Want more proof what side most Republican lawmakers stand on when it comes to workplace safety? When it comes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) budget, they seem to be saying that it’s more important to let employers voluntarily police themselves and enforce workplace safety standards than it is to give workers protection when they blow the whistle on unsafe practices.

Housekeepers at Hyatt Hotels shined a spotlight on what they say are unsafe and demeaning working conditions when they held rallies outside Hyatt properties—including this "Dirty Laundry Fashion Show" in Hawaii—as part of International Women’s Day observances. The video is fun.

While the Obama administration has worked closely with unions and other job safety advocates to overcome the eight years of neglect and inaction by the Bush administration on vital workplace safety issues, the AFL-CIO Executive Council says, “There still is much work to be done.” At its annual winter meeting in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., the council also condemned New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) Tier-6 pension proposal.

Housekeepers at Hyatt Hotels will shine a spotlight tomorrow on what they say are unsafe and demeaning working conditions when they rally outside several Hyatt properties as part of International Women’s Day observances.

The United Steelworkers (USW) and the oil industry have reached a tentative three-year agreement covering 30,000 USW members at 168 production, refining, marketing, transportation, pipeline and petrochemical facilities nationwide, the union announced last night. The deal is subject to ratification by the membership.

When you’re working outside you certainly know when it’s hot. But do you know when it’s so hot that you need to start taking precautions to prevent heat related illnesses? Thousands of workers become ill from heat-related illnesses every year and in 2010, 30 workers died from heat stroke.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited 182 workplaces—two-thirds of them construction firms—in its year-old severe violator enforcement program (SVEP), according to BNA’s Daily Labor Report (DLR—subscription required).

How many times have we heard from big corporations and their political allies—usually well-financed by corporate campaign contributions—that the latest workplace safety, environmental or consumer protection regulation will kill jobs, ruin the economy and lead to the end of civilization as we know it?

In Michigan yesterday, workers not only honored those killed and injured on the job as part of  Workers Memorial Day ceremonies at the state Capitol in Lansing, they warned that plans to dismantle the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) and repeal the state’s workplace safety law would put workers at risk.

Today, in hundreds of ceremonies across the country, working families are honoring workers who died or were injured on the job in the past year. In a Workers Memorial Day proclamation, President Obama says the nation must:

recommit to keeping all workers safe and healthy [and] make sure the full force of the law is brought to bear in cases where workers are put in harm’s way.