Labor

RSS

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the AFL-CIO’s petition for a temporary infectious disease standard to protect employees from COVID-19.

The American Farm Bureau Federation sent the Senate a wish list for the next coronavirus relief bill that includes a significant new round of aid to farmers as well as assistance for rural broadband and health care providers.

Specialty crop farms spent more than three times more money on labor costs than other types of operations, according to data from USDA’s 2018 Agricultural Resources Management Survey.

A White House effort to lower the wages farms have to pay H-2A workers appears to have foundered amid concerns that it would put some regions at a disadvantage to others.

The Senate returns to action this month under pressure to pass another major coronavirus relief package, but a more immediate priority for GOP leaders will be to agree on fixes to the Paycheck Protection Program, a lifeline to many small businesses and farms.

A bill to give businesses more flexility on how and when they spend their forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans passed the House 417-1 on Thursday.

Testing of workers at meatpacking plants may receive more attention in the next version of guidance meant to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection at those facilities, the head of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health said Thursday.

Packing plants shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic are mostly up and running once again, which is placing a new focus on testing and the availability of personal protective equipment to keep their doors open. 

Farmers, employees, consumers, and residents in communities such as Waterloo, Iowa, can only hope the changes Tyson Foods has made in its sprawling pork processing plant there will soon have workers safely processing hogs again at something close to full capacity.

China snapped up another 136,000 metric tons of 2019-20 U.S. soybeans this week, according to a USDA announcement Tuesday, showing the country is not letting up on purchases that go toward meeting its promises under the “phase one” trade agreement.