebrating the American Worker
America at Work – Alan Taylor compiles superlative photo essays for The Atlantic’s In Focus series. This collection of images from the recent Recession and its years of uncertainty — of men and women both at work and out of work in the United States.
Earl Dotter, Photojournalist – A remarkable portfolio of work documenting American workers. In the author’s words:
“For more than thirty five years the camera had enabled me to do meaningful work. Starting with Appalachian coal miners, and continuing through the years over a broad array of occupations in all regions of the country, I have observed and documented the working lives of Americans. Standing behind the lens, I have celebrated their accomplishments. I seek out those who are taking steps to improve their lives and their effectiveness at work, and use the camera to engage them by giving testimony to their achievements. The images that result tell of the satisfactions their work brings as well as its everyday challenges.”
Lost Labor – For more than 20 years, visual artist Raymon Elozua has been assembling a vast collection of company histories, pamphlets, and technical brochures that document America’s industrial history. This site features 155 photos from that collection – images of factories, machinery, and laborers hard at work. Many of the jobs depicted have faded into history. The artist grew up in the South Side of Chicago in the shadow of the giant steel mills and factories. His dad worked at U.S. Steel and his first job was at U.S. Steel, triggering a life long interest in everything about these industrial behemoths, from the architecture to the people who worked the jobs within. His interest in documenting this bygone era of American working life was sparked by the demise of the South Works industries.
Worker Safety
Hard Labor – The Center for Public Integrity says: “Each year, some 4,500 American workers die on the job and 50,000 perish from occupational diseases. Millions more are hurt and sickened at workplaces, and many others are cheated of wages and abused. In the coming months the Center for Public Integrity will publish, under the banner Hard Labor, stories exploring threats to workers — and the corporate and regulatory factors that endanger them.”
In particular, we point you to two recent stories:
Fishing deaths mount, but government slow to cast safety net for deadliest industry
Kentucky death case: Another black eye for state workplace safety enforcement
The Best Reporting on Worker Safety – ProPublica compiled “12 pieces of great reporting on workplace safety: from slaughterhouse diseases to lax regulatory oversight and deadly vats of chocolate.”
Workers in Popular Culture

From our archives

Friday sing-along: Songs for the Working Man & Woman

Friday, September 9th, 2011

For Labor Day Weekend, Peter Rotheberg took “a stab at the impossible task of naming the best songs ever written about working people.” He compiled a noteworthy list of the Top Ten Labor Day Songs – a great list with more than a passing nod to some of the labor classics. (Thanks to Jeffrey Hirsch
at the Workplace Prof Blog for pointing us to the enjoyable post).
Here’s a few more workings songs we like:

Are events in Wisconsin part of a union busting initiative?

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Later this month, we will mark the 100 year anniversary of New York’s horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, an event that claimed the lives of 146 garment workers – young girls and women – who had been locked in the sweatshop to prevent theft. Most died in stairwells, jumping down the single elevator shaft, or by hurtling themselves from 9th story windows in desperate attempts to escape the fire. PBS recently ran a special on this disaster. (If you missed it, you can watch online: Triangle Fire). My colleague Jon Coppelman has also written about the fire in his post The Original “No Exit”.
This fire was a watershed event that galvanized the nation. It occurred in an era where there were no regulations or labor protections. Workers often worked 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. There were no child labor laws or safety mandates. Ironically, the day before the Triangle Fire, New York courts had struck down the state’s first compulsory workers compensation law as unconstitutional.
This tragedy, along with some of the horrific mine disasters that resulted in wholesale loss of life, were catalysts which led to the enactment of various worker protections – including statutory workers’ compensation.
Meanwhile, today in Wisconsin …
We think this bit of history is an important backdrop to what’s going on in Wisconsin today.
Wisconsin has the distinction of being the first state in the union to have enacted a workers’ compensation law that survived legal challenge in May of 1911. In fact, the state of Wisconsin has a long, storied and sometimes bloody history of being on the front lines for worker rights. Workers and labor unions were in the forefront of the fight for the 8-hour day and the 40-hour work week. In 1932, Wisconsin was the first state to enact unemployment compensation.
To any who know this history, it comes as no surprise that, once again, Wisconsin is on the front lines in the battle for labor’s future.
It’s the budget, stupid – or is it?
The ostensible issue, according to Governor Walker, is that the state of Wisconsin is broke and a large part of the problem lies with overly generous benefit packages of public workers – teachers, prison guards and the like – which are said to be crippling the state. He called on unions to do their part and to make a sacrifice for the greater good.
All that might be well and good. The unions have indicated their willingness to take a financial haircut. But the part of Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill that is going over somewhat less well is a call for the elimination of collective bargaining — and therein lies the rub.
With a Republican majority in Wisconsin’s House and Senate, the bill was all but a given until the Democratic senate contingent fled the state to prevent a vote. Since that time, there have been massive protests over three weeks and the so-called Fab 14 remain holed up in un-named Illinois’ hotels. And there has been no shortage of drama in this story: an embarrassing and revelatory 20-minute prank call to Governor Walker from an impersonator of corporate financier David Koch; and a sheriff’s refusal to play the role of “palace guard”, among other things.
Part of national union busting agenda?
Critics of Walker’s Budget Repair Bill say that the issue is not about budget balancing or overly generous benefits, but an ideological push to eliminate or curtail public unions – in a phrase, union busting. Opponents say that this is a corporate-funded campaign to eliminate public unions in Wisconsin and other states, and to privatize many institutions that are currently staffed by public workers. No less a staunch Republican than former Congressman and now host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Joe Scarborough, has publicly called Governor Walker’s actions, “Un-American.”
In Wisconsin, suspicions are high because Koch enterprises funded a large part of Walkers gubernatorial campaign. The fact that the budget bill contains a provision authorizing Walker to conduct no-bid sales of some state properties also heightens suspicion. Many are troubled by his plans for privatization of some public services. In his prior role as Milwaukee County Executive, Walker also used budget emergency as a justification for privatizing security guards, a move that proved less than successful.
Other states have also embarked on this path: Ohio may be making more headway in curtailing unions. In Indiana, Democratic legislators have followed Wisconsin’s lead and left the state to postpone a vote. In Rhode Island, nearly 2000 teachers have been dismissed. Other states may be contemplating similar measures, although some may be a bit shy of action given the shifting public sentiment, which favors retention of collective bargaining and has given Walker a black eye – to a point where voters say they would not elect him again if they had a do-over. (see Wisconsin Public Research, Rasmussen, USA Today/Gallup, Public Policy Polling and various other polls. )
It’s uncertain what will happen in the next chapters, but we will be watching. It is clear this is another watershed point in labor history, a public policy fork in the road, perhaps the beginning of the end of the movement that was propelled into mainstream America by that terrible fire 100 years ago. While polling indicates that sentiment is currently on the side of the teachers in this dispute, the future of public unions is under serious threat. Is the role of unions obsolete? Has the public dialogue achieved an equilibrium between the rights of workers and those of management?
At Lynch Ryan, we have great respect for unions, which have historically played a critical check-and-balance role in labor-management power dynamics. They have also been in the forefront of the fight for worker safety and other worker protections. We also admire and respect many employers we have been privileged to work for who are perceptive and wise enough to manage their companies so well that unions are not needed. We’d like to say that all employers are this enlightened and do not need union checks and balances to do the right thing, but unfortunately our experience tells us that this is not always the case.

Cavalcade of Risk & workers comp news briefs

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

It’s Cavalcade of Risk week and issue #122 is hosted by our friend David Williams at Health Business Blog – check it out!
Industry pulse – Good news. Robert Hartwig of the Insurance Information Institute takes the pulse of the property casualty industry and sees signs of life: Insurance Industry On The Mend. “Mr. Hartwig said in comparison to all of 2009, the industry’s 2010 third-quarter results are close to all of the prior years. While the industry is not back to where it was prior to the economic downturn in 2007 when it reported property and casualty net income of $62.5 billion, it is performing significantly better than the worst of the downturn in 2008 when p&c income came in at slightly more than $3 billion.”
That’s good news, but it’s not time to break out the champagne yet. A.M. Best forecasts downward rating pressure for the commercial market and two new reports indicate that reinsurance prices should remain soft in 2011.
Physician dispensed drugs – If you are an employer or an insurer and this topic isn’t yet on your radar, it needs to be. Joe Paduda posts about recent NCCI report on physician-dispensed drugs in workers comp, a significant growth area that NCCI says is putting upward pressure on WC costs. California took steps to regulate the practice a few years ago after learning that repackaged costs were two to twelve times higher than the fee schedule.
Labor – The New York Times reports that cash-strapped states are looking to curb labor unions. Expect a flurry of legislative initiatives to limit the power of labor unions representing government employees. While both parties are wrestling with ways to keep state budgets in line, the article notes:
“But in some cases — mostly in states with Republican governors and Republican statehouse majorities — officials are seeking more far-reaching, structural changes that would weaken the bargaining power and political influence of unions, including private sector ones.”
Prevention works – A concerted campaign to reduce textile service worker injuries is working, according to the recently released annual TRSA Textile Services Industry Safety Report. Recordable injuries and illnesses dropped by 17 percent from 2008 to the 2009, and have dropped by 50% since 2005. Sandy Smith reports on SafeTRSA, an industry-wide safety initiative to improve worker safety through awareness, education and training.
Breast cancer & comp – At Comp Time, Roberto Ceniceros discusses City of Las Vegas v. Lawson. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that a firefighter is entitled to a presumption that her breast cancer arose from her on-the-job exposure to benzene. His post also discusses male breast cancer.
Dramatic Australia flood footage – Office workers catch footage of a modest creek turning into a raging torrent sweeping cars away. More news and dramatic videos of the cataclysmic Australian flooding is available on MSNBC. At least 16 people are reported dead and more than 90 missing in what has been likened to an inland tsunami. Brisbane is under siege. You can follow breaking news on Twitter at #Brisbane.

Mother Jones: from County Cork to the Coal Mines

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Mother_Jones
“I’m not a humanitarian. I’m a hell-raiser”
Top of the morning to you this St. Patrick’s Day! We thought that the day might be a fitting time to commemorate the life of an Irish immigrant who was hailed as “the the grandmother of all agitators,” the “Miners’ Angel,” “labor’s Joan of Arc,” and “The Most Dangerous Woman in America.”
Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones, was an Irish immigrant who emerged as one of the most famous women in America. Today, her life is largely relegated to the dustbins of history – rather unfair, given her colorful life and the importance that she had to the labor movement. Born in County Cork, she and her family emigrated to Canada and then to the U.S. to escape the potato famine. She worked as a teacher and a seamstress and gave birth to four children. After losing her husband and children to yellow fever in 1867 and becoming dispossessed in 1871 by the great Chicago fire, she became a labor educator, organizer and tireless crusader for basic worker rights, for stopping the work exploitation of children, and for mine workers. She was also one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), aka “the Wobblies.” There’s some dispute as to the date of her birth (she said 1830, others say 1837), but she lived to the age of either 93 or 100, an activist to the end of her days.
Biographer Dale Fetherling says of her:

” [she] was born . . . less than 50 years after the end of the American Revolution. Yet, she died on the eve of the New Deal. She was alive when Andrew Jackson was president, and she sometimes quoted from speeches she heard Lincoln make. As an adult she knew the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I. She rode in automobiles, and she saw the railroads link the oceans. She saw and was seen in films and came to know the everyday use of the telephone, the electric light, and the radio. She watched unions grow from secret groups of hunted men to what she feared was a complacent part of the established order…. It may have been a good time to live in America. But it also was a time in which one needed to fight very hard to survive. That she did.”

As an activist, she was highly effective – particularly in an era in which women’s voices were often muted. She was effective at harnessing the status of women in her organizing efforts:

“Mother Jones was notable for attracting publicity and attention from the government for the cause of workers. One of her best-known activities was leading a march of miners’ wives “who routed strikebreakers with brooms and mops in the Pennsylvania coalfields in 1902.” Another was leading the “children’s crusade,” a caravan of striking children from the textile mills of Kensington, Pennsylvania, to President Theodore Roosevelt’s home in Long Island, New York, in 1903, to dramatize the case for abolishing child labor.”

Biographer Elliott J. Gorn notes:

“Her fame began when, toward the end of the nineteenth century, she transformed herself from Mary Jones into Mother Jones. Her new persona was a complex one, infused with overtones of Christian martyrdom and with the suffering of Mother Mary. Perhaps it is best to think of Mother Jones as a character performed by Mary Jones. She exaggerated her age, wore old-fashioned black dresses, and alluded often to her impending demise. By 1900, she had stopped referring to herself as Mary altogether and signed all of her letters “Mother.” Soon laborers, union officials, even Presidents of the United States addressed her that way, and they became her “boys.”

The persona of Mother Jones freed Mary Jones. Most American women in the early twentieth century were expected to lead quiet, homebound lives for their families; few women found their way onto the public stage. Ironically, by making herself into the symbolic mother of the downtrodden, Mary Jones was able to go where she pleased and speak out on any issue that moved her. She defied social conventions and shattered the limits that confined her by embracing the very role that restricted most women.”

Canny as she was in creating her own highly effective persona, she eschewed any pretense to gentility: “No matter what the fight, don’t be ladylike! God almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies.”
We can’t really do the woman full justice in this post – here’s a list of resources that are well worth exploring to learn more about the inimitable Mother Jones:

Cavalcade of Risk and an assortment of workers’ comp news briefs

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

It’s Cavalcade of Risk day – visit the bi-weekly roundup of posts about risk, graciously hosted this week at Wenchy’s Place – check out this week’s edition and wish the hostess a happy birthday while there.
In other workers’ comp-related news:
Medical costs and WC – Joe Paduda explains why you should expect work comp medical costs to be heading up over at Managed Care Matters. He points to one of the primary problems: “Misaligned incentives for work comp managed care programs, and payers’ increased reliance on managed care program revenue and profits.”
Moving violationsU.S. bans truckers, bus drivers from texting. The National Safety Council estimates that at least 1.6 million crashes are caused each year by drivers using cell phones and texting. The NSC has called for a total ban all cell phone use and texting while driving. Here’s a good site to bookmark since cell phone and texting laws have been changing frequently in response to safety reports: State cell phone and texting while driving laws. It’s maintained by the Governors Highway Safety Association.
More on marijuana – Should pot provided as a work comp medical benefit? Roberto Ceniceros talks about a California
marijuana ruling
at Comp Time. Meanwhile, the CA Supreme Court nixed limits on medical marijuana and the Los Angeles City Council voted to close hundreds of dispensaries that have sprung up.
Global risk – Before you open that branch office in Somalia, you may want to take a look at Emily Holbrook’s posting on Risk Monitor: the most hazardous countries for business.
P/C Forecast – What’s in store for the property-casualty industry in 2010? Ernst & Young offer a 2010 U.S. industry outlook. (PDF)
Comp Case Law Over at LexisNexis WC Law Blog, Larson’s Case Law Developments offers their picks for The Top 10 Workers’ Compensation Cases of 2009.
Union censusWorkplace Prof Blog reports on a Department of Labor report which shows that the union density rate was essentially unchanged in 2009 – 12.3% vs 12.4% in 2008. Among private sector employees, the rate dropped to 7.2% from the 2008 rate of 7.6%. Also of note from the report: “The data also show the median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary union members were $908 per week, compared to $710 for workers not represented by unions. Union members earn 28 percent more than their non-union counterparts.”
Quickies

Cavalcade of Risk, dereriorating market, breast cancer, labor unions, and more

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Cavalcade of Risk #87 is brought to you from the land down under – Andrew of Australia’s OzRisk is this week’s host – check it out!
Deterioration in Work Comp market – In his blog Comp Time, Roberto Ceniceros discusses a grim recent A.M. Best report pointing to deteriorating conditions in the workers comp industry. “According to Best’s composite, consisting of 103 insurers, net premiums written plunged 30% from a high of $20.9 billion in 2004. Insurers also experienced underwriting losses of $1.2 billion in 2007 and $1.5 billion in 2008. Best expects challenging conditions for insurers to continue well into 2010.” Ceniceros also cites other recent reports and economic indicators in his post. Related: Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters offers his thoughts on the workers comp industry’s fading fortunes. He notes a few positives in the offing: some brokers and agents are expecting the pricing war to taper off, investment returns look to be recovering somewhat, and health reform might relieve cost-shifting.
NIOSH – HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced that John Howard, M.D. has been named new Director of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Dr. Howard served as NIOSH director from 2002 through 2008. He also served as coordinator of HHS’ World Trade Center Health Programs from 2006 to 2008. Laura Walter of EHS Today talks about the ASSE and AIHA favorable reaction to Howard’s reappointment.
Night shift work linked to breast cancer – The BBC reports that the Danish government has begun paying compensation to women who have developed breast cancer after long spells working nights. Authorities acted in response to a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the UN’s World Health Organisation. The IARC, which studies and ranks cancer risks, ranks night shift work just below asbestos as a probable cause of cancer. This ranking was based on various studies and reports linking cancer to night shift work hours, including a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute which showed a 36% greater risk of breast cancer for women who had worked night shifts for more than 30 years, compared with women who had never worked nights.
Labor unions and the economy – In response to a recent Gallup poll on labor unions showing support at an all time low, Paul Secunda of Workplace Prog Blog and some of his readers offer thoughts on why a rise in unemployment correlates negatively with support for unions.
Health & Safety Briefs

Celebrating American workers

Tuesday, May 8th, 2007

U.S. Steel - female workersThe website for National Archives is a national treasure. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the Government agency that preserves and maintains important historical materials and makes them available for research or public access. Many records have been digitized and the site has an extensive array of exhibits that range from the educational to the entertaining.
One that we chanced on recently that may be of some interest to readers of this blog is The Way We Worked. This is an extensive exhibit, primarily photographic, that offers a glimpse of American workplaces spanning the mid 19th to the late 20th centuries. The exhibit graphically depicts how the nature of the work that we do has changed and offers this commentary:

… In 1870 only a handful of factories employed over 500 workers. By 1900, 1,063 factories employed between 500 and 1,000 people. During the first half of the 20th century, many African American women worked as domestics in private homes, but during World War II, they took advantage of new opportunities at shipyards and factories.
By the end of the 20th century, a dramatic shift took place, sending individuals who had worked in factories, plants, and mills into jobs in offices, stores, and restaurants.

The site has exhibits on what people wore to work and what tools they used. Also, in a section about “conflict at work” there are photos focusing on labor issues. The section that attracted our attention is a compilation of photos on dangerous or unhealthful work. Each of the photos are captioned and offer interesting commentary. The photo of the women that we’ve used in this post depicts workers at U.S. Steel’s Gary, Indiana Works, taken sometime between 1941 and 1945. The caption refers to the workers as “top women” and states that, “Their job is to clean up at regular intervals around the tops of twelve blast furnaces. As a safety precaution, the girls wear oxygen masks while they are doing the clean-up job.”
The photos are also available for purchase in book form and can be viewed at the following locations in a traveling exhibit:

  • Morrow, GA., March 10 – May 20, 2007
    –National Archives and Records Administration – Southeast Regional Archives

  • Kansas City, MO. , June 9 – August 19, 2007
    –Kansas City Public Library

  • Ocala, FL., September 8 – December 18, 2007
    –Central Florida Community College

Lost Labor: Images of Vanished American Workers 1900-1980

Tuesday, June 8th, 2004

For more than 20 years, visual artist Raymon Elozua has been assembling a vast collection of company histories, pamphlets, and technical brochures that document America’s industrial history. This site features 155 photos from that collection – images of factories, machinery, and laborers hard at work. Many of the jobs depicted have faded into history.

The artist grew up in the South Side of Chicago in the shadow of the giant steel mills and factories. His dad worked at U.S. Steel and his first job was at U.S. Steel, triggering a life long interest in everything about these industrial behemoths, from the architecture to the people who worked the jobs within. His interest in documenting this bygone era of American working life was sparked by the demise of the South Works industries.

“I began looking for pictures of men and woman at work, individuals who were living the American dream of creating a future for themselves, their family and their country, no matter the effort or hardship.”

This fascinating site is the result of Elozua’s 20-year quest. It’s a wonderful piece of history and a tribute to the labor of our parents’ and grandparents’ generations. It made me think of my own Dad who spent many years as a busdriver after a few grueling years working in a mill while we were kids. He’d be happy if he were around to see how much easier his kids have life today. Thanks, Dad!

May is labor history month

Sunday, May 23rd, 2004

To commemorate labor history month, take a tour of Labor Arts, a virtual museum that gathers, identifies, and displays historic images of working people and their organizations. The site states that its mission is “to present powerful images that help us understand the past and present lives of working people.”

Some of the many fascinating exhibits and collections include:

Thanks to rawblogXport for pointing us to this great site.