TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION
Health & Safety Weekly News
December 17, 2009
American Airline mechanics lobby Congress: TWU officials say unsupervised
offshore airline maintenance facilities may pose safety risks
/ Tulsa World
U.S. airline mechanics, including representatives from American Airlines' Tulsa
Maintenance & Engineering Center, are lobbying Congress this week regarding the
threat posed by unsupervised foreign maintenance of U.S. commercial aircraft.
Read More
Mikulski criticizes Metro for lapses in safety oversight
/ Washington Post
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski criticized senior managers at Metro on Thursday for
what she described as a series of lapses in safety oversight and accountability
that she said has national ramifications.
Read More
RMT: Rail Cuts Cost Lives
/ RMT
RMT members will be leafleting the public explaining that the threatened jobs
cull on the tracks will compromise safety the length and breadth of the country
and take us back to exactly the kind of shambolic maintenance conditions that
led to the disasters at Paddington, Hatfield, Potters Bar and Grayrigg.
Read More
Labor Department says focus is on worker safety, fair wages
/ AFL-CIO
New rules to improve workplace safety, monitor employer compliance, track
ergonomics injuries, bring union-busting consultants out of the shadows and
ensure fair wages and overtime pay top the U.S. Department of Labor’s regulatory
agenda.
Read More
Task force calls for tougher penalties after 210 workplace fatalities in five
years
/ Trib.com
Insufficient penalties and Wyoming’s proud culture of independence and toughness
are major reasons the state has the highest workplace fatality rate in the
nation, members of a state task force told legislators Tuesday.
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Wyoming task force calls for tougher OSHA penalties
/ COSH Network
Wyoming, a state not exactly known for advocacy of strong government
intervention in business, is getting religion on worker safety. Its Worker
Fatality Prevention Task Force recently recommended higher OSHA fines to create
a stronger deterrent to unsafe conditions in the workplace. The task force
formed after a spate of fatalities left Wyoming with the nation's highest worker
fatality rate, over four times the national average.
Read More
Black lung on rise in mines, reversing trend
/ The Wall Street Journal
Rates of black-lung disease are growing, most notably among younger miners,
reversing decades of progress and prompting more federal scrutiny and calls to
lower exposure to coal dust.
Read More
One black coffee, no asbestos
/ Science Blogs
There's a lot to like about Canada (their health care system, for starters) but
there are some things that are less than praiseworthy (I understate), and
towards the top of that list would have to be a hundred years of peddling, with
government support, protection and outright lying, a product that brought the
world one of the 20th century's greatest public health catastrophes: asbestos.
Read More
Workers’ rights message taking hold in Copenhagen
/ AFL-CIO
Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and
co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, sends us this report from the second
day at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 40 U.S. union
members are part of a 400-member global union movement delegation led by
the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Read More
Ontario passes workplace violence legislation
/ Canadian HRReporter
Pandemic Flu
GAO report - Influenza Pandemic: Monitoring and Assessing the Status of the
National Pandemic Implementation Plan Needs Improvement
The previous administration's Homeland Security Council (HSC) issued the
Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza (Plan) in
May 2006 to help address a pandemic. The Government Accountability Office (GAO)
was asked to (1) determine how the HSC and responsible federal agencies monitor
the progress and completion of the Plan's action items; and (2) assess the
extent to which selected action items have been completed.
To oversee agencies' progress in implementing the Plan's action items, the HSC,
which is supported by the White House National Security Staff in this
administration, convenes regular interagency meetings, asks agencies for
summaries of progress; and leads the interagency process that monitors the
progress of the Plan.
According to the report, the Plan is predicated on a type of pandemic different
in severity and origin than the current H1N1 pandemic, but it is serving as the
foundation for the response to the outbreak, supplemented by an additional plan
tailored specifically to the characteristics of the H1N1 pandemic. Nevertheless,
the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza and Plan will still be needed for
future events as most of the action items in the Plan were to be completed by
May 2009.
As recommended in earlier GAO work, but not yet implemented, the Plan should be
updated to take into account certain missing elements and lessons learned from
the H1N1 pandemic; the update should also address the monitoring and assessment
improvements GAO identified in this report.
Click
here to download the report.
800,000 H1N1 vaccine doses for young children recalled; safety not a concern
/ CNN
Read More
The H1N1 Pandemic: Is a second wave possible?
/ Time Magazine
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CDC sharply raises H1N1 case estimates; kids hit hard
/ Cidrap
Read More
Swine flu update: 1 in 6 have had it, 10,000 have died
/ USA Today
Read More
Swine flu death toll at 10,000 since April
/ The New York Times
Read More
Alarming mental problems seen in SARS survivors
/ Reuters
Read More
Health and Safety Task Force
Ed Watt Mark Johnson
Michael Massoni Michael Conigliaro
Bobby Romaine