WASHINGTON – The federal on scene coordinator for the BP Deepwater Horizon response and the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding concerning worker safety and health issues related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response in the Gulf of Mexico.

BELVEDERE, Ill. – The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited NDK Crystals Inc. in Belvedere with fines of $510,000 for alleged egregious willful and serious violations of federal workplace safety standards following an explosion at the companys crystal manufacturing building that took the life of a truck driver parked at a nearby service station. Workers at this facility were exposed to hazards that created a dangerous environment.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is soliciting applications for $8 million in Susan Harwood Safety and Health Capacity Building Training Grants. The grants are available to nonprofit, community and faith-based organizations to provide safety and health training educational programs for workers and employers.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined the South Dakota Wheat Growers Association of Aberdeen, S.D., more than $1.6 million following the Dec. 22, 2009, death of a worker at the company's McLaughlin, S.D., grain handling operation. The worker suffocated after being engulfed by grain in one of the facility's bins. OSHA's investigation found that five additional workers were also at risk of being engulfed when they were sent into the bin to dig the victim out.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced in a notice of proposed rulemaking published in today's Federal Register its plans to require improved worker protection from tripping, slipping and falling hazards on walking and working surfaces. A public hearing on the revised changes will be held after the public comment period for the NPRM.

JACKSON, Miss. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined VT Halter Marine Inc., a shipbuilder, for $1,322,000 following a November 2009 explosion and fire that killed two workers and seriously injured two other workers. The incident occurred in the inner bottom void of a tugboat that was being constructed at the company's Escatawpa, Miss., facility.

WASHINGTON – The materials supplement OSHA-required training workers must receive before they can be hired to engage in the cleanup. In addition to English, the safety guides and fact sheets initially will be printed in Spanish and Vietnamese in recognition of the diverse population inhabiting the Gulf Coast region. They will be made available by BP's education contractor, PEC, and OSHA officials at cleanup staging areas.The U.S.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is launching a pilot program seeking to partner with building inspectors in 11 American cities to reduce injuries and fatalities at construction sites.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration requests information and comment on occupational exposure to infectious agents in settings where health care is provided, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, school clinics and correctional facilities, and settings such as laboratories that handle potentially infectious biological materials, medical examiner offices and mortuaries.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration will hold two meetings to gather information from stakeholders to help modify its current injury and illness recordkeeping regulation and develop a modernized recordkeeping system.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration will use comments from a series of stakeholder meetings to help develop a proposed rule for Injury and Illness Prevention Programs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels is in Louisiana today with a team of experienced hazardous materials professionals leading an effort to ensure that oil spill cleanup workers receive necessary protections from the hazards of this work.

WASHINGTON – In keeping with the president's memorandum on open government, the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is releasing 15 years of data providing details of workplace exposure to toxic chemicals.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement on worker deaths:

"Yesterday we received the sad news that another worker died from injuries he sustained from the fire earlier this month at the Tesoro Corp.'s Anacortes, Wash., refinery. That brings to seven the number who lost their lives in that tragedy. Today the families and friends of those workers gather to mourn their loss. They are in our prayers, and our hearts go out to them.

WASHINGTON – Every day, about 14 Americans fail to come home from work to their families. Tens of thousands die from workplace disease and more than 4.6 million workers are seriously injured on the job annually. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in an effort to address urgent safety and health problems facing Americans in the workplace, is implementing a new Severe Violator Enforcement Program and increasing civil penalty amounts.

Agreement, signed at National Latino action summit, aims to promote safety and health for Mexican and other Spanish-speaking workers in construction industry

Alliance renewed during national Latino worker safety and health summit in Houston

HOUSTON In an effort to continue to improve workplace safety and health for area Latino workers, the U.S. Department of Labor s Occupational Safety and Health Administration renewed its alliance with the Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center in Morristown, N.J., today at the National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety in Houston.

HOUSTON – Each year, thousands of workers in the U.S. are injured or killed on the job as a result of preventable incidents, and Latino workers are killed and suffer work-related injuries at higher rates than all other workers. It is with these tragic statistics in mind that U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today convened an historic National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety.

NEWARK, N.J. – A whistleblower investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that New Jersey Transit violated the Federal Railroad Safety Act when it retaliated against an employee for reporting a work-related illness.

NEW YORK – As residents of the northeast U.S. recover from flooding and associated damage from the recent multi-day nor'easter storm that swamped the region, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration urges workers and members of the public engaged in cleanup activities to be aware of the hazards they can encounter and the necessary steps they should take to protect themselves.