#worker protections

[twitterexile]

Pauline Hanson's voting record in Parliament

Yes to: Decreasing availability of welfare payments

Yes to: Live animal export

Yes to: Political intervention in research funding grants

Yes to: Reducing taxes for high-income earners

Yes to: Putting welfare payments onto cashless debit cards

Yes to: Unconventional gas mining

No to: A Royal Commission into Violence and Abuse against People with a Disability 

No to: Increasing access to the JobKeeper Payment No to: Increasing funding for university education

No to: Increasing marine conservation

No to: Increasing political transparency

No to: Increasing protection of Australia's fresh water

No to: Increasing the Newstart Allowance rate

No to: Increasing the Youth Allowance rate

No to: Increasing workplace protections

No to: Protecting threatened forest and bushland habitats

No to: Increasing housing affordability

No to: Increasing restrictions on gambling

No to: Making TAFE education fee-free

No to: The federal government calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

No to: Increasing the diversity of media ownership

No to: Increasing protection of Aboriginal heritage sites

No to: increasing access to subsidised childcare

No to: Decreasing the gender pay gap

No to: A Royal Commission into Robodebt

What has Pauline voted for that will help ordinary Aussies?

Is it just the racism people relate to?

Let's not forget she conspired with the NRA to weaken our gun laws!

She went from almost bankrupt to multi-millionaire.

She's a grifter who hardly ever attends parliament.

[iww-gnv]

The World’s Workers Are Donning Cooling Vests to Battle Record Heat Waves

Garments that can be packed with ice or equipped with fans are becoming increasingly popular among workers exposed to high heat.

It’s not the disease-carrying mosquitoes, the scorpions, or the 22-kilogram tanks full of pesticide strapped to his back that Wendell Van Pelt fears. It’s the heat. This summer, while spraying insect-killing chemicals in the gardens of the rich in Greater Scottsdale, Arizona, Van Pelt has endured temperatures well in excess of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Stepping past velvety green lawns and lagoon-like pools on his rounds, the field training manager at Mosquito Squad, a pest control service, has at times felt like he's “living in an oven.” But Van Pelt has had respite from the scorching conditions: a cloak of cooling power wrapped around his torso—a vest filled with ice. “I love it,” he says, describing how his backpack filled with pesticide or natural repellent seems to amplify the effect: “That backpack is almost pressing the cold into your back. It just feels fantastic.” Van Pelt knows that heat stress can be very dangerous. Everyone should be mindful of the risks, he emphasizes. And due to climate change and multiple recent heat waves, awareness of those risks is growing around the world. Millions of workers who toil outside, or in indoor spaces where temperatures can climb to unbearable levels, are increasingly adopting special strategies to cope. Cooling garments—vests, hats, and scarves—are among them.

[Read the rest]

[workersolidarity]

🇦🇺 🧑‍🔧✊ 🚨 AUSTRALIA BECOMES THE FIRST NATION IN THE WORLD TO BAN ENGINEERED STONE DUE TO HEALTH RISKS TO WORKERS

Australia became the first nation in the world to ban engineered stone due to the health risks to workers, local media reported on Wednesday, with the ban due to take effect in July, 2024.

Australia made the decision during a meeting of the Commonwealth, State and territory workplace ministers. The move was made in response to a surge in the lung disease, Silicosis.

Australia's Assistant Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Liam O'Brien, is quoted as saying, "Engineered stone is a fashion product that is killing the workers who make it."

"With alternatives readily available, why are we risking the lives of tradies for a fashionable finish in our kitchens?" O'Brien added.

Engineered stone has been used in Australia since the mid-2000's, with the first cases linked to engineered stone arising in 2015, with hundreds of cases having since developed.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[progressivemillennial]

Worthwhile listen from Pitchfork Economics. Also written about here.

[filosofablogger]

A Chilling Plan In The Works

Presumably, every president in this nation has at some point chafed at certain limitations to his power, constraints on his ability to pursue his agenda, but to date none have gone so far as to dictatorially remove those constraints.  If the people of the United States throw caution to the wind in November 2024 and foolishly elect a former president who attempted to overturn the 2020 election,…

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[magdolenelives]

(via)

[tomorrowusa]

Under Trump, American exceptionalism means poverty, misery and death | Robert Reich

No other advanced nation denies healthcare and work protections, or loosens lockdown while fatalities mount

Nowadays ‘American exceptionalism’ means exceptionally incompetent leadership. ‘America First’ means that we are first in deaths and infections from COVID-19.

Robert Reich headed the Department of Labor from 1993 to 1997. He writes:

We now know Donald Trump and his administration were told by public health experts in mid-January that immediate action was required to stop the spread of Covid-19. But according to Dr Anthony Fauci, "there was a lot of pushback". Trump didn’t act until 16 March.

Epidemiologists estimate 90% of the deaths in the US from the first wave of Covid-19 might have been prevented had social distancing policies been put into effect two weeks earlier, on 2 March.

In the seven weeks between the date of the first reported infection in the US on January 22nd and the declaration of a state of emergency in mid-March, Donald Trump would describe the growing pandemic as a “hoax”, “fake news”, and a “plot”. More rational and science-based decision making could have prevented a major disaster.

[tomorrowusa]

Despite his promise to help working-class Americans, the President has quietly eliminated workplace safety rules for everyday workers -- dismantling the foundation of worker protections in favor of lifting the fortunes of businesses that may find these regulations burdensome. During the government shutdown in 2019, for example, the administration got rid of a 2016 rule that required employers to provide the Department of Labor with reports about workplace injuries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the lowest number of inspectors in its decadeslong history, and enforcement efforts have declined, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Julian Zelizer, political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. From CNN. 

It’s not enough to say this once and think everybody got the message. If you have something important to say, you need to repeat it over and over again until people are hearing it in their dreams.

Trump has been terrible for most working families. It’s true that many of them just don’t care because they see eye to eye with The Chosen One on matters related to race. But for those who prioritize economic issues, Trump’s destructive labor policies need to be pointed out repeatedly with examples given of their bad effects.