Articles by Jordan Barab

I’m not sure that was their intention, but what could make hiring undocumented workers more attractive than passing a law that “prohibits undocumented workers from receiving payments if injured on the job?”

Sometimes, when you’re reading about the tragedies in the Weekly Toll, there are a few that you think, “Well, that’s too bad, but what are you going to do….?” Like this one in this week’s Weekly Toll:

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Ali Khan, a 38-year-old United cab driver was shot and killed while on duty early Friday morning, according to information acquired by the New Orleans Advocate. The incident occurred just before 7:30 a.m. near the intersection of Lake Forest Boulevard and Michoud Boulevard, close to Interstate 10.

Earlier this week I reviewed a New York Times article on conflicts of interest among Trump political appointees that highlighted a new Labor Department Special Assistant, Geoffrey Burr. Burr is a former lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, and his federal disclosure form notes that he lobbied DOL against the silica standard and the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulation that would have required federal contractors to disclose federal labor law violations.

This is not generally how a good company wants a supervisor to respond to a worker who reports unsafe conditions: “Next time you have a problem with safety, talk to me. Then get in your car and hit the f***ing road.” Then you write him up, don’t renew his contract — and, for good measure, fire his son for “talking on the job.”

Another depressing installment of the Weekly Toll. Note that there are 39 fatalities listed here, going back, more or less, for about a week. There are an average of 13 workers killed every day on the job in the United States, which means the list below only covers about one-quarter of the workers actually killed on the job over the last week.