A union organizing campaign has filed a new complaint against an Inland Empire warehousing employer, charging that the grueling lifting conditions at the facility are causing repetitive motion injuries among workers there. The complaint by Warehouse Workers United (WWU) on behalf of two non-union workers comes after a summer of discontent by workers in Southern …
According to preliminary data released by the federal Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 360 Californians died in the workplace in 2011. But the statistics are likely to change by next spring, when the final count is tallied. In 2010, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics initially said 302 Californians were killed on the job, but …
SACRAMENTO – While there was plenty of discussion about items on the Cal/OSH Standards Board’s business agenda on Sept. 20, there was none on the single item at the public hearing: extending protections from the dangers of rotating cranes to the “oilers” and others who work around them. Ever since a 1980s-era Decision After Reconsideration …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) announced that in addition to its investigations at the Chevron Richmond refinery in the wake of the Aug. 6 explosion that severely damaged the facility, it is looking at another Chevron facility and a contractor whose workers also narrowly escaped injury in the incident. DOSH Chief Ellen …
Cal-OSHA Reporter’s Sept. 14 story “Cal/OSHA Inspections Down in 2011 — and Violations Down Even More” (p. 10397) quoted the Department of Industrial Relations as explaining a huge drop in programmed inspections — 36% fewer than in 2010 — as attributable to a “strategic” approach to enforcing the heat illness prevention standard, including a reduction …
A weld failure on a chain hooked to the rams of an excavator caused a load to shift, then strike a rigger who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and died as a result, according to a Cal/OSHA investigation, for which results have just been released. Peter Monti, 45, …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating a Sept. 11 incident in which a worker was apparently killed from inadvertent exposure to ammonia. The worker was employed by Placement Pros and the incident occurred at Gibson Winery in Sanger. According to Patricia Ortiz, public information officer at the Department of Industrial Relations, …
Division of Occupational Safety and Health Chief Ellen Widess is one of the featured presenters at the 2012 Safety Symposium of the Sacramento chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers, Oct. 17 at Woodlake Resort in the capital city. Widess will update attendees on the latest Cal/OSHA developments. Another presenter, J Dale Debber, publisher …