workers rights

Less than 11 months after receiving $8.7 billion in tax incentives from the Washington state legislature, Boeing has announced they will transfer nearly 2,000 engineering jobs to “lower cost regions” over the next three years.

Like dominos, New Jersey cities are one after the other passing sick day ordinances that would allow all workers to accrue paid time off for illnesses. The 3-5 days a year are a pittance compared to what's available in Europe, but at least it's a start.

New York and Illinois have done a fantastic job of curbing the practice known as "employee misclassification" – where shady businesses use a loophole to call workers independent contractors and get out of paying taxes (and giving benefits or a living wage to the workers).

The Association of Builders and Contractors (a lobbying group for business OWNERS, not actually the CONSTRUCTION WORKERS themselves) is contemplating a legal suit against President Obama's executive order forbidding chronic workplace regulation violators from obtaining federal contracts.

The National Labor Relations Board acts to protect fast food workers rights in a major labor ruling against McDonald's.

After three strikes and countless hours of dialogue with executives, Target's janitors have been given unprecedented rights in a new Responsible Contractor Policy.

A new report from Public Citizen shows that New York lost $10.9 billion between 2010 and 2012 due to occupational injuries. An even more alarming figure is OSHA’s budget for fiscal year 2012: $583 million, or $4 for each U.S. worker. Underfunding saddles OSHA with a nearly impossible task. There are 115 inspectors assigned to New York’s 592,148 workplaces.

California could become one of the first states in the nation to hold companies legally responsible for wage and safety violations by their subcontractors and temp agencies if a bill proposed Friday becomes law. The bill tackles the longstanding complaint of labor leaders that companies can often shirk responsibility for the abuse of workers by hiring them through agencies or contracting with smaller firms.

In what amounts to the largest wage violation settlement in the Department of Labor's history, sports bar chain Chickie's and Pete's will shell out $8.5 million to their shorted employees. The sports bar failed to pay overtime and out-and-out stole tips from the servers.

President Obama signed an executive order that, while a bit symbolic since it only reaches a few federal workers, lifts the minimum wage to $10.10 for all federal projects. Those projects, however, generally came with better wages already. Millions more are waiting on congress to act for the rest of the nation.