WASHINGTON – Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement on Workers Memorial Day, April 28, 2010:

"Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones once said, 'Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.' That call to arms rings especially true today, on Workers Memorial Day, and on the heels of a tragic month for the nation's working families.

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 – The U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service today announced a $5 million grant competition to provide job training, counseling and placement services (including job readiness, and literacy and skills training) to expedite the reintegration of homeless female veterans and veterans with families into the labor force.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced that MSHA inspectors responded to three separate anonymous complaints about hazardous conditions at three coal mines owned by Massey Energy Co.

Burnsville, Minnesota – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Larry Lauterbach, the president and former owner of the Burnsville construction company Slate Cement Inc., for making untimely and delinquent participant contributions and loan repayments to the company’s 401(k) plan and to its health and dental plan in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor s Women s Bureau will host a teleconference focusing on opportunities and resources available to help women succeed in green entrepreneurship. This program, which is open to the public and press, will be the second in a series of teleconferences designed to provide workforce practitioners an exchange of ideas on how to better connect women with green jobs training and employment.

WHO: Speakers are as follows:

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 – U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement on the death of W. Willard Wirtz:

"Willard Wirtz liked to call me '25.' So I would call him '10.' The number suited him perfectly.

Nashville, Tennessee – A federal court in Nashville has issued a default judgment order against Midland Employer Services of Brentwood, Tennessee, to protect 401(k) assets owned by workers at the defunct employee leasing company.

The order, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, removes the defendant from service as fiduciary of the plan and appoints Jeanne Barnes Bryant as an independent fiduciary with responsibility to terminate the plan and distribute its assets to eligible plan participants.

Nashville, Tennessee – The U.S. Department of Labor has agreed to an amended consent judgment with David Starkey, a former corporate officer of Midland Employer Services in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville division, the amended judgment requires the defendant to repay the full amount still owed to the former company’s group health plan, currently $46,248.75 plus interest accrued from April 25, 2005, to the present.

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.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending April 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 456,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 480,000. The 4-week moving average was 460,250, an increase of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 457,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6 percent for the week ending April 10, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's revised rate of 3.7 percent.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $16,571,738 National Emergency Grant increment to continue clean-up and recovery efforts in the wake of the tsunami that struck American Samoa on Sept. 29, 2009.

Turning Green to Gold, Safely campaign to collect best practices from public

WASHINGTON – The Muhlenberg Job Corps Center of Greenville, Ky., today received the first ever "Earth Day, Every Day" National Green Center Recognition Award from Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in an Earth Day 40th anniversary ceremony at the U.S. Department of Labor.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that approximately 5,500 workers from companies in 13 states – California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin – are eligible to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement on the introduction of legislation regarding the issue of misclassification:

Washington – The heads of five agencies of the U.S. Department of Labor will host live Web chats —open to the public and members of the press — to discuss their respective regulatory agendas. The Labor Department’s entire regulatory agenda is scheduled for publication in the April 26 issue of the Federal Register.

Who: Heads of U.S. Department of Labor agencies

What: Individual Web chats on agencies’ regulatory agendas

When:

Monday, April 26

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has announced a $3,531,000 National Emergency Grant increment to Indiana to provide services to about 1,040 workers affected by mass layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry across the state.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced that the agency launched an inspection blitz over the past weekend at 57 coal mines whose history of underground conditions indicated a significant number of violations and/or conditions that may include problems relating to methane accumulations, ventilation practices, rock dust applications and inadequate mine examinations.