House Budget Attacks Job Safety for Rooftop Workers
This just in from the Center for American Progress:
HOUSE GOP BUDGET LAUNCHES FULL ON CLASS WAR – Dave Jamieson: “In addition to blocking President Obama’s health care law and slashing funding for job training, the budget plan presented by House Republicans for health and labor programs this week would scuttle several worker safety protections put forth by the Department of Labor…The budget also takes aim at an obscure but notable Labor Department rule intended to reduce the death and maiming of construction workers who toil on rooftops. The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had planned to ramp up the enforcement of harness rules for roofers working on residential construction sites. In a move that will likely please the construction lobby, the Republican plan forbids the agency from doing so.”
OSHA Crackdown on Severe Violators Nets 182 Firms
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited 182 workplaces—two-thirds of them construction firms—in its year-old severe violator enforcement program (SVEP), according to BNA’s Daily Labor Report (DLR—subscription required).
Using information from a Freedom Information Act request and public records, DLR found that the most common reason for a company to earn a place on the list was what OSHA terms a “high gravity” violation of a safety hazard on which that OSHA has put an emphasis. Those include fall hazards, construction, combustible dust, grain handling, excavation and trenching and several others. Of the 182 employers cited in the SVEP, 109 made the list because of such violations.
The next most common reason (32 companies) for a SVEP citation was a workplace death at a company that had been previously cited for violation that was related to the fatality or other repeated violations. Read the rest of this entry »
4,340 Killed on the Job; Job Safety Laws ‘Must Be Strengthened’
 |
|
Forty years after the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), “there is much more work to be done….The job safety laws must be strengthened,” finds the 2011 AFL-CIO annual job safety report “Death on the Job,” released this morning to commemorate Workers Memorial Day. (Click here for the full report.)
In 2009 (the latest figures available), 4,340 workers were killed on the job—an average of 12 workers a day—and an estimated 50,000 died of occupational diseases. More than 4.1 million workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in private and state and local workplaces. But the report says the 4.1 million “understates the problem,” and the actual number is more likely 8 million to 12 million.
The safety report estimates that since the OSH Act become law 40 years ago tomorrow, it has saved an estimated 431,000 lives. The nation’s two mining laws, the 42-year-old Coal Mine Health and Safety Act and the 34-year-old Mine Safety and Health Act, have saved thousands more.
Last year’s string of major workplace tragedies, however, shows the desperate need for stronger safety and health rules coupled with tougher enforcement. Those disasters included the Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners, an explosion at the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown, Conn., that killed six workers, another at the Tesoro Refinery in Washington State that killed seven workers and the BP/Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast oil rig explosion that killed 11 and caused a massive environmental and economic disaster. Says the report:
The nation must renew the commitment to protect workers from injury, disease and death and make this a high priority. Employers must meet their responsibilities to protect workers and be held accountable if they put workers in danger. Only then can the promise of safe jobs for all of America’s workers be fulfilled.
Honor Fallen Workers, Fight for Job Safety on Workers Memorial Day
 |
In hundreds of events around the nation on Workers Memorial Day, April 28, workers will gather together at worksites, city parks, houses of worship and local and state government offices to remember those who have lost their lives on the job and demand strong safety laws and tough enforcement of those laws.
In Cumberland, Md., union, faith and community activists will hold a prayer vigil for workers killed and hurt on the job. In Tucson, Ariz., the Pima Area Labor Federation will honor fallen workers and call on state and national lawmakers to make job safety a priority.
Click here to find a Workers Memorial Day event near you or to register an event.
In 2009 (the latest figures available), 4,340 workers were killed on the job and another 50,000 to 60,000 died of occupational diseases. More than 4.1 million workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in private and state and local workplaces.
Tomorrow, the 2011 edition of the AFL-CIO’s “Death on the Job” report on the state of safety for the nation’s workers will be released. It includes a state-by-state look at job deaths and injuries, a demographic breakdown of workers killed and hurt on the job, an in-depth look at job safety enforcement and more. Be sure to check back here.
With the Occupational Safety and Health Act reaching its 40th anniversary April 28, the Obama administration is refocusing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration on protecting workers and enforcing safety laws after years of neglect by the Bush administration.
As OSHA Turns 40, A Look Forward
 |
AFL-CIO Media Outreach Fellow Nora Frederickson sends us this report on a discussion at the Center for American Progress on the future of Americans’ health and safety at work.
Since 1970, workers in every state have counted on workplace inspections, whistleblower protections, and standard safety regulations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to keep them safe at work. Today, unions and their partners in business are expanding their roles in helping OSHA protect workers today, according to panelists at “OSHA at 40,” a discussion at the Center for American Progress on Thursday featuring David Michaels, Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. In two separate panels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Michael laid out OSHA’s plans for the future and talked with representatives from the labor, business and academic communities about how to adapt safety regulation for the changing workplace. Read the rest of this entry »
Workers Memorial Day Honors Those Killed on Job, Including BP Rig Workers
|
A year ago today–as workers were being pushed to finish drilling faster than some thought was safe, according to news reports–the BP Deepwater/Horizon drilling platform, 72 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. Eleven workers were killed, the rest were rescued.
The BP well then begin spewing 206 million gallons of oil—19 times more than the Exxon Valdez disaster—triggering the worst environmental and economic disaster ever in the Gulf Coast.
Two days later the rig sank to the bottom of the Gulf—likely carrying with it the bodies of the dead workers that have yet to be recovered.
On April 28, as they call for tougher job safety laws as part of the 22nd annual Workers Memorial Day, workers across the country will honor those killed on the BP Deepwater/Horizon rig and the thousands more killed on the job each year. (Click here to find a Workers Memorial Day event near you or to register an event).
Republican Budget Proposal Attacks Middle Class, Destroys Jobs
How bad is the Republican federal budget proposal? AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel describes it as an “all-out assault against middle-class Americans.”
In a letter to House members, Samuel summarizes some of the most egregious elements of H.R. 1, the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011. Among them, is a proposed funding level for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that is so draconian, it potentially would defund the agency completely through the end of the fiscal year in September. Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee wields considerable power, added the amendment to defund the NLRB.
Slashing the NLRB is just one of many examples of how the Republican-backed budget attacks the middle class and working families by taking away job safety protections, employment training opportunities and by slashing hundreds of thousands of family-supporting jobs. Here’s more: Read the rest of this entry »
Rand Paul Attacks Flight Attendants’ Safety
With some 280,000 jobs at stake in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, you’d think Senate lawmakers would be working together to get those jobs in the pipeline as soon as possible. Not.
First, Republicans used the bill as a vehicle for their near pathological obsession to repeal health care reform. Now, with the support of most of his Republican colleagues, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to use the bill to take away workplace safety and health rights for flight attendants—and, in effect, put passengers at risk as well.
The bill extends Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) protection to flight attendants and other air crew, something air crew workers have been seeking for decades. Paul’s amendment would cut those protections from the FAA bill. Currently, workplace safety standards and enforcement falls to the FAA. Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) President Veda Shook says:
To date, OSHA has been kept out of the aircraft cabin and that means flight attendants and passengers are subject to an environment absent sanitation standards, temperature standards and proper procedures for clean up of bio hazards. This is inexcusable.
OSHA Backtracks on Proposed Workplace Injury Rule
It seems simple enough. Employers already keep a record for workplace injuries and illnesses—why not add a column to the report for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)—ergonomic injuries? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would provide the form and employers would simply put a check mark in the right place to identify which injuries are MSDs. But now OSHA is withdrawing the rule, which applies only to small businesses, from final review to get further input from small businesses.
From 1970 until the Bush administration in 2003 deleted the MSD column on the injury and illness form, employers were required to identify these injuries. But when OSHA proposed to restore the MSD record-keeping rule, the business community went into a tizzy, claiming it was a costly burden and government overreach. That’s not a surprise.
MSDs are the biggest source of workplace injury and illness and AFL-CIO Safety and Health Director Peg Seminario says the proposed rule would help employers, workers and the government to identify the extent of the problems and to take action to prevent them. Read the rest of this entry »
Tough Mine, Workplace Safety Bill Advances
Tough new mine safety and workplace safety rules cleared a big hurdle yesterday when the House Education and Labor Committee approved legislation that includes stronger enforcement tools, tougher penalties and broader workers’ rights.
The bill—now named The Robert C. Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act (H.R. 5663) in honor of the late West Virginia senator who was a champion of mine safety—focuses on mine safety, but also includes provisions to strengthen safety protections in all workplaces. Says committee chairman George Miller (D-Calif.):
Too many families have suffered a tragic loss because of callous mine operators, ineffective protections and outdated laws. It is time to provide effective protections so that every worker can return home safely at the end of their shift.
