1st Edition

Worker Safety Under Siege Labor, Capital, and the Politics of Workplace Safety in a Deregulated World

By Vernon Mogensen Copyright 2006
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    This eye-opening book shows how the rights of workers to safe and healthful workplaces are under greater attack today than at any time since the passage of the landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. This collection is organized around three thematic issues that pose significant challenges to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's ability to protect workers' safety and health. First, the economy has shifted from an industrial base to a white collar/service base, which includes more women workers than ever before - yet many of the safety and health problems that affect women are not being adequately addressed. Second, free market ideology and globalization have served to undermine worker safety and health laws. And finally, the effects of 9/11 have exacerbated the trend toward weakening workers' rights and safety standards in the name of national security.

    List of Tables and Figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction, Vernon Mogensen; Part 1. Free Market Ideology and the Evisceration of Workers's Safety Rights; 1. Acts of God, Acts of Man: The Invisibility of Workplace Death, Jordan Barab; 2. Criminal Neglect: How Dangerous Employers Stay Safe from Prosecution, Rory O'Neill; 3. Regulating Risk at Work: Is Expert Paternalism the Answer to Workers Irrationality? Peter Dorman; Part 2. Old and New Challenges to Occupational Safety and Health in the United States; 4. Silicosis and the Ongoing Struggle to Protect Workers's Health, Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner; 5. How Safe are U.S. Workplaces for Spanish-Speaking Workers? Laura H. Rhodes; 6. Got Air? The Campaign to Improve Indoor Air Quality at the City University of New York, Joan Greenbaum and David Kotelchuck; 7. State or Society? The Rise and Repeal of OSHA's Ergonomics Standard, Vernon Mogensen; Part 3. The Impact of Neoliberalism on Workers's Safety Rights Abroad: Selected Case Studies; 8. The Ten-Percenters: Gender, Nationality, and Occupational Health in Canada, Penney Kome; 9. All That's Solid Melts into Air: Worker Participation in Ontario, 1970-2000, Robert Storey and Eric Tucker; 10. The Sinking of the Neoliberal P-36 Platform in Brazil, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira and Nadia Haiama-Neurohr; 11. Health and Safety at Work in Russia and Hungary, Michael Haynes and Rumy Husan; Contributors; Index.

    Biography

    Vernon Mogensen