The Obama transition team announced in late December the President-elect’s intention to form a “White House Task Force on Working Families,” to be chaired by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, effective January 20, 2009, according to a transition team press release.
John Engler, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), issued the following statement in response to President-elect Obama’s announcement of Congresswoman Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary-designate:
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health issued the following press statement on the nomination of Congresswoman Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor:
In December, officials of the American Society of Safety Engineers met with the Obama transition team to offer suggestions for the Department of Labor and OSHA. Here are some of the priorities ASSE would like to see the new administration address, according to an ASSE press release:
Each week EPA posts a question related to the environment on its website. This week’s question was quite timely.
One of the “gifts of the season” we usually overlook is the amount of STUFF we have left over - food scraps, dead batteries, old fir trees, and more, says EPA. How will you handle holiday waste?
The number of companies implementing cost-cutting measures, including layoffs, hiring and salary freezes and smaller pay raises, has risen sharply in just two months, according to a new survey by Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) released a new poll in December that shows 48 percent of organizations laid-off employees in 2008. Six of ten firms surveyed organizations said they expect to lay off employees in the next 12 months, according to a SHRM press release.
OSHA has cited ConocoPhillips Co. for safety and health violations, proposing $116,500 in penalties, according to a December 23 agency news release. The Trainer, Pa. petroleum refinery has 425 employees.
The California Governmental Affairs Committee (CGAC) of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Designate Rep. Hilda Solis requesting the incoming administration appoint Dr. John Howard, MD, JD, as Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, according to an ASSE press release.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is continuing to recruit new chemical incident investigators to work in Denver, Colorado, in an effort to establish the agency’s first regional office outside of Washington, DC, according to an agency press release.