The Biden administration on Inauguration Day wasted no time in naming former United Steelworkers safety official Jim Frederick as acting chief of OSHA, part of a team of interim leaders at the Labor Department who will help jump start the new administration’s labor and employment agenda.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) congratulated Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, reported to be President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to become the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
It was around 4:30 in the afternoon on March 25, 1911. Several hundred workers, mostly young women, were nearing the end of their Saturday shift at a blouse or “shirtwaist” factory in New York City. No one is quite sure how, but a massive fire erupted and spread quickly.
The on-demand or “gig” economy gets a lot of buzz. And for good reason: It’s an exciting, tech-driven, entrepreneurial development that has tapped into significant consumer demand. It offers new ways for people to monetize their existing assets − their car, their extra bedroom − and earn a living.
In May 2015, a crew in Bonita Springs, Florida, was installing roofing on a single-family home. The weather was cloudy with rain off and on, and the crew worked between rain showers. At around 3 in the afternoon, the four employees completed the installation and were leaving the roof when a bolt of lightning struck a 36-year-old roofer in the head.
Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez got a taste of the coal miner’s life on Dec. 1, when he descended 1,000 feet below the earth’s surface for an underground tour of a Cumberland Coal Resources LP mine in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
