Cherie Berry
NC Department of Labor continues to resist workplace safety rules for COVID-19
Department is now required to adopt workplace standards for COVID for healthcare workers – whether others will be covered remains in question The U.S. Department of Labor is adopting new emergency standards to protect healthcare workers from COVID, while its North Carolina counterpart has gone to court to defend its position that the potentially fatal disease is not a workplace hazard.
Backed by science, advocates legally challenge Labor Secretary Cherie Berry over COVID-19
After the state Department of Labor in November rejected a petition to mandate emergency workplace rules, several North Carolina advocacy groups are asking the Wake County Superior Court for a judicial review of the denial. “Anything we can do to mitigate the transmission of that virus from someone is really essential,” Dr. David Wohl, professor […]
A fitting conclusion to two decades of neglect
In one of her final acts, outgoing NC Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry declines to help protect workers from COVID-19 It shouldn’t and doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Some things in the world of 21st Century policy and politics – President Donald Trump telling outrageous lies, Senator Phil Berger blocking the expansion of health coverage to hundreds of thousands of struggling North Carolinians, Senator Richard Burr always making sure to look out for Number One – are as predictable as the sunrise.
“Must read” news story details NC Labor commissioner’s kid gloves treatment of health and safety violations
If you have a subscription to Raleigh’s News & Observer or the Charlotte Observer (or know someone who does), be sure to check out this morning’s big business section report on North Carolina’s longtime Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry entitled “After workers die, North Carolina shields many employers from biggest penalties.” After providing the details […]
NC Secretary of Labor Berry may have hit a new low with hurricane statement
Wow. Just when you thought it was impossible for North Carolina’s Secretary of Employers…er ah…Labor, Cherie Berry — a woman who has managed to make a well-compensated career out of slapping her face on elevators and keeping the employers who bankroll her campaigns happy by doing as little as possible to protect workers — to […]
Editorial: Cherie Berry is simply not doing her job
The lead editorial in this morning’s edition of Raleigh’s News & Observer puts it succinctly as it comments on the ongoing N&O series by reporter Mandy Locke on Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry: “She wasn’t doing her job when Democrats were in power, and she’s not doing it now. In a News & Observer report by […]
This week’s news media “must read”
If you didn’t see it over the weekend, you need to click here and catch up with reporter Mandy Locke’s new series on North Carolina’s absurdly ineffective and lackluster Department of Labor: “The Reluctant Regulator.” As Locke explains, Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, who has now been in office for almost 15 years and long been […]
Advocates for workplace health and safety to observe Worker Memorial Day today
Today is Worker Memorial Day, a day to honor workers who have died on the job. The recent construction accidents in Raleigh are stark reminders of why this day matters. Worker advocates will gather at 10:30 at 7 W. Lenoir Street in Raleigh, the site where 3 workers died, and will walk to the NC […]
Court order once again highlights North Carolina’s invisible Labor Commissioner
It simply shouldn’t take a four-year herculean effort by an extraordinarily dedicated lawyer in order for a handful of average workers to get paid an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work. Unfortunately, as this story by reporter Mandy Locke in this morning’s edition of Raleigh’s News & Observer makes clear, it does take […]
Audit finds N.C. Labor Department lacking in re-inspection of elevators and businesses that don’t follow wage laws
Malfunctioning elevators aren’t getting follow-up inspections, and labor inspectors didn’t check in on companies who have gotten in trouble in the past to ensure compliance with wage and hour laws, according to a financial audit from N.C. State Auditor Beth Wood’s office. The audit released Thursday by Wood’s office found that at the N.C. Department of […]
Farmworker advocates send “valentines” to Labor Commish
North Carolina’s Farmworker Advocacy Network is promoting a fun new Valentine’s Day initiative in which it calls on caring North Carolinians to ask State Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry to “quit breaking our hearts.” This is from the website: “We want to tell Cherie Berry that she is “breaking our heart” this Valentine’s Day with her […]