Rick Perry Orders Dallas Cowboys to Mexican Border

Immigration reform Texas Repuublican style. Today's post shared from newyorker.com DALLAS (The Borowitz Report)—In his boldest move yet to address the immigration crisis, on Thursday Texas Governor Rick Perry dispatched the Dallas Cowboys to the United States’ border with Mexico. In a photo opportunity with the Cowboys and several of the team’s cheerleaders, Perry explained the rationale behind his latest decision. “Those who would cross our borders illegally will have to contend with the power and fury of America’s Team,” he said. Critics of the move dismissed it as political theatre, noting that once the Cowboys arrived at the border it was unclear what they would do there. Additionally, there were questions about how effective the Cowboys would be in stopping illegal immigrants, since the team has the worst-ranked defense in the N.F.L.

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The Conflict Between NAFTA and Comp

The need for a consistent and universal public policy concerning the coverage undocumented aliens becomes heightened by this Arizona decision. The commonality of medical treatment costs for injured foreign employees might provide the catalyst for Federal judicial intervention to resolve this issue. Today's post is authored by David Depaolo and shared from http://daviddepaolo.blogspot.com .

It's the long arm of the law.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed into law conservatives applauded that it would open up the forces of economic powers from Mexico that were previously running underground.

Liberals said that NAFTA spelled the end of domestic work for Americans.

Of course, neither of the extreme views became reality.

What did become reality, however, is that Mexican firms sending employees into the United States became subject to the same workers' compensation laws that domestic employers are subject to - a real leveling of the playing field - at least according to a unanimous Arizona Court of Appeals panel opinion.

The court's decision in Porteadores Del Noroeste S.A. v. Industrial Commission of Arizona, No. 1 CA-IC 12-0038 held that the North American Free Trade Agreement did not pre-empt Arizona's workers' compensation statutes and that Porteadores del Noroeste could face liability in Arizona for the additional compensation that one of its workers, Adan Valenzuela, claimed he was due.

Valenzuela worked for Porteadores as a driver,...

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Buying Overseas Clothing, U.S. Flouts Its Own Advice

Interational fashion safety, once a catalyst in the US of beter working conditions, still does not bring to the table the USToday's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

One of the world’s biggest clothing buyers, the United States government spends more than $1.5 billion a year at factories overseas, acquiring everything from the royal blue shirts worn by airport security workers to the olive button-downs required for forest rangers and the camouflage pants sold to troops on military bases. But even though the Obama administration has called on Western buyers to use their purchasing power to push for improved industry working conditions after several workplace disasters over the last 14 months, the American government has done little to adjust its own shopping habits. Labor Department officials say that federal agencies have a “zero tolerance” policy on using overseas plants that break local laws, but American government suppliers in countries including Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan and Vietnam show a pattern of legal violations and harsh working conditions, according to audits and interviews at factories. Among them: padlocked fire exits, buildings at risk of collapse, falsified wage records and repeated hand punctures from sewing needles when workers were pushed to hurry up. In Bangladesh, shirts with Marine Corps logos sold in military stores were made at DK Knitwear, where child laborers made up a third of the work force, according to a 2010 audit that led some vendors to cut ties with the plant. Managers punched workers for missed production quotas, and the plant had...

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Why Are Children Working in American Tobacco Fields?

Child Labor prohibitions are enforced through workers' compensation acts. Unfortunately that is an inefficient enforcement mechanism. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.thenation.com

Young farm workers are falling ill from “green tobacco sickness” while the industry denies it and government lets it happen.   This article was reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute.   The air was heavy and humid on the morning the three Cuello sisters joined their mother in the tobacco fields. The girls were dressed in jeans and long-sleeve shirts, carried burritos wrapped in aluminum foil, and had no idea what they were getting themselves into. “It was our first real job,” says Neftali, the youngest. She was 12 at the time. The middle sister, Kimberly, was 13. Yesenia was 14. Their mother wasn’t happy for the company. After growing up in Mexico, she hadn’t crossed the border so that her kids could become farmworkers. But the girls knew their mom was struggling. She had left her husband and was supporting the family on the minimum wage. If her girls worked in the tobacco fields, it would quadruple the family’s summer earnings. “My mom tends to everybody,” Neftali says. This was a chance to repay that debt. The sisters trudged into dense rows of bright green tobacco plants. Their task was to tear off flowers and remove small shoots from the stalks, a process called “topping and suckering.” They walked the rows, reaching deep into the wet leaves, and before long their clothes were soaked in the early morning dew. None of them knew that the dew represented a...

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Iowa justices: Illegal immigrant entitled to workers' comp

Today's post is shared from desmoinesregister.com . The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that a West Liberty woman, an immigrant from Mexico who stayed in the United States after her visa had expired, is entitled to receive workers compensation benefits for a work-related injury. The case involves Pascuala Jiminez, who came to the United States in 1991 and had a visa for 10 years. She remained after it expired and continued to work. She had lived in West Liberty for 19 years. Jiminez worked for the Chicago-based temporary employment agency Staff Management and was assigned to the Proctor & Gamble plant in Iowa City where she packaged shampoo and prepared boxes and pallets for shipping. In September 2007 she was lifting a pallet and became injured with what doctors later identified as two abdominal hernias. She returned to work and was limited in her ability to lift until she had surgery in November 2007. She returned to work again in December. In mid-January 2008, she was fired. Managers told her it was because she did not have legal authorization to work in the U.S. She sought and won benefits from the Iowa Workers Compensation Commissioner in October 2010. Staff Management appealed to Polk County District Court, which upheld the commissioners decision. The company further appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court. The company argued that a worker living in the country without legal permission should not receive workers compensation benefits because Iowa does not include undocumented workers in its definition of an employee under...

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Stryker Corp. Settles FCPA Case, Pays $13 Million

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from blogs.wsj.com

Stryker Corp. settled a long-running U.S. foreign bribery case, agreeing on Thursday to pay $13.3 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve the allegations — without admitting or denying them. The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based medical device company first disclosed in 2007 that the SEC and the U.S. Justice Department had made inquiries regarding possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars the use of bribes to foreign officials to get or keep business. An SEC investigation found that Stryker’s subsidiaries in Argentina, Greece, Mexico, Poland and Romania made about $2.2 million in illicit payments, describing them in company books as legitimate expenses such as charitable donations, service contracts, travel expenses and commissions. The company made about $7.5 million in profit as a result of the payments, the SEC said. “Stryker’s misconduct involved hundreds of improper payments over a number of years during which the company’s internal controls were fatally flawed,” said Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC’s New York office, in a statement. Joe Cooper, the director of communications for Stryker, said in an email the company has enhanced its company-wide anti-corruption compliance program, and was advised that the Justice Department closed its investigation. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. The SEC issued an administrative order (pdf) against Stryker requiring the company to pay...

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Flavorings and Fragrances: A Newly Engineered Problem in the Workplace

Flavorings and fragrances have ben a perennial problem in the workplace. They have created and contributed to occupational exposures and diseases. Some exposure have led to civil lawsuits, beyond workers' compensation claims. Today's post is shared from nytimes.org

Vanilla, saffron, patchouli. For centuries, spices and flavorings like these have come from exotic plants growing in remote places like the jungles of Mexico or the terraced hillsides of Madagascar. Some were highly prized along ancient trading routes like the Silk Road. Now a powerful form of genetic engineering could revolutionize the production of some of the most sought-after flavors and fragrances. Rather than being extracted from plants, they are being made by genetically modified yeast or other micro-organisms cultured in huge industrial vats. “It’s just like brewing beer, but rather than spit out alcohol, the yeast spits out these products,” said Jay D. Keasling, a co-founder of Amyris, a company based here that is a pioneer in the field. However, while yeast makes alcohol naturally, it would not produce the spices without the extensive genetic rejiggering, which is called synthetic biology. The advent of synthetic biology raises thorny economic and regulatory issues, such as whether such yeast-made ingredients can be called natural and whether developing countries dependent on these crops will be hurt. Supporters say the technique could benefit food and cosmetic companies, and...

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….

Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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