Labor

“If you wanted to have that safety equipment, the worker had to buy it himself.” - Hector Hernandez on Safety in Construction

Michael King of the Austin Chronicle has a great article on worker safety in the state of Texas. It begins with a recap of the death of three construction workers in Austin on the eve of a press conference held outside City Hall in which the Workers Defense Project released statistics on worker safety in the Lone Star State.  Read More »

The United States was founded in 1776 and at that time only white, male, property owners had the right to exercise their political influence via voting in an election. Women would not be granted that right until 1920. President Obama signed into law an equal-pay for equal work bill into law. This would end years of mostly gender discrimination in the labor industry that saw females underpaid compared to their male counterparts.

Phillip Elliott of the Associated Press reports that, “Obama, choosing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as the first bill to sign as president, called it a "wonderful day" and declared that ending pay disparities between men and woman an issue not just for women, but for all workers.”  Read More »