Worker safety nets failing as funding, staffinf cut

(Rochester Business Journal)

Picture yourself hanging by a rope, dangling off a 100-story building cleaning windows without an appropriate safety harness or protective gear.  Think of yourself descending into a dark mine shaft wondering if there is enough oxygen for you and your fellow workers if something should go wrong.  Imagine yourself on the assembly line, day after day, performing the same repetitive motion and wondering if the strain on your body will make today your last day on the job.  This is what millions of America’s worker face.  In the environment of work speedups, worker layoffs and relaxed safety regulations – millions of workers each year work under impossible and dangerous conditions and are injured or killed on the job.

Our nation’s attention was riveted at the beginning of the year on the Sago Mine tragedy that cost the lives of 12 miners.  Other Mine tragedies that followed have brought the toll to 23 coal miners who have lost their lives this year as of April 7.  But as the national spotlight fades, we won’t see the millions of workers who will be injured or killed on the job this year.  On April 28, we take time to observe Workers Memorial Day and mourn for those that we lost this past year and recommit to the work we have to get done to prevent more unnecessary workplace deaths. 

In Rochester, we gather each year at the Worker’s memorial in Highland Park to observe Workers’ Memorial Day.  Nurses, janitors, firefighters, postal employees, child care providers and other local workers come together at this site to honor workers who have been killed or injured in our community and across the nation.

People should not have to risk their lives just to earn a living for their families.  Companies whose negligence and oversight are penalized with a nominal fine are only encouraged to increase their profits by exploiting their workers. 

Penalties are not enough to change the behavior of many employers.  Our workplaces are getting more dangerous, not safer.  For the first time since 1994, there was an increase in the national fatality rate, and fatal falls reached their highest number since the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping track of these numbers.  Because companies received such lax oversight, workers are facing increased dangers.

The fact is that our workforce has grown the government agencies that keep our workplaces safe – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) – are fighting to stay alive.  Since 20001, the OSHA budget has been cut by three p3ercent; the MSHA coal enforcement budget has been cut 10 percent in real dollar terms; and hundreds of enforcement positions have been eliminated in both agencies.

These under staffed, under funded agencies can not do their work in a meaningful way in an environment that is hostile to their very existence.  It would take inspectors years to inspect each workplace in any locality.  To add insult to injury, Senator Michael Enzi – R (Wyo), whose state has one of the worst safety records in the United States, has introduced legislation that would eviscerate OSHA enforcement.  His Occupational Safety Partnership Act allows employers to self-certify compliance through third party audits and exempts these companies from OSHA penalties.  A companion bill, the Occupational Safety Fairness Act, includes measures to award attorney’s fees to all small employers who prevail in OSHA enforcement cases and other provisions that would make it difficult for OSHA to issue citations for job safety violations.

Rather than addressing the serious safety and health problems faced by workers and pushing forward to develop the capacity for the new hazards of the 21^st century – pandemic flu, biohazards or nanotechnology – we are falling further and further behind.  Since 2001, the Bush administration has blocked or withdrawn dozens of important safety rules and killed dozens of worker protection measures under development at OSHA and MSHA, including rules on cancer-causing substances, reactive chemicals, infectious diseases such as TB, mine rescue teams and self contained, self rescue devices.  The administration has favored voluntary compliance over issuing new protective standards and enforcement and industry officials have been put in charge of government safety programs.

 This trend of increased danger in the workplace must be rapidly reversed.

 Congress should start by immediately strengthening the mine safety law to prevent more disasters such as the one at the Sago Mine.  S. 2231, S. 2308 and H.R. 4695 would require stronger measures to save miners’ lives in the event of a mine catastrophe and increase penalties for violations of safety rules.  The states of West Virginia and Kentucky have already acted to adopt emergency mine safety legislation.  But Republican leaders in Congress are dragging their feet, hoping that public attention will fade away.

 The administration should also fund and staff OSHA and MSHA  at adequate levels, and our elected leaders in Congress should support the Protecting America’s Workers Act introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D – Mass)