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Workplaces Could Get Safer with a Democratic President in Office |
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America’s workers are likely in store for a little pain relief if a Democrat takes the White House next year. TheHill.com reports that all but one (Delaware Sen. Joe Biden) of the Democratic hopefuls say they will put new workplace ergonomics rules at the top of their job safety agenda.
Unions, workplace safety advocates and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) worked for several years to develop an ergonomics rule that would have significantly reduced the number of workers’ repetitive stress injuries. Strident opposition from Big Business groups and Republican congressional leaders stalled action for years, but in November 2000, OSHA issued the rule.
Yet shortly after President Bush took office in 2001, he signed legislation to repeal the OSHA workplace ergonomics standard, even though a 2001 National Academy of Sciences study estimated 1 million workers a year suffer from carpal tunnel and other repetitive strain injuries. He instead called for voluntary guidelines.
Big Business’ opposition to the job safety standard hasn’t lessened over the years and if the ergonomics fight is revived, corporate special interests are expected to mount a huge campaign to prevent a new standard.
Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO Occupational Safety and Health director, told TheHill.com that unions want a new administration to make ergonomics a priority and to ensure new OSHA and Department of Labor leaders are strongly committed to a new standard.
We need to be strong and thoughtful in proceeding on this issue because it will continue to be a big political fight.
Both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) voted against repealing the ergonomics rule in 2001 and say they would pursue new workplace protections, as does Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) have detailed plans to reduce ergonomic injuries. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Ala.) say ergonomics are important in a workplace but have not outlined any specific plans to address the issue.
Sen. Biden tells TheHill.com he doesn’t believe there is a need for a new standard but that existing workplace safety rules must be more strongly enforced.
Republican candidates haven’t weighed in on the issue, but all six, who were serving in Congress in 2001, voted to repeal the ergonomics standard. They are Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Sam Brownback (Kansas), former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) and Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Ron Paul (Texas) and Tom Tancredo (Colo.)
Check out the Health and Safety section at the AFL-CIO’s BushWatch site to learn more about the most egregious actions of the Bush administration and, until recently, the Republican-controlled Congress. Be sure to visit the Working Families Vote 2008 website to see the candidates’ positions on other important working family issues.
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Pain relief with Democrats? That’s a joke, right? The Democrats support AMNESTY for illegal aliens along with in-state tuition and other open border measures. Why aren’t you protecting jobs for American citizens?
Criticize Bush all you want, but where was the labor leadership? While Bush was putting corporate stooges in charge of MSHA and OSHA, where were the protests? Did anyone in leadership scream? Seems to me, the response was to try to get rid of the AFL-CIO’s health and safety dept altogether. Finally, they compromised and just cut it in half.
Where are the cojones? Shame on you guys!
It doesn’t really matter whether the next president is Republican or Democrat, corporate America “owns” both parties and the same old crapola will keep going on.
Secondly, campaign promises are a fairy tale: they will promise anything to get elected, then when in office, start backpedaling on the promises and finally admit “Ooops! I goofed. Cannot do what I promised you” and that is supposed to erase all of the empty promises they made knowing that they could not or would not keep those promises…..The joke is on the voters who voted them in….
Wasn’t part of Bush’s campaign about how family friendly a Bush administration would be? How he cared about making life better for working people? And how did the Bush administration do for working people? Disgusting, isn’t it? And the joke is on the voters who voted him in….while corporate America and the wealthy are laughing their tushes off and raking in money hand over fist….
Good post, Granny. You forgot that he promised to be the edjucashion Prezidint.
Well, I just have to say something here. I believe that even a “bad” Democrat is better than a “good” Republican. Well, not exactly true, but both parties have neglected the American worker for a very, very long time now. Both parties have promoted the free trade agreements that are destroying this country, and both parties have contributed to corporate greed, either directly, or indirectly. What needs to take place is a complete overhaul of how American leaders view American enterprises, and the people working within them, both labor and management. Until there begins to be some common sense back in our government, things won’t change for the better.
The Democrats supporting amnesty for illegal aliens is only a half truth, and spoken like a “true” Republican. There is much more attached to this support. All Americans, with the exception of Native American Indians, were either born elsewhere, or have ancestors that were born elsewhere. I do not like the fact that people can come into this country without being properly documented. However, I do not blame them. The sad reality is that most of the people that come here were exploited by others to come to this country to do menial work with little or no pay. Obviously, their own countries do not offer them any kind of promising future. Then they come here and, ironically, they are stuck here, somewhere between a rock and a hard place, so to speak. Our government allowed these workers to be exploited, and it has looked the other way. Now they are the ones we blame. What a shame.