Trump's safety research cuts heighten workplace risks, federal workers warn
The Trump administration ordered widespread layoffs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when it issued a 'reduction in force' notice to some 85% of the agency's 1,100 workers employees on 1 April.
While some of those terminations were later reversed following pushback from labor unions and the public, only 328 employees were reinstated.
Related: 'So many are devastated': Trump's federal firings and their ripple effect
'An immediate impact is that we're not as prepared for some type of public health emergency,' said Dr Micah Niemeier-Walsh, an industrial hygienist at Niosh in Ohio, who was fired, and then reinstated. 'Long term, the Trump administration talks about wanting to bring back or expand certain sectors of the economy like mining or manufacturing. Those are jobs that really rely on Niosh work.'
Jennica Bellanca, for example, worked to train emergency responders in mining in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her role was terminated.
'It's such a hard thing. Everyone here works so hard to help support the health and safety of mine workers and other workers,' she said, noting that small companies do not have the resources to invest in alternative safety programs. 'I'm just concerned that nobody else is going to fill this gap. There's a reason that the government provides this safety net.
'In our case, the safety net is to help workers go home to their families every day and make sure that nothing bad happens.'
Bellanca questioned a central argument for the cuts – efficiency in federal government spending – by noting that long-term research projects may now go unreleased.
When we're gone, there's going to be nobody to get this information out
Jennica Bellanca, former trainer for emergency responders
'When we're gone, there's going to be nobody to get this information out,' she said. 'And because we were so abruptly, sort of cut off in the middle of projects, all of this work that we've done, we're not able to get this out, released, as a full public product. In my mind, that's a waste of government money.'
Niemeier-Walsh, the vice-president of American Federal of Government Employees Local 3840, said the reduction in force was the 'final, massive blow to our work' after earlier limitations on travel, communications and remote work imposed since Donald Trump took office in January.
'Our ability to be as successful as we have been as an institute relies on the rest of the Niosh employees coming back because our work is so interconnected,' said Niemeier-Walsh. 'I'm very, very concerned what this means for every single American worker if we're not able to fully restore Niosh. These cuts are not based in science. They're not based on the public health need. They're based on politics, and that's bad for the health of the American people.'
Related: Mass resignations at labor department threaten workers in US and overseas, warn staff – as more cuts loom
She cited as an example the employees in the health hazard evaluation program, which was established to reduce workplace risks and recommend ways to mitigate dangers, who were reinstated after earlier cuts. But they rely on chemists to develop analytical methods to measure chemicals in the workplace, and engineers to design solutions; these chemists and engineers have not been reinstated, she said.
Since the agency was founded in 1970, recordable workplace illnesses and injuries and fatalities have been drastically reduced in the US. The rate of non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses declined from 10.9 cases per 100 full-time workers in 1972 to 2.4 in 2023.
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, and several other labor unions filed a lawsuit this month to restore the cut programs at Niosh, arguing the cuts 'directly threaten the lives of workers whose safety and health depend on Niosh' services that are congressionally mandated.
Even though some of the initial cuts have been reversed,'we have deep concerns that the whole reason Niosh was started to begin with is still eliminated,' said Rebecca Reindel, the director of occupational safety and health at the AFL-CIO, who noted that the agency's founding mandate was to assure every man and woman in the US has safe and healthful working conditions.
Reindel expressed particular concern about disruption to long-term research projects.
Related: US workers feel effects of Trump cuts: 'I am seeing my work dry up'
'All of this research work that they do, where they have these big cohorts, they've been following people for 40 years,' she said. 'And now they're just cut off for these occupational prospective cohorts, where they follow them over years to see what kind of diseases are developing.
'If we're just staffing those cohorts now, we're really losing 40 years worth of work. Even if they restart them, we're going to have lost so many people to follow up.'
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not comment on the record. Its secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, was working to ensure Niosh critical services remain intact and continue as the agency streamlines its operations, they claimed.
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San Francisco Chronicle
5 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Gangs and merchants sell food aid in Gaza, where Israel's offensive has shattered security
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But Israel says Hamas was siphoning it off, though it has provided no evidence of widespread theft. That all changed in March, when Israel ended the ceasefire and halted all imports, including food. Israel seized large parts of Gaza in what it said was a tactic to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. As the Hamas-run police vanished from areas under Israeli control, local tribes and gangs — some of which Israel says it supports — took over, residents say. Israel began allowing a trickle of aid to enter in May. GHF was set up that month with the stated goal of preventing Hamas from diverting aid. Since then, Israel has allowed an average of about 70 trucks a day, compared to the 500-600 the U.N. says are needed. The military said Saturday it would allow more trucks in — 180 entered Sunday — and international airdrops have resumed, which aid organizations say are largely ineffective. Meanwhile, food distribution continues to be plagued by chaos and violence, as seen near GHF sites or around U.N. trucks. Even if Israel pauses its military operations during the day, it's unclear how much the security situation will improve. With both the U.N. and GHF, it's possible Hamas members are among the crowds. In response to questions from The Associated Press, GHF acknowledged that but said its system prevents the organized diversion of aid. 'The real concern we are addressing is not whether individual actors manage to receive food, but whether Hamas is able to systematically control aid flows. At GHF sites, they cannot,' it said. Hamas has denied stealing aid. It's unclear if it's involved in the trade in aid, but its fighters would be taking a major risk by operating in a coordinated way in Israeli military zones that U.N. trucks pass through and where GHF sites are located. The UN says the only solution is a ceasefire U.N. officials have called on Israel to fully lift the blockade and flood Gaza with food. That would reduce the incentive for looting by ensuring enough for everyone and driving down prices. Another ceasefire would include a major increase in aid and the release of Israeli hostages, but talks have stalled. Hamas started the war when its fighters stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 hostages. Fifty captives are still being held in Gaza. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and is run by medical professionals. Israel has disputed its figures without providing its own.
Boston Globe
5 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Trump caps his Scottish visit by opening a new golf course
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Business of Fashion
6 minutes ago
- Business of Fashion
How Swap Is Streamlining Brand Operations Through Unified Commerce
2025 is proving to be a year of reckoning for fashion e-commerce businesses. Geopolitical shifts and the consequent disruption to global trade policies mean there is a greater need for consolidated supply chains — and a more unified approach to commerce. Uncertainty around the Trump administration's tariffs has created turmoil for companies in the fashion industry. Smaller, independent brands with large portions of customers in the US and production overseas are especially at risk due to fluctuating policies. To address the challenges and overarching uncertainty facing small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) today, Swap Commerce — an e-commerce operating system (OS) that helps brands manage logistics and operations across borders — seeks to unlock a unified approach to business. A London-based startup founded in 2022 by Sam Atkinson and Zach Bailet, Swap Commerce's support encompasses shipping and returns to inventory, customs and tax compliance — all within a single platform. 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Now, BoF sits down with Swap Commerce's co-founder and CEO Sam Atkinson to understand the value that the company's all-in-one ecosystem can offer fashion and luxury brands in a fragmented value chain and an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. Sam Atkinson, co-founder and CEO of Swap. (Swap) What motivated the founding of Swap Commerce? Before founding Swap Commerce, I ran my own e-commerce business, and many of the features we built at Swap Commerce aim to solve the pain points I experienced when running that business. For instance, we would ship internationally to the UK, then distribute goods back out to other international markets — which, obviously, created all sorts of issues around tax and compliance. I then started a job at McKinsey, where I worked with a number of large retailers on setting up their operations. Swap Commerce also took inspiration from how big businesses approach operations, and looked at how that could be scaled down effectively for smaller businesses. Those were the two main inspirations for Swap Commerce and rendered exactly what we needed to do to support retailers. If you look at what Shopify has done for e-commerce, it has tried to unify many of the different tools that a brand might have used separately. What we have done, similar to Shopify, is to offer the same unification but for your back-office operations. This includes the parts that feel slightly less exciting, but are really fundamental to your business, whether that is tax and compliance, how you manage your inventory, how you manage your returns, or how you manage what stock should be in which location. What do you believe sets Swap Commerce apart from other tools available for SMEs? First, the user interface that we have built, compared to some of the more legacy providers, is really strong. We also provide connectivity across tools. For example, if you are using the software platform NetSuite for your accounting, we can integrate it seamlessly within Swap Commerce. Any tax calculation we perform for you at Swap Commerce will also be reflected in your NetSuite or other accounting softwares. That connectivity — especially as you become a larger brand generating upwards of 50 to hundreds of millions in revenue — becomes critical, as you are likely using several different systems to manage your operations. Our ability to quickly and seamlessly connect to those systems makes our customers' lives easier. We also offer a suite of different products, whereas many of our competitors only have one. We have a cross-border product where we are the main provider globally; we have a returns product and we have an inventory forecasting tool that we're just launching. You can use one product or multiple — but if you do use multiple, the idea is that they are value compounds. We also leverage data across our different products, so we are able to give you better insights on what you should be doing with your business. Whereas, if you use Global-e for international shipping and Loop for returns management, you'd have to do an integration between both platforms to make them harmonise. What trade and customs pain points do brands expanding internationally face, and how can Swap Commerce support them in this process? It depends on the brand. We recently experienced the rollout of tariffs in the US, and for brands manufacturing in China, that means any shipment that had previously been duty-free now faces a 50 to 60 percent tariff. Even understanding what your landed cost will be is a challenge now. What I mean by that is: what is the total cost to get the shipment to your customer? Being able to give a brand clarity on that, and what it means for their profitability, is an intrinsic part of our work. Internationally, there are all sorts of local tax rules that you need to comply with as well. [We offer] unification for your back-office operations [...] whether that is tax and compliance, how you manage your inventory, how you manage your returns, or stock allocation. For example, if you are a brand selling into New York, once you exceed a particular sales threshold, you are required to start collecting state tax. It is these kinds of complexities that, as a brand, you are not focused on. We try to take that headache away from you. We'll monitor when you cross that threshold, register you for state tax in New York and facilitate the payments on your behalf. We have also built a duty and tax calculation tool which allows you to estimate the cost of any shipment to any location, including duty and taxes. There are a number of different use-cases for it, whether you are a shipping postal carrier, or you want to communicate to customers how much duty and taxes they must pay. How does Clear by Swap help brands navigate tariff changes? Clear enables a brand that has goods made in China to ship to its customers in the United States in a more cost-effective way. It is mostly applicable to UK brands or international brands that also have a US entity. We can help the brand establish a US entity if they do not already have one, then facilitate an inter-company transfer — moving goods from the UK entity to the US entity. The US entity purchases the goods from the UK entity at fair market value. That's typically the manufacturer's cost price (what you pay in China), plus a reasonable markup — similar to what you might charge a wholesaler in the US. Tariffs will be charged on that lower price instead of the retail price — so it is a significant saving. If your transfer price for a product is $50 and the tariff is 50 percent, you pay $25. But if your retail price is $150, you'd be paying $75 in tariff. Clear has essentially allowed brands to continue trading while they decide what to do with their setups post-tariffs. How is Swap Commerce supporting fashion brands specifically? One of the biggest pain points for e-commerce and retail brands has been how to attract and retain customers in a competitive market — especially as privacy regulations make targeted marketing more difficult. There are numerous tools available to help with this now, but we are seeing customer retention become a priority for brands over customer acquisition. How do we help solve that challenge? We manage the returns process, and have other post-purchase tools that offer a seamless customer experience, such as a repair and recycle tool for returned inventory. Looking ahead, what do you believe fashion brands will need from the e-commerce space in the medium term? As AI becomes more widespread, we are thinking about how it can impact a brand's day-to-day operations. A lot of technology tends to reach e-commerce later than it does in enterprise software, where companies are often early adopters. So, we're proactively looking to that space for ideas and innovations we can bring into e-commerce sooner than they might arrive organically. We are exploring how you could automate the day-to-day of an e-commerce brand using AI or using AI agents. Whether it's the processing of your orders and returns, or the automation of the tax filing — and that's more than just filling out the tax form. You could build an agent that would log into the Florida State Tax Portal, submit the form on your behalf, and ensure that all of your filings are done on time, in an automated manner. Our goal is to bring this kind of automation to multiple areas of e-commerce — and that's where we see the most exciting opportunities ahead. This is a sponsored featured paid for by Swap Commerce as part of a BoF partnership.
