Workplace safety
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a press conference on Belle Isle in Detroit, on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, announcing the end of COVID restrictions in the state. After facing 15 months of capacity restrictions and being hit by the country’s worst surge of coronavirus infections this spring, restaurants, entertainment businesses and other venues can operate at 100% occupancy starting Tuesday. (David Guralnick/Detroit News via AP)
Michigan ends workplace COVID-19 rules except in health care

By David Eggert Jun. 22, 2021 12:43 PM EDT

FILE - Shown in this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, file photo is State Rep. Ras Smith, D-Waterloo, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Smith, a state representative from eastern Iowa, is the first Iowa politician to announce a run for Iowa governor as Democrats organize in hopes of gaining traction among voters to counter Republican domination of the legislature and governor's office. Smith launched an ad campaign Tuesday June 15, 2021, and set a formal announcement for Tuesday evening. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Waterloo Democrat first to launch campaign for Iowa governor

By David Pitt Jun. 15, 2021 02:30 PM EDT

Expert warns of spread of Delta variant; OSHA cites doctor

Jun. 15, 2021 09:49 AM EDT
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus will pose a serious risk this summer to people who are not fully vaccinated,...

FILE - Shown in this Feb. 8, 2017, file photo, is Iowa Senate Secretary Charlie Smithson at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Smithson threatened retribution against a GOP appointee who oversees workplace safety after inspectors said they would make public their concerns about COVID-19 risks at the Capitol. Notes show Smithson, the secretary of the Senate, criticized Iowa Labor Commissioner Rod Roberts for "not knowing better" and told inspectors at an April 2, 2021, meeting that the issue would be raised at his next conformation hearing. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Iowa Senate official warned of payback over COVID-19 inquiry

By Ryan J. Foley Jun. 11, 2021 01:54 PM EDT

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 16, 2021, file photo, a health care worker watches a rally by New York State Nurses Association nurses from New York Presbyterian and Mount Sinai from an overpass at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York. The Biden administration has exempted most employers from long-awaited rules for protecting workers from the coronavirus, angering labor advocates who have have spent more than a year lobbying for the protections. The Labor Department included only health care workers in its new emergency temporary standard published on Thursday, June 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
New federal COVID-19 safety rules exempt most employers

By Alexandra Olson Jun. 10, 2021 04:04 PM EDT

Cemetery and funeral workers place the coffin of a man who died of COVID-19 into a niche at the Nuestra Señora de Belen cemetery in Fusagasuga, Colombia, Wednesday, June 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
The Latest: Pot-for-shots plan stumbles in Washington state

By The Associated Press Jun. 09, 2021 01:58 AM EDT

Employees of a Smithfield pork processing plant register to vote Thursday, June 3, 2021, on a contract offer from the company at the union's office in Sioux Falls, S.D. The union voted overwhelmingly against it, escalating labor negotiations. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)
Labor negotiations escalate at South Dakota pork plant

By Stephen Groves Jun. 04, 2021 02:50 PM EDT

A worker, at left, tends to a customer at a cosmetics shop amid the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday, May 20, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
California considers timing on easing workers' virus rules

By Don Thompson May. 28, 2021 08:32 PM EDT

FILE - This April 8, 2020, file photo shows the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. The USDA said on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, it will not increase the speed at which pigs are processed into meat at U.S. pork plants rejecting a request from a group representing pork producers to allow processing plants to speed up the production of pigs into meat. A union representing workers claimed that the increased volume endangers workers. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves, File)
USDA rejects request for faster pork slaughterhouse speeds

By David Pitt May. 27, 2021 03:22 PM EDT

FILE - This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter app icon on a mobile phone in Philadelphia. Twitter on Thursday, May 27, 2021 said it is worried about the safety of its staff in India and called for the government to respect freedom of expression, days after Indian police visited its office in New Delhi over its labeling of a tweet by a governing party spokesman as “manipulated media.” (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Twitter urges Indian gov't to respect freedom of expression

By Sheikh Saaliq May. 27, 2021 06:12 AM EDT

FILE - This April 8, 2020, file photo shows the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. A group representing pork producers urged the federal government Tuesday, May 25, 2021, to let them continue an effort to speed up the processing of pigs into bacon and ham despite a union's claim that the increased volume endangers workers. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves, File)
Pork group asks USDA to support faster slaughterhouse speeds

By David Pitt May. 25, 2021 01:17 PM EDT

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at Steelcase in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Monday, May 24, 2021. It was the first day Steelcase is having many of their employees back in the office since the coronavirus pandemic started, thanks to the new MIOSHA rules that changed today, allowing non-essential workers to come back to offices. (Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
Michigan loosens COVID-19 workplace mask, distancing rules

By David Eggert May. 24, 2021 12:10 PM EDT

Workers and customers wear masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic inside a shoe store Thursday, May 20, 2021, in Los Angeles. California regulators will shoot for a mid-June easing of workplace masking and social distancing requirements to conform with a broader state order. They asked to delay a debate Thursday on how quickly they should drop coronavirus safety rules for employees. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
California delays debate on easing virus rules for workers

By Don Thompson May. 20, 2021 04:52 PM EDT

In this Wednesday, May 19, 2021, photograph, Bill Easton, a checker at a Safeway grocery store, is shown in the shopping center in which the store is located in Aurora, Colo. Easton, like many other workers in retail sales jobs, is fully vaccinated but is concerned about risks posed as retailers change their mask-wearing policies for customers. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Nervous workers struggle to adjust to new mask policies

By Alexandra Olson, Joseph Pisani And Anne D'innocenzio May. 20, 2021 10:28 AM EDT

Labor and Industries creates new farmworker safety team

May. 20, 2021 08:11 AM EDT
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington state Department of Labor and Industries is creating a new team aimed at improving farmworker safety. ...

Visitors walk on the pier, Thursday, May 13, 2021, in Santa Monica, Calif. Counties in California are waiting for guidance from the state after the federal government on Thursday said that fully vaccinated people can quit face coverings and social distancing in most situations. California's Department of Public Health did not immediately respond to questions about whether it would adopt new guidance announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
California weighing issues around new CDC masking guidelines

By Haven Daley May. 14, 2021 01:03 AM EDT

In this image for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, a blackboard at Lindy's Seafood Inc. in Woolford, Md., displays prices for crabs, April 21, 2021. The company relies on temporary workers from Mexico hired through the U.S. Department of Labor's H-2B visa program to help process crabs during high season. The government authorized more than 12,000 H-2B workers nationwide in 2019-20 for jobs at seafood plants. (Carmen Molina Acosta/University of Maryland via AP)
COVID-19 protections not offered to migrant seafood workers

By Vanessa Sánchez Pulla, Trisha Ahmed, Brittany Nicole Gaddy, Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi, Carmen Molina Acosta, Sophia Sorensen And Aadit Tambe/The Howard Center For Investigative Journalism May. 12, 2021 12:36 PM EDT

In this image for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, shoppers walk out of a Walmart store in Waldorf, Md., May 7, 2021. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not cited the nation's largest retailer despite employee complaints, illnesses and deaths at Walmart facilities across the country. The company says there is no proof that employees contracted COVID-19 at work. (Brittany N. Gaddy/University of Maryland via AP)
Walmart sales soared, essential workers got scant protection

By Gracie Todd, Molly Castle Work, Natalie Drum, Nick Mcmillan, Kara Newhouse, Jazmyn Gray, Aneurin Canham Clyne, Jack Rasiel, Sahana Jayaraman And Haley Chi-Sing/The Howard Center For Investigative Journalism May. 12, 2021 12:31 PM EDT

Mass. health boards overwhelmed, unready to protect workers

By Shannon Iriarte, Shwetha Surendran And Maggie Mulvihill/The Howard Center For Investigative Journalism May. 12, 2021 12:25 PM EDT
BOSTON (AP) — With federal regulators missing from the field and state leaders scrambling to manage the COVID-19 crisis, Massachusetts’ 351 overtaxed local...

NY to set workplace safety standards for airborne diseases

By Marina Villeneuve May. 12, 2021 11:14 AM EDT
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — State regulators in New York will soon draft rules that will require employers to protect workers from airborne infectious disease. ...