Quote of the day
"There's a danger that in the eyes of the majority of people we might be seen as too expensive. If you have an extremely low-paid strata, you can't believe they'll say, 'You should have another two sick days when I don't have any.' We have to find ways to elevate their status."
Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council
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New York Labor Official Issues ‘Wake-Up Call’
Ed Ott, the executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, warns New York’s more than one million union members that their wages and living standards will be threatened unless the city’s unions do far more to lift the incomes and living standards of the city’s nonunion working poor. In his view, many struggling workers are treated as independent contractors who lack basic protections including overtime pay and workers’ compensation. By Steven Greenhouse, New York Times [with photo] [may require registration] Go to the Full Story…
Editorial: Respectable Start in Garden State
New Jersey lawmakers have made a respectable start on reforming New Jersey’s ailing workers’ compensation system. The overhauls are part of a broad workers’ comp overhaul package that forms the most far-reaching changes to the system in decades. Newark Star-Ledger
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House Panel: Majority of Workplace Deaths, Illnesses Unreported
A House Committee on Education and Labor report finds that two-thirds of work-related illnesses and injuries may be going unreported. Businesses with fewer injuries and illnesses are less likely to be inspected by Fed-OSHA, according to the report, allowing employers to benefit through lower workers’ compensation insurance premiums and a better chance of winning government contracts and bonuses. By AP via Las Vegas Review-Journal
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Beaver State Records Third-Lowest Workplace Death Toll
Thirty-five people died on the job in 2007 in Oregon, the third-lowest number of workplace deaths in the state’s history. The Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services compiled the fatality statistics from what Oregon workers’ compensation insurers paid for death claim benefits during the calendar year. East Oregonian
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Newspaper Tries to Force WCB to Identify Dangerous Employers
Canadian newspaper Chronicle Herald appeals to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to force the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia to release a list of workplaces with the highest numbers of accidents and injuries. It’s the latest move in a dispute that has been going on since the newspaper first asked the WCB in February 2007 to identify the 25 companies that reported the most accidents in 2004, 2005 and 2006. By Kelly Shiers, Chronicle Herald (Halifax)
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Contenders for N.C. Labor Chief Bring Different Resumes to the Ballot
In North Carolina, two Democrats compete in a runoff election to decide who will run in the fall against Cherie Berry, the Republican incumbent who has been labor commissioner for the past eight years. The job of North Carolina’s commissioner of labor may not be glamorous or well-known, but it’s extremely important. By James Romoser, Winston-Salem Journal
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