The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health — Cal/OSHA — leads a schizophrenic existence. On one hand, the agency is considered by many to be the “premier state plan” among the 21 states with state OSHAs. On the other hand, it's been too starved of resources over the past decade to be able to rush to the rescue of the state’s 17 million workers.
China is now finalizing a new “Labor Contract Law” to protect workers in the global economy’s “biggest factory floor,” but the proposal is hitting a wall of opposition from transnational corporations who are threatening to move their operations to other parts of Asia.