The Story Of American Workplaces
(This post is part of Brave New Films' 16 Deaths Per Day campaign, for which I am a blogger fellow.)Steven Greenhouse reports in the New York Times that employers are routinely underreporting illnesses and injuries to their workers.The report, by the G.A.O., the auditing arm of Congress, said many employers did not report workplace injuries and illnesses for fear of increasing their workers’ compensation costs or hurting their chances of winning contracts.The report also said workers did not report

The Serious Side Of Chocolate
(This post is part of Brave New Foundation's 16 Deaths Per Day campaign, where I am a blogger fellow.)Back in July, a temp worker died from falling into a vat of chocolate. He had been on the job two weeks.A temp worker at a Camden chocolate processing plant died this morning after he fell into an eight-foot vat that was mixing and melting chocolate to be used in Hershey's candy.Vincent Smith II, 29, of Camden, was standing atop a platform and tossing blocks of solid, raw chocolate into the tank,

16 Deaths Per Day
(Disclosure: I am a blogger fellow with Brave New Films, the creator of this video and the 16 Deaths Per Day campaign)Every day in America, 16 people die at work from employer negligence.That's the backdrop to 16 Deaths Per Day, a new video and website from the advocacy group Brave New Films, seeking to highlight the often-neglected issue of worker safety.The video makes the point that employers who provide an unsafe work environment are almost never prosecuted in the event of a death of an employee. Even if they were, the crime of contributing to an employee's death is only a misdemeanor, wit

Former Blue Cross Commercial Actor Denounces Insurance Industry
You may know Andy Cobb from the series of humorous video sketches he's done about Republicans, the media, and assorted inanities. But he works by day as an actor. And a few years ago, he was a commercial spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. Now, he's speaking out about the insurance industry in a new video produced by Brave New Films for their Sick For Profit campaign (disclosure: I am a blogger fellow on this campaign).Andy, who lives in Los Angeles, describes himself as a "spokesjerk" put in front of the cameras by the industry to deliberatel

Rockefeller, Harkin Sparring With Insurance Industry
(Sick for Profit)Senate Democrats are trying to extract some embarrassing information from the insurance industry about their deceptive practices.First, Tom Harkin, who is seeking to subpoena insurers for failing to provide information requested by his committee.Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said his committee may demand information from health insurance companies about the reasoning for steep increases in premiums fac