Low-Wage Workers Finding It’s Easier to Fall Into Poverty, and Harder to Get Out

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — At 7 in the morning, they are already lined up — poultry plant workers, housekeepers, discount store clerks — to ask for help paying their heating bills or feeding their families.

And once Metropolitan Ministries opens at 8 a.m., these workers fill the charity’s 40 chairs, with a bawling infant adding to the commotion. From pockets and handbags they pull out utility bills or rent statements and hand them over to caseworkers, who often write checks — $80, $110, $150 — to patch over gaps in meeting this month’s expenses or filling the gas tank to get to work.

McDonald's Accused of Stealing Wages From Already Underpaid Workers

Wage are the basic factor upon which to calculate rates for workers' compensation purposes.
Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

Fast food workers make very little money. How little money? Very little money! So little in fact that a single parent of one living in New York City would have to work 144 hours a week "to make a secure yet modest living." But apparently, those wages are not low enough, a group of McDonald's workers allege, to stop the company from also stealing from them. Wage-theft suits brought against McDonald's this week in Michigan, California, and New York accuse the chain of refusing to pay overtime, ordering people to work off the clock, and straight up erasing hours from timecards. If these allegations are true, and maybe they're not, but maybe they are, then the company has been illegally screwing people who are already being legally screwed. This is the most recent development in a months-long campaign by fast-food workers pushing for a $15/hour starting wage. You shouldn't eat fast food because fast food is bad for you but if you do eat fast food (and you will eat fast food at least once in a while because nobody can be perfect all the time), be nice to the people who serve you. They have to fight tooth and nail to make ends meet. Could you make it on fast food wages? Here's a depressing calculator. (Spoiler: Probably not!)

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Honda Recalling Almost 900,000 Vehicles Due to Defective Fuel Pump

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration posted the following notice concerning Honda's recall of vehicle. Transportation accidents are a significant cause of work related accidents and deaths in the US.

On March 6, 2014 Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (HMC) determined that a potential defect relating to motor vehicle safety exists in the fuel pump of certain 2005-2010 model year Honda Odyssey automobiles, and is providing notification to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in accordance with 49 CFR Part 573 Defect and Noncompliance Reports.

573.6(c)(1)
Name of manufacturer:
Manufacturer's agent:
573.6(c)(2)
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama (HMA)
Jay Joseph

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (AHM)
1919 Torrance Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90501-2746
Identification of potentially affected vehicles
See attached VIN list.

Description of the basis for the determination of the recall population:
The recall population was determined based on manufacturing records. The VIN range reflects all possible vehicles that could potentially experience the problem.
573.6(c)(2)(iv)

Identification of affected component:
Component: Fuel Pump Module
Country of Origin: United States
Manufacturer: DENSO International America Inc.

Contact Name Bridgette Larose
Address: 24777 DENSO Drive
Southfield, Ml48086-5047
Telephone: 248-372-8266

573.6(c)(3)
Total number of potentially affected vehicles: 886,815

573.6(c)(4)
Percentage of affected vehicles that contain the defect: Unknown

573.6(c)(5)
Defect description:
Prolonged exposure to acidic chemicals and a high temperature environment may cause the cover of the fuel pump strainer to deteriorate prematurely in a manner that can result in cracks in the material. Cracks in the cover of the fuel pump strainer could lead to a fuel mell being present or to leaking fuel, increasing the risk of fire.

573.6(c)(6)

Chronology:

October 1, 2012

October 25, 2012

February 19, 2013

July 30, 2013

August 7, 2013

September 23, 2013

October 9, 2013

October 16, 2013

March 6, 2014

AHM recognized a high demand of Odyssey fuel pump

replacement parts.

HMA started analyzing fuel pumps returned from the market.

The initial investigation done by the supplier showed that the

cracks in the material were the result of acid.

Honda R&D North America Ohio (HRAO) and HMA investigated

the potential for acid to come from chemicals found in car washes.

Honda R&D Tochigi in Japan (HGT) began to study the acid

attack as well as the crack propagation as possible contributing

factors based on preliminary failed part analysis.

HGT started a preliminary test of acid combined with crack

propagation.

HGT found that low PH materials are used in fertilizer and dust

control agents, a possible source of acidic compounds that gather

on the fuel pump strainer cover.

HGT hypothesized that a combination of acid and crack

propagation could be a cause for the cracks and started

confirmation testing.

HMC determined that a safety defect exists and decided to

conduct a recall.




As of March 6, 2014 Honda has received 187 warranty claims for this issue.

There have not been any fires or injuries reported. Ms. Nancy Lewis




573.6(c)(8)(i)

Program for remedying the defect:

Due to the large volume of new parts needed to repair affected vehicles, the necessary

parts will not be available until the summer of 2014. As a result, owners will be informed

of the potential existence of the defect in an initial notification letter. A second notification

letter will be sent to inform owners when parts become available.

Customers currently experiencing a leak from the fuel pump will be provided with a

replacement cover from existing original parts. All vehicles, including those receiving an

interim repair, will require replacement once updated parts become available.




573.6(c)(8)(ii)

The estimated date to e-mail preliminary notification to dealers:

The estimated date to provide service bulletin to dealers:

The estimated date to begin sending notifications to owners:

The estimated date of completion of the notification:




573.6(c)(9)

March 12, 2014

March 13, 2014

April 21, 2014

May 9, 2014

Representative copies of all notices, bulletins and other communications:

A copy of the dealer service bulletin, the final customer notification letter and other dealer

communication will be submitted to your office as soon as possible.




573.6(c)(10)

Proposed owner notification letter submission:

A draft of the owner notification letter will be submitted to your office as soon as possible.




573.6(c)(11)

Manufacturer's campaign number:

JD9-Inspection and/or preliminary parts replacement

JEO- Final parts replacement

Differences in Care at For-Profit Hospices

Today's post was shared by The New Old Age and comes from newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com

People who pay attention to hospice care, so often a godsend for the dying and their families, have noticed and wondered about two trends in recent years:

1) What began as a grass-roots movement to improve end-of-life care is becoming a business. In 1990, only 5 percent of hospices were for-profit operations; by last year, they dominated the industry, representing 63 percent of hospices. 2) We’ve also seen that hospice patients are increasingly likely to be “disenrolled” before they die. Once, this was a rare event; the greater problem was that patients waited until the eleventh hour to enroll, subjecting themselves and their families to unnecessary stress and suffering.

Contractor That Evaluated Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Keystone XL Report Had Ties to TransCanada

Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

This story originally appeared in Huffington Post and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The contractor that evaluated greenhouse gas emissions for the State Department's Keystone XL report is the latest company to come under fire for its ties to TransCanada, the prospective builder of the controversial pipeline. A conflict-of-interest statement from the consulting firm ICF International, submitted to the State Department in 2012, reveals that the company had done other work for TransCanada. ICF International analyzed greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands oil, the kind that would flow through the pipeline, for the State Department's supplemental draft environmental impact statement, released in March 2013. Its website states that the firm was hired to compare life-cycle emissions associated with oil derived from Canada's tar sands to those associated with oil from conventional crude. The final environmental impact statement (FEIS), released in January 2014, also includes ICF International on its list of preparers, with ICF staffers working on the greenhouse gas and market analysis portions of the report. The FEIS concludes that the projected 830,000 barrels of oil that would flow through the pipeline every day would add between 147 million and 168 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere annually. But it also says that the pipeline would be "unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands, or...

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2 Workers Injured By Sulfuric Acid At Tesoro Refinery Near Martinez

Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

PACHECO (KCBS)— Two people working at the Tesoro Golden Eagle refinery near Martinez were injured on Monday morning after they were exposed to sulfuric acid, according to county officials. The incident happened just before 11 a.m. when two contractors were splashed with the acid. The workers were decontaminated on site according to the Contra Costa Fire Department. Fire Inspector Steve Aubert said one worker was “saturated” and taken to John Muir Medical Center with injuries, while the other worker, who only received “minor contact” was able to walk away on his own accord. Two workers were injured at the same refinery on February 12 after they were burned by sulfuric acid. Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Specialist Maria Duazo said this incident wasn’t as serious as last month’s and that both workers were wearing full protective gear when it happened. “They were transported to UC Davis the first time, which is a more upgraded level of treatment,” she said. Tesoro initially blocked federal officials from investigating that incident. The county’s hazmat department has launched an investigation. “One of the things we want to find out is what was the cause of the incident, how can we prevent the incident, document review on if it was process related or not,” Duazo said. Tesoro representatives sent KCBS an email that stated, “The cause of the incident is under investigation and is believed to be...

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What I Learned About The ACA

Today’s post is authored by David Depaolo and appears on his blog daviddepaolo.com. As usual David hits “the nail on the head” with his objective analysis of the potential impact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have upon the entire workers’ compensation system. There are certain trends that Dr. Gruber has identified, that in synergy with the ACA, have the potential of causing a dynamic shift in workers’ compensation insurance. As political and social adjustments are made to the ACA those uncertainties will certainly resolve. One of the big draws for me at the Workers' Compensation Research Institute's annual meeting this year was to hear from one of the architects and authors of the Affordable Care Act, Dr. who is a professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I just needed to learn. The ACA is so complex, so huge, so broad in its scope, that anyone who is not completely versed in the health care system (the vast majority of us) would have absolutely no understanding of the law, how it plays out, who it really affects, what is to come of various provisions, etc. In fact, I am willing to bet that virtually all lawmakers, including our president himself, have little to no true understanding of the law. Dr. Gruber is a health economics expert - meaning he has spent virtually all of his professional life studying health care systems and the economic underpinnings of health care. It is...

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