Solis signs foreign workers’ rights agreements, conservative media decries ‘protection of illegal workers’

On Monday, U.S. Department of Labor Sec. Hilda Solis, together with the ambassadors of Costa Rica, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, signed agreements guaranteeing the labor rights of workers from those countries residing within the United States. The ambassadors of Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, countries which already have More…

In Mich. Cleanup, a Missed Opportunity for Local Workers and Abuse of Undocumented Ones

In July, a 30-inch oil pipeline burst in Battle Creek, Mich., near a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. The cracked pipe leaked an estimated million gallons of oil into the water, and at the time, Enbridge Energy, the Canadian company that owns the pipe, promised a complete cleanup and rigorous More…

Investigation Reveals Undocumented Workers, Unsafe Conditions in Mich. Oil Spill Cleanup

An investigation by the Michigan Messenger, TWI’s sister publication, has found possible labor-law abuses and definite safety concerns in the cleanup of a major oil spill in the Kalamazoo River in south-central Michigan. After the Messenger story went online, the company contracting for the cleanup job fired More…

Democratic Stimulus Bill Includes $650 Million for TV Converter Coupons

Last week, the House Democrats unveiled their version of the $825 billion economic stimulus package.

The proposed bill provides billions of dollars for roads, schools, global warming research, information technology upgrades, food stamps, and unemployment insurance. However, it also allocates more than half a billion dollars for digital-to More…

The Midnight De-Regulation Express

It’s something of a tradition– administrations using their final weeks in power to ram through a slew of federal regulations. With the election grabbing the headlines, outgoing federal bureaucrats quietly propose and finalize rules that can affect the health and safety of millions.

The Bush administration has followed this tradition More…

Report: Federal Agencies of Two Minds on Freedom of Speech

Federal agencies have inconsistent media policies when it comes to allowing scientists to share information with journalists, concludes a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit group issued a “report card” grading 15 federal agencies on their communication policies. Some agencies, it found,  “stifle communication” even More…