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Ergonomics Battle

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A modest ergonomics rule from OSHA has business seething ...

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It would take the the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about 107 years to inspect every workplace under its jurisdiction just once, given current funding and staffing levels. That’s the conclusion of the 9th edition of the AFL-CIO’s annual report on workplace safety. In eight states, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas, the situation is even worse: workers should expect to wait about 150 years to see a health & safety inspector. When inspectors do show up, the average fine for a serious violation of federal job safety standards is $776; in states that carry out their own enforcement, the penalty is about $600.

MORE INFO:

Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect — A State-by-State Profile of Worker Safety in the United States (on the AFL-CIO website).

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"Compassionate Conservatism" at Work —
OSHA's New
Ergonomics Rule Destroyed

   

Telling a Whopper

How Business Lies
And Exaggerates
To Have Its Way

Big Business lobbyists were livid over the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's new ergonomic standard. The standard, finally published in November after a decade of struggle, is aimed at protecting workers from repetitive strains in the workplace. While the new standard wasn't everything worker health and safety activists had hoped for, it would have been a big improvement over no standard.

But not, of course, according to the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and other employer groups. They maintain that it would have cost them up to $126 billion to begin implementing the rules next year. OSHA said  the number would have been more like $4.5 billion.

But a look at industry's previous attempts to estimate the cost of health and safety regulations shows how badly the bosses exaggerate. Before OSHA released a new rule on vinyl chloride back in 1974, industry said it would cost up to $94 billion to implement. OSHA said $1 billion. The real cost? $278 million. Four years later, OSHA published a new rule on cotton dust. Industry said it would cost up to $444 million. OSHA estimated $280 million. The actual cost: $83 million.

This information, reported in the New York Times on December 20th, 2000, is based on a study conducted by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in 1995. The text of this article is based on an article that appeared in the March, 2001 issue of the Labor Party Press.

With the elections safety behind them, most House and Senate Republicans (and a smattering of Democrats) lost no time in shedding their cloak of "compassionate conservativism" on March 6th and 7th, telling hundreds of thousands of workers to "go suffer." 

As payback for a multi-million dollar investment in the last election, these anti-worker lawmakers handed big business a big victory, voting to overturn OSHA's new ergonomics standard, which had just taken effect on January 16th, 2001 after a decade-long struggle to get the standard in place. Less than two weeks later, President Bush put the final nail in the new standard's coffin, signing the repeal on March 20th.

Six Democrats joined Senate Republicans, in a 56-44 vote, to overturn the measure under the never-before-used Congressional Review Act (CRA); in the House 16 Democrats joined all but 13 Republicans in a vote of 223-206 (see how your Senators [note: Senate link may be out of date] and Representative voted). Worse, under the CRA, OSHA is now prohibited from trying to issue any similar rule in the future without permission from Congress.

COMPASSIONATE?

Never mind that up to 1.6 million repetitive stress injuries per year could have been curbed. Never mind that an employer would not have been required to take any action until a worker suffered a documented case of work-related musculoskeletal disorder — and even then, remedies could have been both simple and inexpensive. Never mind the suffering. Never mind the lost productivity. Never mind even the costs to business.

Never mind that, on January 17, the day after the new standard took effect, the National Academy of Sciences released a report confirming that musculoskeletal workplace injuries are caused by exposure to ergonomic hazards and such injuries can be prevented.

"Each year, these disorders affect about 1 million workers and cost the nation between $45 billion and $54 billion in compensation expenditures, lost wages, and decreased productivity," reports the Academy. "Americans make more than 70 million trips to physicians' offices each year seeking treatment for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)," said a National Academy press release. "But the problem can be reduced with well-designed intervention programs" (see: National Academy of Sciences Press Release; 1/17/01).

Despite the suffering and the costs to the economy, big business and its congressional allies vowed to continue their decade-long fight against the regulations. Both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers called repeal of the standard a top legislative priority. 

IRONY?

The ultimate irony, perhaps, is that the new standard might even have saved business money through lower compensation costs and higher productivity. Instead, employer groups spent time in Washington telling legislators one exaggerated horror story after another about how the new standard would put them out of business. This not withstanding the fact that they've historically tried to fight OSHA regulations with exactly these kinds of exaggerations that were later proven to be untrue (see sidebar).

Make no mistake, the real reason for this opposition is not cost, but control. Bosses simply can't stand the thought that they can't do what they want, when they want and in the way they want to do it. Even to the point of shooting themselves in the foot.

One thing is clear: we won't hear about hear about "compassionate conservatism" from members of this Congress until they face reelection again. Maybe by then, voters will see that line for exactly what it is: a consultant-inspired election gimmick designed to obfuscate the mean-spirited, anti-worker actions they have taken to win millions of dollars in political contributions from business.


MORE INFORMATION

Bush, Congress to Injured Workers: Suffer! (UE News)

•   National Academy of Sciences Press Release; 1/17/01
•   Fighting for An Ergonomics Standard (a good overview of the new rule by UE News Health & Safety columnist Dave Kotelchuck)
•  Visit OSHA's Ergonomics Website
• 

Job Safety — On December 12, 2000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its injury and illness data for 1999, showing 6,023 fatal workplace injuries and 5.7 million non-fatal injuries and illnesses were reported in private industry. The complete report is available on the BLS website.


WHAT YOU CAN DO:
• 

Email your Senators and Representative, expressing either your appreciation for their vote to support the ergonomics standard, or your disappointment at their failure to take action to end the needless suffering of millions of workers. Send email through  The Electronic Activist website (a few clicks, and your message will be on its way).


 

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