 |
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| Syllabus |
|
||||
| Resources |
|
||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
Discrimination | ||||
|
|
Discrimination at the Workplace | ||||
|
|
Evaluation Criteria in the Workplace | ||||
|
|
Gender Bias in the Workplace | ||||
|
|
Gender & Workplace | ||||
|
|
Comparable Worth | ||||
|
|
Sexual Harassment | ||||
|
|
Race under Global Capitalism | ||||
|
|
Race & the Workplace | ||||
|
|
Affirmative Action | ||||
|
|
Affirmative Action Backlash | ||||
|
|
Economic Indicators | ||||
|
|
Unemployment | ||||
|
|
Layoffs | ||||
|
|
Unemployment Compensation | ||||
|
|
Legislation on Unemployment | ||||
|
|
Toxic Substances, Hazardous Material, & Hazards at Work | ||||
|
|
Safety at Work | ||||
|
|
Environmental Degradation & the Workplace | ||||
|
|
Industrial Accidents | ||||
|
|
Silkwood & Kerr-McGee, 1970s | ||||
|
|
Bhopal, 1984 | ||||
|
|
Chernobyl, 1986 | ||||
|
|
Texas City Refinery Accident | ||||
|
|
Normal Accidents | ||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| In a workplace dominated by men, women often face being treated as sexual object, ranging from embarrassing banter & jokes to overt propositions to demands for sexual favors | |||||
| Sexual harassment is a form of sexual discrimination where an
employee is
- forced or asked by another employee or customer to give sexual favors - exposed to unwelcome behavior w/ sexual content - hired, promoted, etc. based on explicit or implicit sexual submission - subjected to sexual content which creates a hostile, intimidating or offensive environment |
|
||||
| One of the primary federal agencies responsible for civil rights in the workplace is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) | |||||
| The EEOC defines sexual harassment as repeated, unwelcome behavior w/ a sexual content when submission to such behavior is explicitly or implicitly a condition for the person's hiring or for other employment decisions, or when such behavior creates a hostile, intimidating, or offensive working environment |
|
||||
| In 1982, it was found that 20.7% of women had experienced a severe form of sexual harassment such as physical attack or sexual blackmail |
|
||||
| In 1982, 48% of women experienced moderate forms of sexual harassment such as sexual propositions, verbal innuendoes, or social derogation (Gruber & Bjorn, 1982) |
|
||||
| Studies conducted in the 1990s find similar results, w/ as many as 20% of women experiencing severe form of sexual harassment & as many as half experiencing moderate forms of sexual harassment (Fletcher, 1999) | |||||
| Example: a young female file clerk was asked by her supervisor to come to his office where he told her about intimate details of his marriage & asked her what she thought of different sexual positions (Benokraitis & Feagin, 1986) |
|
||||
| Example: Sexual Harassment of Policewomen |
|
||||
| Women in low status occupations who are in direct contact w/ men in higher status occupations (such as secretaries & managers) are the most likely targets of sexual harassment |
|
||||
| Large scale peer harassment frequently occurs on crews, assembly lines, etc. since these large congregations of workers frequently develop a workplace culture that is only marginally witnessed or understood by supervisors or managers, allowing peer worker practices, including but not limited to sexual harassment, to develop under unsupervised conditions |
|
||||
| Women in low status positions are less likely than women in higher status jobs to respond assertively & are more likely to placate the harasser (Gruber & Bjorn, 1986) |
|
||||
| A SES analysis shows that women are more likely to experience harassment
w/ the characteristics of being:
- low status - perceived as less powerful - single - divorced - younger - a minority |
|
||||
| Thus, perpetrators of sexual harassment, or any type of negative social differentiation for that matter, usually have more power & SES than the victims | |||||
| Today, perpetrators of negative social differentiation often are lower in power & SES within their class & thus perceive themselves as weak or frustrated, while still being higher in SES than their victims | |||||
| Today, in general, perpetrators are have a lower within class SES but a higher SES btwn classes, as compared to their victims | |||||
| Victims of sexual harassment find it very difficult to report the violation | |||||
| There are shades of gray btwn normal, acceptable warmth & sexual harassment |
|
||||
| When does an arm around the should cross the line btwn a show of affection & a come on? |
|
||||
| Is it possible for men & women in the same workplace to date? |
|
||||
| When does an off color joke go beyond banter to become offensive & discriminatory? |
|
||||
| How can men & women communicate to draw these lines in the workplace? |
|
||||
| Based on her study of an underground coal mine, Yount, 1991, developed a typology of three strategies that female coal miners used to confront sexual harassment |
|
||||
| a. Ladies confront sexists as gentlemen w/, for example, “Why sir, what would your mother say?” |
|
||||
| Yount found that Ladies cast their co-workers as gentlemen & socially w/drew |
|
||||
| b. Flirts confront sexists w/ sexuality w/, for example, “I save that for my favorite men, and you haven't qualified... yet.” | |||||
| Yount found that flirtatiousness encouraged come ons from men & sometimes resulted in more severe harassment if the men perceived that the women were using this strategy to gain preferential treatment | |||||
| c. Tomboys confront sexists w/ balance w/, for example, “I would, but you're better suited for Joe!” | |||||
| Tomboys emphasized their occupational role & engaged in joking relationships w/ their male co-workers | |||||
| Tomboys experienced a great deal of sexual "razzing" but this was often intended to be friendly & inclusionary | |||||
| Tomboys who resisted being place in traditional females roles, seemed to be the most successful at minimizing harassment while being accepted as capable workers | |||||
| The Flirt & the Lady relied on traditional female role behavior, provoked either active harassment or reduced respect | |||||
| Two more strategies that female worker employ include: | |||||
| d. Girls do not confront sexists but ignore it, or withdraw | |||||
| Girls' role of non confrontation & w/drawl may work if the harassment is not too severe; however, it risks the possibility that passivity may evoke more severe harassment | |||||
| e. Today's Woman confronts sexists w/ legal or formal action w/, for example, the statement that, “That's harassment. I'm filing a complaint.” | |||||
| Todays women's, strength & resolve of the direct confrontation of illegal & boorish behavior will cause most harassers to back down | |||||
| Direct confrontation of the harasser is the most successful if the workplace is supportive of such behavior; however, if the workplace administration is not supportive, confrontation may evoke retaliation | |||||
| Confrontation must also be chosen in light of the difficulties of proving a case of sexual harassment | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| - Supplement: Senate Committee Approves Sweeping Immigration Bill, Kingsport Times, News, March 28, 2006, p 3A |
|
||||
| Summary: The period of Global Capitalism witnesses the dismantling of American Apartheid, & the beginning of the end of discrimination | |||||
| In the Age of Global Capitalism, there is less physical violence based on racism today than in the past | |||||
| Racist mobs attack Blacks, Asians, etc. for economic reasons, justified by racist ideologies based on Social Darwinism & religious beliefs | |||||
| Many racial attacks & harassments are coordinated or incited by the KKK & related orgs | |||||
| 1908-21 mobs attack blacks in dozens of US cities | |||||
| In 1922, Marcus Garvey gives the Universal Negro Improvement Association Speech in NYC, & this organization becomes the Negro Nationalist Movement | |||||
| From 1937-1945 the Holocaust took place in Europe | |||||
| The economic base of Nazism necessitated the Holocaust, & was justified by the racist ideology of Aryan superiority | |||||
| The US knew about the Holocaust but chose to look the other way because of American Anti Semitism, lack of public political will, & a reluctance to enter WW 2 | |||||
| An analysis of the early discrimination in unions shows that early in their development, many American unions, but not all, were discriminatory / racist | |||||
| The UMWA was not discriminatory | |||||
| Unions also discriminated against women & other groups because many early US unions were dominated by a WASP patriarchy | |||||
| The UMWA had accepted many ethnicities & races of miners from its inception | |||||
| Liberal & Radical Union leaders had been assassinated & deported by the govt. | |||||
| Since the late 1800s, lured by industrialists, Blacks traveled North & had been & used as scabs & strikebreakers | |||||
| The Internal Colonialism Theory & the Split Labor Market Theory explain much of the racism that festered in the late 1800s & early 1900s | |||||
| See Also: The Causes of Racism / Social Differentiation | |||||
| Dr. Ralph Bunche (1903-1971), an African American mediator & UN diplomat, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in fostering an armistice btwn warring Arabs & Israelis | |||||
| In 1960, Wilma Rudoph made history when she became the 1st African American woman to win three Olympic gold medals in track & field. She was known as "the fastest woman in the world" | |||||
| In the 1950s & 60s, the Civil Rights Movement uses non-violent methods in 200 cities to advance its cause | |||||
| In 1957, the Civil Rights Act was passed | |||||
| In 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, w/ ML King as president, was formed | |||||
| In 1963, the Letter from a Birmingham Jail w/ the Birmingham Manifesto heralded King's legacy to African Americans | |||||
| In 1963, WEB Du Bois dies at age 95 in Ghana | |||||
| In 1964, the another Civil Rights Act passed & these two laws are the first comprehensive federal civil rights legislation of the 20th century | |||||
| The Civil Rights Act makes it illegal to discriminate on basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, & established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ( EEOC ) | |||||
| The Disabilities Act is passed decades later, but even today it is still legal to discriminate on sexual orientation though some institutions have rules against it | |||||
| In 1968, ML King is assassinated | |||||
| See Also: Affirmative Action, 1967 | |||||
| Executive Order 11375, signed by President Johnson, established Affirmative Action | |||||
| See Also: Affirmative Action Backlash | |||||
|
|
In 1983 President Reagan signed the bill that established January 20 as a federal holiday in honor of ML King |
|
|||
|
|
It took many years for Congress to decide to celebrate ML King Day, but a few states had declared a state holiday |
|
|||
| Unions & race today: | |||||
| In 1960, the AFL CIO supports civil rights, & begins integration in unions | |||||
| Nearly all unions have successfully integrated today | |||||
| Blacks & Hispanics in America are more likely to be union members than whites | |||||
|
|
The glass ceilings still exist in some unions as a result of institutional discrimination |
|
|||
|
|
Significant Impacts of race in modern era include that in: |
|
|||
| - the 1960s there were race riots in US cities | |||||
| - 1968 when MLK is assassinated, over 100 communities erupt in violence | |||||
| - 1973 US Steel pays $31 mm to women & minorities for past discrimination | |||||
| - 1973 the first interracial kiss occurs on national TV on Star Trek btwn Cpt Kirk & Lt Orrura (but the kiss is the result of both being under the control of an 'alien force') | |||||
| - 1980 in Miami, when the police beat a black business man to death for a traffic violation, riots occurs in Miami & other cities resulting in 18 deaths & $200 mm in property damage | |||||
| - Ford pays $ 21 mm to minorities for workplace discrimination | |||||
| - 1988 Jesse Jackson finished 2nd in the Democratic Primary despite the fact that many people would not vote for him solely because of race | |||||
| - Armenians & Azerbaijanis engage in ethnic warfare | |||||
| - 1989 Miami cops shoot a black boy resulting in waves of riots & police attacks | |||||
| - 1992 the Rodney King beating & subsequent trial, acquittal, riots, federal trial & convictions of officers occur | |||||
| - 1994 the OJ Simpson trial takes place dividing the nation & creating an unheard of national conversation on race & justice | |||||
| - 1995 Church burnings become so frequent that they gain national attention | |||||
| - 1996 Texaco agrees to pay $1.5 b for discrimination primarily against blacks who aspire to own Texaco franchises | |||||
| - the CIA crack scandal blows over | |||||
| - 1991-93 an ethnic war in Yugoslavia btwn Serbs, Croats & Slovenians who are Muslim & Christian threatens to envelop all of Southern Europe culminating in a successful UN peacekeeping action | |||||
| - 1999 NYC cops shoot an off duty black cop | |||||
| - 2005 youth riots which are ethnically based erupt in France as a result of the frustration of the underclass | |||||
|
|
"Race & ethnic" conflicts around the world are often based on 'economic' conflicts as seen in: |
|
|||
|
|
- S. Africa where Dutch Whites opposed Mandella's ANC & Budulazies Inkaataa Freedom Party & the issues were both land reform & civil rights |
|
|||
| - Northern Ireland where Irish Catholics are oppressed by British Protestants which & the issues were political econ control of N Ireland | |||||
| - Israel where Jews, Palestinians, other Arabs, & Christians all oppose each other over land & political econ control w/in that land | |||||
|
|
In the US, there is less physical violence based on racism today than in the past, though there is more institutional racism |
|
|||
| The next period, the Post Industrial Age, witnesses the major form of discrimination being institutional discrimination | |||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| Executive Order 11375, signed by President Johnson, established Affirmative Action in 1967 |
|
||||
| The various executive orders calling for affirmative action are an attempt to compensate for past discrimination through hiring quotas, preferential consideration, or active recruitment of women or minority workers | |||||
| The aim of Affirmative Action is to prevent institutional discrimination: It is believed that non-white & females are sufficiently qualified but are less qualified than typical white males who have access to the best preparatory schools |
|
||||
| EO 11375 mandated the Federal Office of Contract Compliance to issue govt purchasing contracts only to orgs that are making efforts to remedy the effects of past discrimination |
|
||||
| EO 11375 affected much more than govt orgs because many orgs sell at least some of their products to the fed govt, & therefore they had to comply w/ Affirmative Action rules or loose all govt contracts |
|
||||
| Defense contractors, utilities, computer & electronic manufacturers, & many other businesses have been forced to develop affirmative action plans |
|
||||
| Affirmative Action plans give preference to minorities or women if the purpose of the plan is to erase "a manifest imbalance in traditionally segregated job categories" |
|
||||
| Affirmative Action plans can be instituted voluntarily by an employer or jointly by an employer & a union |
|
||||
| Affirmative Action plans can be brought about as as result of a discrimination lawsuit |
|
||||
| The majority of Affirmative Action plans are adopted by large firms w/ a white collar labor force |
|
||||
| Such plans have the potential to redistribute some desirable jobs to previously excluded female & minority workers |
|
||||
| Many plans are extremely modest & call for only minimal adjustments as necessitated by law |
|
||||
| Most small firms lack Affirmative Action plans & thus minorities & women continue to face significant limits in these sectors |
|
||||
| A study of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 in Britain found that its main effect was to eliminate overt discrimination in recruiting, especially in job advertisements |
|
||||
| The study also found that there was little change in the allocation of training & promotions |
|
||||
| Over half the orgs surveyed in the study had acted to minimize their compliance |
|
||||
| Thus in Britain, Affirmative Action did not eliminate discrimination, & minorities & females are not equally represented at any level in the workforce; furthermore, they are over represented at the lower levels, & under-represented at the middle levels, & extremely under-represented at the upper levels of employment |
|
||||
| Never the less, Affirmative Action has had positive consequences for some female & minority workers & has helped break down sexual & racial hiring barriers |
|
||||
| Affirmative Action legislation has encouraged the creation of decentralized state, county, municipal & org Affirmative Action plans | |||||
| Many firms have focused on placing minorities & women in highly visible positions to implement affirmative action | |||||
| The wages of Black college grads have risen faster than those of White college grads, but are still behind | |||||
| The wages of Black high school grads have fallen even further behind White high school grads | |||||
| Thus, Affirmative Action has helped created a Black middle class, but has done little to help the large Black underclass, & has barely broken "the glass ceiling" of upper level jobs | |||||
| Inequality in wages by race has been exasperated by the concentration of Blacks & Hispanics in regions & urban areas w/ high unemployment | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| As a matter of fact, social movements usually generate an opposition social movement |
|
||||
| At the beginning of a social movement, the status quo forces attempt to stem the institutionalization of the new social relationships | |||||
| If the new social movement can prevail, it becomes an accepted feature of society, & the status quo opposition must contend w/ defeat | |||||
| As the social movement becomes institutionalized & accepted in society, it may either become complacent & weak, it may over reach its original goals & therefore lose supporters, it may be so successful that it is no longer needed, or it may be so successful that it re energizes its opposition | |||||
| Because of the social tendency to create counter movements, it was inevitable that at some point a white backlash would occur against Affirmative Action & Civil Rights |
|
||||
| Supporters of affirmative action claim that it is so successful that it re energized its opposition while opponents of affirmative action claim that it has overstepped its bounds & it is no longer needed, thus re energizing its opposition |
|
||||
| Affirmative action has sparked resistance from Whites & men who believe they are being deprived of opportunities because of increased opportunities for minorities & women | |||||
| 30 years of affirmative action has not eradicated the inequalities resulting from 300 yr.. of legal restrictions on Blacks in America & thousands of years of gender based inequality | |||||
| The increasing economic stress in the developed world has made all people less sympathetic to the problems of minorities & women | |||||
| It is well known that all forms of discrimination increase during economic, political, etc. hard times | |||||
| See Also: The Causes of Discrimination | |||||
| A backlash against civil rights has come in the form of an attack on affirmative action, Title IX, & support for school vouchers | |||||
| In the 1980s, the Berkeley Medical School is sued over Affirmative Action on the premise that it is admitting under qualified minorities in lieu of more qualified Whites | |||||
| A White male lost the Berkeley Medical School case, but his cause energized affirmative action opponents | |||||
| In the 1990s, affirmative action opposition coalesced & Clinton attempted to balance the opposition & the supporters w/ the policy of "Mend it, don't end it" | |||||
| While some maintain that affirmative action was essentially ended under Clinton, other believe it was kept alive; regardless, affirmative action is much less practiced today | |||||
| In 2002, the Supreme Court rules that the University of Michigan may not use affirmative action admittance procedures but can seek to maintain a diverse student body, in essence offering a split decision | |||||
| Affirmative action supporters makes FOUR points |
|
||||
| a. The "playing field" is not level
New cases of race discrimination in workplace are reported everyday Minorities face discrimination in education which translates into discrimination at work |
|
||||
| b. Affirmative action is fair because hiring is an inexact science & it's difficult to choose the "most qualified" person |
|
||||
| Affirmative action supporters make the point that hiring is an inexact science & it's difficult to choose the "most qualified" person & it is in these cases where quotas can be used | |||||
| c. Affirmative action does work as evidenced by the fact that we are gaining a non-white middle class & that women's wages are increasing as a percentage of men's wages |
|
||||
| d. Affirmative action is possibly the weakest form
of restitution
In the US, because whites have benefited from centuries of racism & men have benefited from centuries patriarchy, there is a debt owed |
|
||||
| Affirmative action is applied only to orgs doing govt contracts & thus has little effect on smaller firms |
|
||||
| Under affirmative action rules, orgs w/ govt contracts must develop plans to rectify "manifest imbalances" in race or gender inequities in the workplace |
|
||||
| Affirmative action can be voluntary or court ordered & quotas were possible but infrequent, & they are not legal today |
|
||||
| Overall the effect of affirmative action has been minimal because orgs minimized their compliance |
|
||||
| Affirmative action & other factors have created a Black middle class, but affirmative action has not had a great effect overall | |||||
| Affirmative Action Opposition made THREE points |
|
||||
| a. For the opponents of affirmative action because the playing field is now equal, affirmative action is no longer needed |
|
||||
| b. For the opponents of affirmative action, affirmative action is unfair to Blacks & Whites because it allows the hiring of under qualified people & does not allow the hiring of most qualified person |
|
||||
| c. For the opponents of affirmative action, affirmative action does not work because it does not serve to help minorities |
|
||||
| The opposition to affirmative action can be seen in the beliefs of some sub cultures of the White population that every employed Black they encounter owes his or her job to federal pressure rather than to personal qualification & efforts (Jencks, 1985) |
|
||||
| The fate of civil rights in general & affirmative action in particular depends to a significant extent on the political climate in the next decade |
|
||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
|
|
Federal Reserve Bank of NY: Economic Indicators Calendar http://www.ny.frb.org/research/national_economy/nationalecon_cal.html |
|
|||
| AN ECON INDICATOR (OR BUSINESS INDICATOR) IS A STATISTIC WHICH MEASURES SOME ACTIVITY IN THE ECON | |||||
| Econ indicators allow analysis of econ performance & predictions of future performance | |||||
| One application of econ indicators is the study of business cycles | |||||
| Econ indicators include various indices, earnings reports, & economic summaries | |||||
| The leading business cycle dating committee in the US is the National Bureau of Econ Research (private) | |||||
| The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact finding agency for the US govt in the field of labor econ & statistics | |||||
| Other producers of econ indicators include the US Census Bureau & US Bureau of Economic Analysis | |||||
| ECON INDICATORS ARE INTERPRETED TO PREDICT THE BUSINESS CYCLE (LEADING INDICATORS), OR ARE EXPECTED TO CHANGE AFTER THE ECON CHANGES (LAGGING INDICATORS), OR MEASURE CURRENT ACTIVITY (COINCIDENT INDICATORS) | |||||
| Leading indicators are indicators that usually change before the econ as a whole changes | |||||
| Econ indictors are useful as short term predictors of the econ | |||||
| Stock mkt returns are a leading indicator: the stock mkt usually begins to decline before the econ as a whole declines & usually begins to improve before the general econ begins to recover from a slump | |||||
| Lagging indicators are indicators that usually change after the econ as a whole does | |||||
| Typically the lag is a few quarters of a year | |||||
| The unemployment rate is a lagging indicator: employment tends to increase two or three quarters after an upturn in the general econ | |||||
| Coincident indicators are those which change at approximately the same time as the whole econ, thereby providing info about the current state of the econ | |||||
| Personal income, GDP, industrial production & retail sales are coincident indicators | |||||
| A coincident index may be used to identify, after the fact, the dates of peaks & troughs in the business cycle | |||||
| ECON INDICATORS MAY INDICATE IF THE ECON IS GROWING OR CONTRACTING | |||||
| Pro cyclic indicators move in the same direction as the general econ: they increase when the econ is doing well; decrease when it is doing badly | |||||
| Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a pro cyclic indicator | |||||
| Counter cyclic indicators move in the opposite direction to the general econ | |||||
| The unemployment rate is counter cyclic: it rises when the economy is decreasing | |||||
| Acyclic indicators are those with little or no correlation to the business cycle: they may rise or fall when the general economy is doing well, and may rise or fall when it is not doing well | |||||
| SOME ECON MEASURES ARE RELEVANT TO EVERYDAY PEOPLE INCLUDING INFLATION, THE ECON CYCLE, LAYOFFS, THE DEBT, UNEMPLOYMENT, ETC., WHILE OTHERS ARE MORE IMP TO CORPS SUCH AS INTEREST RATES, PRODUCTIVITY, ETC. | |||||
|
|
Stagflation recession & inflation; only hist instance: late 60s & 70s |
|
|||
|
|
An economic cycle is the period movement of the economy btwn growth & decline as measured by changes in economic factors such as growth, unemployment, inflation, etc. | ||||
|
|
Layoffs are the temporary elimination of jobs, creating unemployment | ||||
|
|
Downsizing, as contrasted to layoffs is the permanent elimination of jobs: 80s word |
|
|||
|
|
Deindustrialization is the closing of industrial jobs: shipped them away: lost 38 mm jobs by 1982 | ||||
|
|
National Debt | ||||
|
|
2003: 6.5 T |
|
|||
|
|
$70,000 per family |
|
|||
|
|
2000 Surplus of 281 bb |
|
|||
|
|
2003 Deficit of 347 bb |
|
|||
| EACH MONTH THERE ARE MANY ECON INDICATORS MEASURED & MADE PUBLIC BY A NUMBER OF PRIVATE, PUBLIC, & QUASI PUBLIC ORGS | |||||
| Some econ indicators are measured & made public only once a month or once a quarter, while others are measured & made public each week | |||||
| Below is a partial list of the many econ indicators measured & made public each month, appearing in the approximate order in which they appear, beginning w/ personal income & ending w/ GDP | |||||
| Personal Income | |||||
| Personal Spending | |||||
| Construction Spending | |||||
| Home Sales | |||||
| Crude Inventories measures the amount of inventories on hand in retail & wholesale sellers | |||||
| Initial Claims includes first time claims for unemployment | |||||
| Continuing Claims includes only continuing claims for unemployment | |||||
| Productivity | |||||
| Unit Labor Costs | |||||
| Factory Orders measures the amt of orders factors have received in the last month | |||||
| Non farm payroll | |||||
| Unemployment rate | |||||
| Average Workweek measures the average amt of hours worked in the last week | |||||
| Hourly Earnings | |||||
| Consumer Credit | |||||
| Trade Balance is the amount of imports the nation receives less the amount of exports, & is usually a negative number because we have imported more than exported for a number of years | |||||
| Treasury Budget | |||||
| Fed's Beige Book is an overview of the econ put together by the Fed Reserve Bank | |||||
| Retail Sales | |||||
| Export Prices ex - oil | |||||
| Import Prices ex - oil | |||||
| Business Inventories | |||||
| CPI (Consumer Price Index) is, essentially, the inflation level at the consumer level | |||||
| Core CPI (Consumer Price Index) is, the CPI excluding certain volatile components such as energy | |||||
| Capacity Utilization measures how much of our nations productive capacity (e.g. factories, construction corps, etc.) is being used | |||||
| Industrial Production | |||||
| Building Permits | |||||
| Housing Starts | |||||
| PPI (Producer Price Index) is, essentially, the inflation level at the wholesale or producer level | |||||
| Core PPI Producer Price Index) is, essentially, the inflation level at the wholesale or producer level excluding certain volatile components such as energy | |||||
| Leading Indicators | |||||
| Existing Home Sales | |||||
| Consumer Confidence is a survey which attempts to determine how optimistic consumers are, esp. as it relates to their willingness to spend | |||||
| FHFA Home Price Index | |||||
| New Home Sales | |||||
| FOMC Rate Decision is the Fed Reserve Banks decision on interest rates | |||||
| Durable Goods Orders measures the amt of durable goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, etc. ordered from factories | |||||
| GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is a measure of the total (gross) amt of production in the nation | |||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
about 50% of the poor did work, but only some of those would legally be considered unemployed Far0506
 |
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| Layoffs are the temporary elimination of jobs, creating unemployment |
|
||||
| Layoffs occur for many reasons, including quitting a job, being fired, becoming disabled, being laid off, & moving to be w/ a spouse or loved one |
|
||||
| Layoffs are a particularly important cause of unemployment because they affect so many people at one time & in one place |
|
||||
| Older workers have an especially difficult time finding new employment |
|
||||
| Beginning in the 1980s & continuing through the 2000s, layoffs became more common as bankruptcies increased among small firms & as large firms moved both w/in the US, as well as overseas |
|
||||
| With the rising numbers of layoffs in the post Reagan era, plants are closed in high wage areas & reopened in low wage areas (Sullivan, Warren & Westbrook, 2000) |
|
||||
| Bluestone & Harrison, 1982, found that, "Together, runaways, shutdowns, & permanent physical cutbacks short of complete closure may have cost the country as many as 38 mm jobs" |
|
||||
| Layoff are more typically short for workers in skilled occupations in large firms that operate in key industries |
|
||||
| Layoffs are longer for workers in less skilled jobs in smaller, peripheral firms (Shervish, 1981) |
|
||||
| The term indefinite layoffs is often a euphemism for permanent termination, & beginning in the late 1990s the term downsizing came into use to signify permanent termination, i.e. firing |
|
||||
| THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF LAYOFFS |
|
||||
| Layoffs & unemployment are one of the most direct routes to poverty | |||||
| See Also: Poverty | |||||
| The loss of income & fringe benefits, especially heath insurance result in the loss of life style, including the potential loss of home, delayed educational plans, reduced medical care, & reductions in food & recreation budgets |
|
||||
| Workers often feel helpless & worthless in the face of lengthy unemployment |
|
||||
| Layoffs & unemployment often have severe negative health consequences |
|
||||
| Bluestone & Harrison, 1982, p. 65, estimate that a 1% increase in the unemployment rate over six years would result in 37,000 deaths including 920 suicides & 650 homicides, 4000 mental hospital admissions, & 3,300 prison admissions |
|
||||
| 67 % of unemployed women in Britain felt increased loneliness & 34% reported a decline in mental health (Martin & Wallace, 1984) |
|
||||
| Careers, marriages & families are all affected by the unemployment rate | |||||
| Higher unemployment produces family violence, family breakups, & divorce | |||||
| Community services such as education, parks, recreation, police, street repair all deteriorate w/ high unemployment | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| The most important assistance that unemployed workers receive is from the family (Standing, 1981) |
|
||||
| Workers may also be eligible for unemployment compensation, usually from a state govt., but there are also a variety of other programs available |
|
||||
| 78 % of workers w/o jobs are covered by unemployment insurance, but far less than that usually have receive it |
|
||||
| Unemployment payments usually expire after 26 weeks, but Congress has sometimes lengthened them to 52 weeks because of a severe recession, or some other special circumstance |
|
||||
| While unemployment laws vary from state to state, farm workers, personal services workers, part-time workers, workers who have not been employed long, workers who quit voluntarily, & workers who were fired are generally not eligible for unemployment |
|
||||
| Thus, at any given time about one of four unemployed workers receives unemployment |
|
||||
| Some union contracts also provide supplemental unemployment |
|
||||
| If workers are permanently laid off, they may also receive severance pay which is a lump sum payment to help tide the person over until they find new work |
|
||||
|
|
Workers on unemployment may also be eligible to receive welfare if he, she, or their family are completely destitute |
|
|||
|
|
In some states unemployment insurance is funded by taxes on firms and workers, and in some states it is funded only by taxes on firms |
|
|||
|
|
The amount of unemployment benefits a worker receives depends on his or her pay & length of service in their previous job |
|
|||
| In 1991, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits amount to about 40 % of the number of the unemployed people (BLS, 1992e) | |||||
| In 1997, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits amount to about 35 % of the number of the unemployed people (US Census, 1999: Table 626) | |||||
| Some types of work such as agricultural labor are not covered by unemployment insurance | |||||
| People who start their first job are generally not eligible for unemployment because they generally do not have enough time in the labor force | |||||
| People who are discouraged workers & re-enter the work force by getting a job are not eligible for unemployment insurance because they generally do not have enough time in the labor force | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| The Humphrey Hawkins Bill was passed in the 1960s requiring the US govt to establish policies to minimize unemployment |
|
||||
| A few states have passed plant closing legislation which have a variety of provisions |
|
||||
| Some of the provisions of plant closing legislation include advance warning of closure, advance warning of layoffs of more than 250 people, compensating workers, & compensating communities |
|
||||
| Firms often exploit loop holes in plant closing legislation by laying off workers in groups of less than 250 people, until there is no one left, & then argue that closing costs are very low for a plant w/ a few or no workers |
|
||||
| NAFTA & some other trade agreements now provide compensation to workers & communities if they can demonstrate that they were laid off or otherwise harmed by international trade |
|
||||
| Workers & communities harmed by international trade must be certified as such by various US govt. agencies such as the Dept. of Labor |
|
||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| - Project: Environmental Degradation & the Workplace |
|
||||
| Dangerous practices in the workplace affect the health of the workers, the health of people outside the workplace, as well as the environment |
|
||||
| As seen in examining the effects of toxic substances on workers & the general population, it can take years or even decades to determine the effects of hazardous practices, pollution, etc. from the workplace on the environment |
|
||||
| ACID RAIN | |||||
| Acid Rain has the potential to devastate the remaining forested area & its wildlife in the Northeastern US, Eastern Canada, Europe, & other areas |
|
||||
| Acid rain is precipitation polluted by sulfuric acid which forms when water vapor in the air reacts w/ pollutants containing sulfur, such as smoke from power plants that use fossil fuel, especially coal |
|
||||
| Because of its absorption of pollution, rain has a slightly elevated acidic level which overtime can slightly acidify lakes & land |
|
||||
| Even a small increase in the acidity of bodies of water or land can have devastating effects on the eco-system |
|
||||
| Lake Superior was threatened by acid rain & other forms of industrial pollution |
|
||||
| Many bodies of water in the industrial mid-west & northeast have had warnings issued on them against the consumption of fish |
|
||||
| AIR POLLUTION | |||||
| Air Pollution results in many people suffering chronic irritation in the form of asthma, allergies, etc. w/ Denver, Phoenix, & LA being among the worst US cities |
|
||||
| Since the Passage of the Clean Air Act & related laws in 1963, 1967, 1970, 1977, 1990, & significant revision of rules in 2002, most observers agree that air quality has improved & acid rain has declined in the developed world, but air related problems continue to be a problem on a global scale | |||||
| During the administration of Bush, Jr., (2000-2004), air pollution rules that were to go into effect to reduce the micro-components of air pollution were delayed | |||||
| See Also: Environmental Laws | |||||
| See Also: Solutions for Air Pollution | |||||
| PESTICIDES | |||||
| Agricultural workers living near & working in fields are routinely exposed to pesticides |
|
||||
| Health problems for agricultural workers result from both proper improper application of pesticides, herbicides, & fertilizers |
|
||||
| Each year the Texas Dept. of Ag receives almost 800 health complaints arising from pesticide use, & California is even worse |
|
||||
| The treatment of farm workers & the misuse of pesticides is even worse in Mexico, central America, & other developing, agricultural nations |
|
||||
| These chemical continue to find their way into the food chain of the developed world; for example, fruits & vegetables in the US have detectable levels of DDT & other illegal chemicals |
|
||||
|
|
LOVE CANAL & HAZARDOUS WASTE | ||||
|
|
In the early 1980s, a town called Love Canal discovered that many residents were built on top of a toxic waste dump | ||||
| The Hooker Chemical Company had buried containers of toxic waste there decades earlier, when it was legal to do so | |||||
| Health problems at Love Canal included deafness, respiratory difficulties, convulsions, cancer, stunted growth in children, & unusually high rates of pregnancy problems & birth defects | |||||
| Today, large sections of the town are abandoned & boarded up | |||||
| COAL MINING | |||||
| THE TIMBER INDUSTRY, FOREST TRANSITIONS, WATER POLLUTION, & WILDFIRE | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| - Project: Analysis of Workplace Accidents |
|
||||
|
|
Well known industrial / workplace accidents include: |
|
|||
|
|
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911 | ||||
| The Triangle Factory fire was a major industrial disaster in the U.S., causing the death of more than 147 garment workers, mostly women & girls working there, who either died in the fire or jumped to their deaths | |||||
| The fire & the tireless organizing of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, (ILGWU) led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and | |||||
| The fire helped spur the growth of the ILGWU which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers in that industry | |||||
| Texas City Disaster, Texas occurred on April 16, 1947 at 9:15 AM when an explosion aboard a docked ship named the Grandcamp, & subsequent fires & explosions, is referred to as the deadliest industrial disaster in America | |||||
| A minimum of 578 people lost their lives & another 3,500 were injured as the blast shattered windows from as far away as 25 miles | |||||
| Huge boulders of steel flew into the sky to rain down more than a mile from ground zero | |||||
| The origin of the explosion was fire in the cargo on board the ship which detonated 3,200 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilize | |||||
| The fire was thought to have been ignited by a discarded cigarette | |||||
| Although this industrial disaster was one of the largest involving ammonium nitrate many others have been reported, including a recent one in N Korea | |||||
|
|
The Silkwood & Kerr McGee plutonium contamination controversy occurred in November, 1974. | ||||
| Karen Silkwood experienced high plutonium contamination while working at Kerr McGee's nuclear processing plant in TX | |||||
| Silkwood made allegations to the AEC about poor operating practices at the plant & died under mysterious circumstances | |||||
|
|
The Three Mile Island nuclear core meltdown occurred on March 28, 1979 in Dauphin County, PA | ||||
|
|
The Bhopal toxic gas release occurred on Dec 2, 1984 killing 3,000 people immediately, while 15,000 have died since, w/ more dying everyday from long term complications | ||||
|
|
The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during launch on January 28, 1986 killing all seven astronauts | ||||
|
|
The Chernobyl nuclear core meltdown occurred on April 26, 1986 in the Ukraine killing scores of workers immediately & resulting in an increase in long term cancer deaths | ||||
| The oil tanker the Exxon Valdez went aground on March 24, 1989 resulting in a catastrophic oil spill in AK | |||||
|
|
The Kader Toy Factory fire occurred on May 10, 1993 when a fire started in a poorly built factory in Thailand. | ||||
| Exit doors were locked and the stairwell soon collapsed. 188 workers were killed, mostly young women | |||||
|
|
The South Canyon fire occurred on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs, CO on July 6, 1994 killing 14 elite wildland firefighters including smokejumpers, hotshots, helitak & others | ||||
|
|
The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded during landing on On February 1, 2003 killing all seven astronauts | ||||
| BP Texas City Refinery Accident occurred on March 23, 2005 when an explosion occurred at a petroleum refinery in Texas City, Texas, that belonged to BP | |||||
| It is the 3rd largest refinery in the US & one of the largest in the world, processing 433,000 barrels of crude oil per day & accounting for 3% of that nation's gasoline supply | |||||
| Over 100 were injured, and 15 were confirmed dead, including employees of the Fluor Corp as well as BP | |||||
| BP has since accepted that its employees contributed to the accident. | |||||
| Level indicators failed, leading to overfilling of a heater, & light hydrocarbons concentrated at ground level throughout the area | |||||
| An unidentified ignition source, probably a running vehicle, set off the explosion | |||||
|
|
Charles Perrow, 1984, is an organizational sociologist who believes that major, industrial accidents are endemic to modern society & are the nearly inevitable result of the complicated technological & organizational structure of modern production systems & there fore we can expect increasing numbers of them in the future |
|
|||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| - Video: Silkwood |
|
||||
| - Project: Video: Silkwood |
|
||||
|
|
- Supplement: Supreme Court: Kerr McGee v. Silkwood |
|
|||
|
|
The Kerr McGee (KM) plant processed nuclear fuel & Karen Silkwood & other workers had experienced plutonium contamination |
|
|||
| Silkwood (February 19, 1946 - November 13, 1974) was an Am labor union activist & chem tech at the KM plant near Crescent, OK | |||||
| After being hired at KM, Silkwood joined the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union (OCAM) local & took part in a strike at the plant | |||||
| Silkwood discovered violations of safety & health regulations, including exposure of workers to contamination, faulty respiratory equipment, improper storage of samples, a lack of shower facilities, preventing proper decontamination, poor training, & more | |||||
| In the summer of 1974, Silkwood testified to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) about health & safety issues at the KM plant | |||||
| On November 5, 1974, Silkwood had 40 times the limit for plutonium contamination so she was decontaminated & sent home | |||||
| On November 6, 1974, Silkwood had more contamination, was more aggressively decontaminated & sent home | |||||
| On November 6, 1974, Silkwood had such a high level of plutonium contamination that she was exhaling it, & it was found that she had contaminated her home & friends | |||||
| Silkwood claimed she had been deliberately contaminated while KM responded that she had contaminated herself | |||||
| Silkwood had assembled a stack of documentation for her claims & decided to go public w/ the evidence so she made contact with a New York Times journalist prepared to print the story | |||||
|
|
On Nov 13, 1974 Silkwood died near the KM plant near Gore, OK, in an automobile wreck while traveling to bring documents on the contamination to a lawyer handling her case against the company |
|
|||
| The OK State Police investigated determined that she had methaqualone in her blood stream & she had fallen asleep & drove off the road while others maintain that there is evidence she braced for impact & that her car had been struck from behind | |||||
|
|
There have continued to be radiation leaks at the KM plant posing a hazard to workers & residents |
|
|||
|
|
Silkwood's father sued KM & a jury found KM guilty of contaminating Silkwood, awarding her estate over $10 mm | ||||
| An appeal revised Silkwood's victory, eliminating the punitive damages, awarding her only $5 K, but still finding KM guilty of unsafe practices | |||||
| The Supreme Ct found in Silkwood's favor & reinstated the $10 mm penalty | |||||
| Silkwood finally settled for $1.38 mm & KM admitted no fault | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
| - Supplement: Video: Bhopal Express |
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In 1985, the same gas escaped from a UC plant in Institute, West Virginia |
|
|||
|
|
Fewer injuries resulted from the release of MIC in WV because of a better warning procedures & a lower population density |
|
|||
|
|
Bhopal is frequently cited as the world's worst industrial disaster |
|
|||
|
|
A holding tank with 43 ton of stored methyl isocyanate (MIC), which is a chemical used in making pesticides, overheated & released a toxic heavier than air MIC gas mixture, which rolled along the ground through the surrounding streets |
|
|||
|
|
As the gas spread, the transportation system in the city collapsed & many people were trampled trying to escape |
|
|||
|
|
The immediate cause of the accident was faulty maintenance which resulted in water to leak into the MIC tank causing an explosion & the leak of the deadly gas |
|
|||
|
|
One indirect cause of the accident was the location of the plant itself |
|
|||
|
|
Local authorities had tried & failed to persuade UC to build the plant away from densely populated areas |
|
|||
|
|
UC said their refusal to move the plant was based on the expense such a move would incur |
|
|||
| In the early 1980s the factory at Bhopal began losing money because of a decrease in the demand for pesticides | |||||
|
|
UC had produced their pesticide, Sevin, w/o the known to be dangerous MIC, but started using it because it was cheaper |
|
|||
|
|
The losses caused UC to implement cost cutting measures which affected the interrelated areas of workers, working conditions, equipment, safety regulations, & the use of the cheaper MIC raw material |
|
|||
| UC had ignored it's own internal reports of the dangers of the plant location, the use of MIC, & the deficiencies in safety procedures | |||||
|
|
Like the Silkwood case, the corp maintains that the cause of the accident was sabotage |
|
|||
| Today, it is estimated that one person dies per day as a result of the toxic gas release | |||||
| There is much controversy over UC's settlement w/ victims & survivors | |||||
| UC agreed to pay $470 mm (the original lawsuit was for $3 billion) which equals $23,500 per person for the conservative estimate of 20,000 dead or injured | |||||
| Upon announcing this settlement, shares of UC rose $2 per share or 7% in value which was greater than the amount of the settlement | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
|
|
|
|
|||
| The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located near Pripyat, Ukraine, at the time part of the Soviet Union (SU) | |||||
|
|
In the early morning of April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating the immediate surrounding geographic area |
|
|||
| CAUSES | |||||
| The plant was to undergo routine maintenance & thus the turbine of reactor 4 was shut down | |||||
| It was decided to test the plants safety system during this maintenance by seeing if the momentum in the turbine could power the electrical safety systems | |||||
| The maintenance & tests were postponed until the evening & therefore they were performed by a skeleton crew who had not done the tests before | |||||
| As they shut down the reactor, it shut down faster than expected due to faulty control equipment | |||||
| Because this would negate the ability to due the safety test, the control rods were pulled out further than was recommended to increase the power output of the reactor, putting the reactor in a unstable, dangerous condition, unknown to the operators | |||||
| To continue the test & the shutdown, the cooling water was slowed down causing the reactor to heat up | |||||
| The next step was to reinsert the control rods, but by this time the reactor was so hot that it melted them, making it impossible to insert them | |||||
| The reactor then proceeded to "run away", overheating the water, blowing the top off the containment vessel, allowing oxygen in, allowing the graphite rods to catch fire | |||||
| There are two theories of the cause of the explosion & nuclear meltdown: the faulty operators theory & the faulty design theory, but it is probable that both had some impact | |||||
| The fact that operators were never told of the design flaws demonstrates how weaknesses in a system often compound each other | |||||
| A cause after the fact which added to the disaster was the Soviet denial & cover up causing them to delay notifying nearby citizens & neighboring nations of the nuclear fall out escaping from the plant | |||||
| AFTERMATH | |||||
| Estimates of the dead & dying vary widely w/ the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organization (WHO), attributing 56 direct deaths resulting from 47 workers killed in the explosion & immediate containment activity, & nine children w/ thyroid cancer | |||||
| As many as 9,000 people among the approximately 6.6 mm most highly exposed, may die from some form of cancer | |||||
| A plume of radioactive fallout drifted over parts of the western SU, Eastern and W Europe, Scandinavia, the UK, Ireland, & eastern N America. | |||||
| Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, & Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation & resettlement of over 336,000 people | |||||
| About 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus | |||||
| In the aftermath of Chernobyl locals were denied access to land that was not affected because the analysts’ models lumped all the land into a few categories | |||||
| The locals new better; they knew where the land was irradiated & where it was not | |||||
| LONG TERM EFFECTS | |||||
| The long term effects of Chernobyl radioactive fall out are surprising, not clear, & difficult to determine | |||||
| 300 k people have been relocated & there is an 18 mile zone that remains uninhabited | |||||
| Some plants animals are obviously affected, while others seem surprisingly unaffected | |||||
| The increase in cancer rates in a number of nations seems to be attributable to radioactive fall out, but direct causation is difficult to prove | |||||
| The reactor itself has been sealed in a haphazard manner, & water continues to leak in & radioactivity continues to leak out | |||||
| Further costly repairs will be needed to contain the nuclear reactor | |||||
|
Links |
|
Links |
|||
|
|
- Supplement: BP Texas City Fatal Accident Investigation Report. Dec. 9, 2005 |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The accident was caused by both faulty procedures & my poorly designed equipment |
|
|||
|
|
Workers overfilled a vessel, which then became overheated |
|
|||
|
|
The overheating caused a flammable liquid to overflow from a vent stack, which puddled on the ground, creating a vapor cloud |
|
|||
|
|
The flammable vapor cloud eventually came in contact w/ an ignition source, probably a running vehicle, & exploded |
|
|||
|
|
BP refineries have more deaths than any other in the US, w/ a level that is 10 times those of Exxon Mobil |
|
|||
|
|
On May 3, 005 a man was found dead inside a refinery vessel he had been pressure washing at BP's Cherry Point Refinery, north of Seattle, WA |
|
|||
|
|
Weeks before the accidents at Cherry Point & Texas City, BP's dismal record landed it on an internal federal watch list of companies "indifferent" to their legal obligations to protect employee safety because of a fatal explosion in Texas City in September 2004 that killed two pipefitters & injured a third |
|
|||
|
|
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) accused BP of a "willful" violation of its rules, leading to the accident |
|
|||
|
|
OSHA inspectors were to conduct follow up inspections at BP's Texas City refinery & also look for & target potential systemic problems at BP plants in other states |
|
|||
|
|
But before OSHA could inspect, the Texas City refinery again exploded on March 23 killing 15 contractors & injuring more than 170 others |
|
|||
|
|
BP officials have focused so much on individual worker safety that they missed problems w/ overall system safety, said Glenn Erwin, a former Texas City refinery employee who monitors refinery safety nationwide for the Paper Allied Industries & Energy Workers International Union |
|
|||
|
|
"They spend all their time saying 'Don't strain your back, don't get dirt in your eye,' " he said. |
|
|||
|
|
Safety statistics improve because more workers are avoiding minor injuries, but lurking problems, such as the outmoded ventilator stack (known as a vent stack) that spewed liquid & gas before igniting, have been neglected |
|
|||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The End
|
