Highly pathogenic avian flu, H5N1 Bird Flu, has infected a worker in Texas, only the 2nd known human infection in the U.S. since the pandemic began, in 2022.
This directly follows an outbreak of H5N1 in Texas dairy cattle that has already spread to other states. Already, billions of birds have died in this pandemic, both domestic chickens & turkeys, as well as wild birds. It has not yet mutated into a form that is transmissible from human to human. However, gaining the ability to transmit between mammals, particularly farm animals, could be a step in that evolutionary direction. And its case fatality rate may be as high as 50%
Today in Labor History March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed 146 people, mostly immigrant women and young girls who were working in sweatshop conditions. As tragic as this fire was for poor, working class women, over 100 workers died on the job each day in the U.S. in 1911. What was most significant was that this tragedy became a flash point for worker safety and public awareness of sweatshop conditions.
The Triangle workers had to work from 7:00 am until 8:00 pm, seven days a week. The work was almost non-stop. They got one break per day (30 minutes for lunch). For this they earned only $6.00 per week. In some cases, they had to provide their own needles and thread. Furthermore, the bosses locked the women inside the building to minimize time lost to bathroom breaks.
A year prior to the fire, 20,000 garment workers walked off the job at 500 clothing factories in New York to protest the deplorable working conditions. They demanded a 20% raise, 52-hour work week and overtime pay. Over 70 smaller companies conceded to the union’s demands within the first 48 hours of the strike. However, the bosses at Triangle formed an employers’ association with the owners of the other large factories. Soon after, strike leaders were arrested. Some were fined. Others were sent to labor camps. They also used armed thugs to beat up and intimidate strikers. By the end of the month, almost all of the smaller factories had conceded to the union. By February, 1910, the strike was finally settled.
Florida is now set to join Texas is banning mandatory water and rest breaks for people who work outside in the summer heat. It's like Republicans just want people to get sick and even die.
Today in Labor History February 15, 1910: The ILGWU declared the Uprising of Twenty Thousand shirtwaist strike officially over. The garment workers strike began September 27, 1909, in response to abysmal wages and safety conditions. The majority of striking workers were immigrant women, mostly Yiddish-speaking Jews (75%) and Italians (10%), and mostly under the age of 20. Five women died in the strike, which the union won, signing contracts with 339 manufacturing firms. However, 13 firms, including Triangle Shirtwaist Company, never settled. One of the demands had been for adequate fire escapes and for open doors to the streets for emergencies. In 1911, 146 girls and women were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.
Thousands of frontline workers may have died unnecessarily from covid due to federal governments failure to provide PPE according to New study. Majority were low wage, black. Hispanic or immigrant workers
Today in Labor History January 22, 1890: The Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America. Their initial goals were improved mine safety, independence from company stores, and collective bargaining. In 1898, they won the 8-hour day. By the 1930s, the UMW had over 800,000 members. However, their history was filled with bloody strikes. On April 3, 1891, deputized members of the National Guard killed at least 10 striking UMW members in the Morewood massacre. The cops killed 19 striking UMW members in the Lattimer Massacre, September 10, 1897. Eight UMW members and five private detectives died in the Battle of Virden, in October 1898.
Today in Labor History January 5, 1933: Construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay. Eleven men died from falls during the construction. Ten of these deaths were completely avoidable. They occurred on February 17, 1937, when the safety net failed after a scaffold had fallen. Nineteen other workers were saved by the net. They became members of the Half Way to Hell Club.
Today in Labor History December 29, 1970: President Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law. Ever since, successive administrations have whittled away at the efficacy of this agency, which was designed to protect workers. Nevertheless, a study in 2012, published in the journal “Science,” found a 9.4% reduction in workplace injuries and a 26% reduction in the cost of workplace injuries since 1970. They also found that these reductions came at no additional cost to business or consumers. A 2020 study by the “American Economic Review” found that President Obama’s press releases that named and shamed companies that were violating OSHA had the same effect on improving compliance by other companies as having 210 inspections.
In 2022, there were 5,486 fatal workplace injuries in the U.S., a 5.7 % increase from 2021, a rate of 3.7 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.
Today in Labor History December 6, 1917: A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia, killed over 1,900 people, in the largest and deadliest such disaster to date. 9,000 were injured. The SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship laden with explosives, collided with the Norwegian ship SS Imo. A fire set off the explosives. Nearly all structures within a half-mile radius, including the town of Richmond, were obliterated. The pressure wave snapped trees, bent iron rails and demolished buildings. It created a local tsunami that destroyed the Mont Blanc and grounded the Imo. The tsunami wiped out the Mi’kmaq First Nation community across the harbor.
This photograph was purportedly taken 15-20 seconds after the explosion. The National Library and Archives Canada description estimates the distance from the explosion as approximately 2 kilometres (one and a quarter miles) and that it was taken at Bedford Basin, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, looking south down Halifax Harbour. Photographer: unknown. The height of the blast at its peak was measured at approximately 12,000 feet.
Today in Labor History November 13, 1974: Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union activist Karen Silkwood was assassinated during her investigation of a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant in Oklahoma. Her car was run off the road while she attempted to deliver documents to a New York Times reporter.
Today in Labor History November 13, 1909: The Cherry Coal Mine Disaster in Illinois resulted in the deaths of 259 men and boys. Nearly 200 men and boys made it to safety. Another 21 survived 8 days underground, drinking water from the seams to stay alive and eventually made it back alive, although one of them later died from complications. John Bundy made 6 successful trips back down into the mine to rescue comrades. On the 7th trip down, he, too, died.
Today in Labor History October 14, 1913: The Senghenydd colliery disaster occurred in the United Kingdom, killing 439 miners. It was the country’s worst mining disaster ever. In May 1901, three underground explosions occurred at the same colliery, killing 81 miners. The cause of the 1913 explosion is unknown. 60 victims were younger than 20. 8 were only 14 years old. 542 children lost their fathers in the disaster and 205 women were widowed. The disaster is portrayed in two works of historical fiction: Alexander Cordell's “This Sweet and Bitter Earth” (1977) and “Cwmwl dros y Cwm” (2013) by Gareth F. Williams.
When people talk about "back during the pandemic," they clearly aren't paying attention to facts like London's Gatwick Airport canceling flights this week because 30% of their air traffic controllers were out sick with Covid.
Amazon 'flex' drivers risk their lives to deliver your packages: Amazon Flex is a program where independent contractors can go pick up delivery routes and make extra money. A report found that 5 Flex drivers had been shot in 4 separate incidents since 2022, raising questions about their safety. They may be independent, but their lives shouldn't be as risk.
Today in Labor History September 2, 1991: 25 workers were killed by a fire at the nonunion Imperial Foods poultry processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. Bosses had locked the doors in violation of the law, leaving the workers no escape.
For the Jacksonville Shooter, Dollar General Was an Easy Target
Dollar General workers have long raised the alarm about their vulnerability to violence due to understaffing and lack of security. They were tragically proven correct in Jacksonville when a white man murdered three black people at a Dollar General.