Joining with Sen. Susan Collins (R, ME), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said this week she's introduced "The Dairy Pricing Reform Act," a plan, she says, will provide a "fair safety net" for small producers while improving inventory reporting and transparency. Gillibrand, who represents a state where dairy is her number one agriculture industry, said hay and grain shortages and high fuel costs have decimated New York dairy production, leading to a sell-off of nearly 65,000 cows in the state. The Gillibrand bill requires USDA to hold hearings and restructure the dairy pricing system, while directing the secretary to make recommendations to Congress, including competitive pay pricing or shifting from a Class 4 system to a Class 2 system on dairy prices.  

Further, she's pushing a separate bill - the Dairy Income Fairness Act - that requires the federal government to guarantee farmers with 200 cows or less a $6.50 margin. The margin is calculated by deducting the cost of feed from the cost of milk, and exempting the first 200 cows from supply management. The current Milk Income Loss Contract would be extended for nine months and payments would be pegged to inflation. On inventory reporting, Gillibrand contends certain cheese inventories "influence trading activity" on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, while at the same time cold storage inventories are not currently reported except for minor voluntary reporting. Her bill would make reporting to USDA mandatory and give USDA the authority to audit warehouse inventories. Finally, "to provide more transparency to dairy cooperatives," Gillibrand would require cooperatives which engage in bloc voting to give member farmers written notice when votes are held and requires each milk marketing order to set up an "information clearinghouse" to notify producers when proposed milk marketing orders reforms are expected.

The 30 governors who comprise the Governor's Biofuels Coalition (BCC) have sent a letter to Congress urging members to not repeal or change the federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandating how much biofuel must be blended with gasoline on a yearly basis. The Iowa Biodiesel Board - Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is chair of the coalition - called the letter, "a bold statement of refusal to back down to the unrelenting false accusations leveled by opponents of biofuels." The letter says, "We're proud of the fact that since the passage of the RFS, the U.S. has reversed the course of our dependence on imported oil. As governors we see firsthand the impact of that the RFS has had on our states, and we urge you to reject any modifications to the RFS."

Warehousing - Think Safety

Warehouse operations can present a wide variety of potential hazards for employees. Safety issues commonly found at warehouse facilities involve: forklifts, hazard communication, guarding floor and wall openings, blocked exits, electrical and mechanical power, lockout/tagout, personal protective equipment, hand-held fire extinguishers and ergonomics.

Short training document that reviews hazards and solutions present in a warehouse environment.
 Warehousing - Think Safety - English

Warehousing - Think Safety - Spanish

Short training document that reviews hazards and solutions present in a warehouse environment.
Warehousing - Think Safety - Spanish



Role of Traffic Accidents in Workers Compensation - An Update

March, 2013 

National Council on Compensation Insurance   

 

Traffic accidents are a leading cause of high-severity workers compensation injuries. Moreover, they are pervasive; indeed, a study by NCCI published in December, 2006 noted that even the clerical classification has surprisingly high exposure to traffic accidents.

 

Driver-related factors that are linked to traffic accidents include speeding, distraction, and impairment. There are differences between accidents for large trucks and for passenger vehicles, as well as impacts due to recessions.

 

In this update, we extend our analysis to add several years of data, allowing us to observe the reduction in traffic-related injuries during recessions and, thus, to confirm the cyclical characteristics of traffic accidents during the Great Recession. Also new to this update is an analysis of traffic accidents as a source of claims with multiple claimants. Finally, the claim characteristics exhibits from the original study have been updated with more recent data.

 

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President Obama this week ramped up his calls for the Senate to move quickly on comprehensive immigration reform now that labor, general business and Senate drafters appear to be on the same page or close to it. However, there's no agreement between farm workers and ag employers, who hire the majority of seasonal workers. Key Republican Senators are pushing back, saying they want the bill to be fully vetted through hearings before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) moves it to the floor. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, NY), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration, refugees and border security subcommittee and one of the architects of his chamber's likely immigration reform package, said last week "we're 90% there" on bill drafting, but gave no specifics save for his cautious optimism a bill will be introduced when Congress returns next week.  

The only new development on the House side is that the bipartisan coalition of members is looking at not just a single "path to citizenship," but perhaps as many as three options for undocumented workers. There's no word on when the House group will present its legislative proposal. The speed with which any immigration reform bill moves through the Senate is becoming more of a hot button issue. Echoing the President's call for swift action, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D, VT) said again this week it's his intention to move the bill quickly. Leahy said he wants a meeting with the Senate Gang of Eight - the octet of bipartisan interests who've worked for months on the most extensive immigration reform package since 1986 - to discuss how efficiently and quickly a bill can be moved through the Senate.  

He asked for the meeting in a response letter to Gang of Eight member Sen. Marco Rubio (R, FL), promising a "clear and open" process on the immigration package. Rubio wrote to Leahy to ask for "regular order" in holding hearings on various aspects of the expected legislation. Rubio is a major player in the Senate debate given his conservative credentials, his popularity and constituency. Rubio believes the 2007 congressional effort to reform federal immigration law failed because leadership tried to rush it through the process. As previously reported, six of the eight Republicans on the judiciary committee sent Leahy a similar letter asking him to delay setting a markup deadline on the expected legislation until after Judiciary and other committees have held hearings on aspects of the reform package.

"The Judiciary Committee is capable of swift and thorough action," Leahy wrote to Rubio, citing the several hearings already held by his committee on the need for immigration reform. "As soon as we have comprehensive immigration legislation to review, I will consider scheduling a hearing...I am hopeful you recognize, as I do, that if we do not act quickly and decisively we will lose the opportunity we now have to fix our immigration system." While the House bipartisan group continues its work, leadership has said very little. However, it appears there may be an increasing GOP consensus that moving a series of smaller targeted immigration reform bills is better than trying to pass a comprehensive legislative package.