Nearly 50 years ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job. Unions and our allies have fought hard to make that promise a reality—winning protections that have made jobs safer and saved lives.
What do U.S. voters want?
A new poll commissioned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing – a labor and Steelworkers ally – has a succinct answer: Four-fifths want U.S.-made rebuilding of our subways, roads and bridges. Nine percent don’t.
The majority Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee will push two key pro-worker safety bills this year, but the exact timetable is uncertain.
In an informal conversation after the first congressional briefing in years on worker health and safety, a top committee aide on the issue said he expects the legislation will hit the floor this summer.
It’s called, in political parlance, “a cattle call.” The phrase refers to what happens when presidential hopefuls parade their positions, one by one, before a group, large or small.
And that’s what nine Democrats – John Hickenlooper, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Tim Ryan, Terry McAuliffe, Michael Bennet, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Eric Swalwell, in that order – did before 3,000 construction workers at the April 10 session of North America’s Building Trades Unions’ legislative conference in D.C.
Going where even organized labor has not openly marched for decades, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., has again formally proposed banning state “right-to-work” laws.
Some 3,000 Sacramento teachers were forced into a 1-day strike on April 11 over lousy school conditions, and the district’s labor law-breaking.
And, unlike the wave of forced teacher strikes around the country that started just over a year ago in West Virginia, in this case, the two go hand-in-hand.
