New Mine Safety Chief: The Change We Needed
Today, the U.S. Senate confirmed Joe Main—by unanimous consent—as the new leader of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Main is a longtime advocate for safety and health in the mining industry. He worked 22 years as director of Occupational Health and Safety for the Mine Workers (UMWA). That’s a huge change from the Bush-era head of MSHA, coal-industry lobbyist Richard Stickler, who came under fire for failure to enforce mining safety laws.
Red Cross Workers Fight for Safe Blood, Fair Contract
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At the American Red Cross headquarters in Farmington, Conn., the 225 AFSCME Local 3145 members—front-line blood services workers who make sure the blood supply is safe and sound—have been working without a contract since April.
Around the country, several bargaining units are in the same situation. They say the Red Cross is seeking to replace nurses with unlicensed supervisors, force employees to work unrealistic schedules, make workers bear the increased costs of an inferior health care plan and turn blood collection into an assembly line process.
AFSCME Local 3145 is part of a national coalition of unionized Red Cross workers who have united to improve working conditions, along with donor and blood safety supply at the Red Cross.
In Farmington, the nurses, laboratory technicians, phlebotomists, drivers and other workers are engaged in a campaign raising public awareness about how Red Cross puts profits ahead of safety. Says Local 3145 President Debra Lenentine:
The Red Cross is all about big money and bigger profits at the expense of donors and workers.
Check Out New ‘Green Jobs, Safe Jobs’ Blog
Say “green jobs” and the phrase conjures up visions of Earth friendly, energy saving, pollution-free, high-skilled, well-paid jobs. In short, the type of green jobs for which we in the labor movement and the Obama administration are striving to create.
But as the new blog “Green Jobs, Safe Jobs” points out, if the corporate world is allowed to control and manipulate this growing sector of the global economy, workers and the environment are at risk.
Left to its own devices, the green economy could deliver the same unhealthy mix of hire-and-fire, poison-and-pain jobs that remain a blight on the reputational landscape of the not-so-green economy.
Solis Vows to Work with Obama on Employee Free Choice Act
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told a group of Chicago area union, community, business and academic leaders the Employee Free Choice Act will level the playing field for workers who want to form unions and bargain of a better life.
I believe what you all believe. Union jobs are good jobs, paying higher salaries and wages.
In a speech yesterday before the Union League Club of Chicago—co-sponsored by the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL)—Solis pledged to work with President Obama “to make the strongest case possible for the Employee Free Choice Act.”
I believe workers have the right to fairness and balance in the workplace and in order to rebuild the middle class, we need to level the playing field for all workers.
The Secret’s Over and Out: Bush Chemical Exposure Rule Killed
It’s no secret now. The Bush administration’s clandestine move to loosen the rules on how much toxin or dangerous chemicals to which workers can be exposed—and to make it more difficult to issue new worker protection rules—is now officially dead.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced this week that the proposed rule was unnecessary and withdrew it. The rule came to be known as the secret rule because of the Bush administration’s attempt to keep it off the public’s and media’s radar screen last year.
In January, as one of its first official acts, the Obama administration ordered work halted on the chemical exposure rule and other last-minute regulatory changes the Bush administration tried to ram through before leaving office.
Obama Nominates Occupational Health Expert to Head OSHA
In what is described as “a win for every worker,” President Obama yesterday nominated Dr. David Michaels to head the Occupational Safety and Heath Administration (OSHA).
On the science blog, Effective Measure, Revere writes:
OSHA once again has deeply committed health and safety professionals at its helm. It’s a big job and as important as they come. Lives depend on it….This is a win for every worker.
Michaels is an epidemiologist and research professor at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. He has conducted numerous studies of the health effects of occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, including asbestos, metals and solvents, and has written extensively on science and regulatory policy.
Report: Bush’s Voluntary Program Didn’t Help Job Safety and Health
An investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirms what union and other workplace safety advocates have charged for years—the Bush administration’s reliance on voluntary policing by employers of their safety and health actions did not improve worker safety.
The GAO report, released this week, concludes that under the Bush administration the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program lacked proper oversight, did not improve worker safety and diverted scarce resources from other enforcement duties.
The program has been in place since 1982, but the Bush administration greatly expanded it and widely promoted it as an alternative to strong enforcement of workplace safety and health laws. During its last five years, the Bush administration more than doubled the number of workplaces under the voluntary program.
Labor FY 2010 Budget Will Protect Workers. What a Concept
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told two congressional committees this week that the Department of Labor’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget will
restore capacity in our worker protection programs, which have languished for years.
Appearing in separate hearings before the Senate and House Appropriations committees’ Labor, Health and Human Services and Education subcommittees, Solis said the department’s budget—including a 10 percent increase for worker protection programs—will fund three priorities:
- Renewed capacity of programs that protect workers’ safety and health, pay and benefits;
- New and innovative ways to promote economic recovery and the competitiveness of our nation’s workers; and
- Carrying out programs in a way that is accountable and transparent to the public and our stakeholders.
Hearing Highlights Need for Tougher Penalties for Job Safety and Health Violations
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Employers who violate workplace safety and health laws—even to the point where workers are killed or injured—now face such minimal penalties that too many ignore the law, witnesses told the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee during a hearing yesterday that coincided with Workers Memorial Day.
They called for tougher enforcement of safety laws and stronger sanctions against law-breaking employers.
Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO director of health and safety, told the panel:
Current OSHA enforcement and penalties are far too weak to provide any meaningful incentive for employers to address job hazards or to deter violations. As a result, workers are exposed to serious hazards that put them in danger and cause injury and death.
Obama’s First 100 Days Mark Major Wins for Working Families
It’s worth repeating—again and again: What a difference an election makes, especially an election in which working family voters pool their strength and efforts to put an end to the most anti-worker, corporate-beholden administration in modern times and elect a president who shares our values and dreams.
Today is the 100th day of Barack Obama’s presidency. In the past three months, Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress—operating with a Republican axe hanging over it—have made major strides to rebuild America for working families.
