-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: June 14, 2007 10:17:03 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: America's Workers: Paying for Protection
Since 2001 OSHA's budget has been cut by $14.5 million. Job safety
programs have repeatedly been slashed. President Bush has
consistently
cut annual funding for safety training and education programs, and his
fiscal year 2007 budget completely eliminated this funding. Not
surprisingly, workplace fatalities and injuries have been on the rise.
In 2004, the last year for which figures are available, there were
5,703
workplace deaths due to injuries -- the first increase in a decade.
See what's free at AOL.com.
From: "Jim S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: June 13, 2007 10:10:48 PM PDT
Subject: America's Workers: Paying for Protection
http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
*America's Workers: Paying for Protection*
"Since 2001 OSHA’s budget has been cut by $14.5 million. Job safety
programs have repeatedly been slashed. President Bush has
consistently cut annual funding for safety training and education
programs, and his fiscal year 2007 budget completely eliminated
this funding. ... "
----------------------------------
http://www.counterbias.com/832.html
Counterbias.com
By GENE C. GERARD
January 22, 2007
Two prominent labor organizations have sued the Bush administration
for failing to protect nearly 20 million workers from job
injuries. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (O.S.H.A.) proposed a rule
requiring employers to pay for protective clothing, face shields,
gloves, and other equipment used by workers. But, before the
proposal became a standard, Mr. Bush was elected to office. Since
then, the Department of Labor has neglected to enact the standard
and has consistently failed to ensure the safety of America's
working men and women.
The personal protective equipment (P.P.E.) rule would require
employers to pay for safety items that protect workers from job
hazards. Many workers in the nation's most dangerous industries,
including meatpacking, poultry, and construction, who have high
rates of injury, are forced by their employers to pay for their own
safety gear because of the failure of O.S.H.A. to implement the
P.P.E. rule. According to O.S.H.A.'s own figures, 400,000 workers
have been injured and 50 have died owing to the lack of the P.P.E.
rule.
Under the Clinton administration, O.S.H.A. maintained that
employers are in a better position than workers to select,
maintain, and pay for the equipment best suited to protect them
from injury. Poultry workers wear specialized wire mesh gloves to
protect their hands and arms from cuts. Construction workers wear
hard hats and shoes made of sturdy materials to protect them from
falling objects. Consequently, in 1994, O.S.H.A. maintained that
the P.P.E. rule was intended to require employers to provide and
pay for personal protective equipment that enabled workers to
perform their job safely.
In fact, James W. Stanley, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor
under President Clinton, asserted in 1994 that "failure of the
employers to pay for P.P.E. that is not personal and not used away
from the job is a violation and shall be cited." But in April
2001, only four months into the Bush administration, O.S.H.A.
suddenly discontinued listing a target date for formalizing the
P.P.E. rule into a standard. And it listed the rule on its
regulatory agenda as simply "undetermined." O.S.H.A. later
announced that the rule would be implemented by March 2005, but
that never happened.
That's why the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and United Food and Commercial Workers
sued the Department of Labor earlier this month. The lawsuit asks
the federal courts to compel the Secretary of Labor to make the
P.P.E. rule an O.S.H.A. standard. It's a sad turn of events when a
government agency created to protect the health and welfare of the
nation's workers must be forced to do so. But the Bush
administration has done little to help America's working men and
women since taking office.
In its first term the Bush administration withdrew dozens of safety
and health rules from O.S.H.A.'s regulatory agenda. These rules
dealt with indoor air quality, safety and health education
programs, and dangerous industrial equipment. And in six years
O.S.H.A. has only issued one major safety standard. In 2006, after
being sued by a group of steelworkers, O.S.H.A. issued a standard
regarding the potentially deadly chemical hexavalent chromium. But
the standard was so weak that even O.S.H.A. admitted that it leaves
workers at a significant risk of developing cancer.
Since 2001 O.S.H.A.'s budget has been cut by $14.5 million. Job
safety programs have repeatedly been slashed. President Bush has
consistently cut annual funding for safety training and education
programs, and his fiscal year 2007 budget completely eliminated
this funding. Not surprisingly, workplace fatalities and injuries
have been on the rise. In 2004, the last year for which figures are
available, there were 5,703 workplace deaths due to injuries. This
was the first increase in the national workplace fatality rate in a
decade.
*Owing to cutbacks at O.S.H.A., there were only about 2,100
inspectors responsible for enforcing the law at approximately eight
million workplaces in 2005. At this staffing level, it would take
O.S.H.A. 117 years to inspect each workplace under its jurisdiction
just once.* And these inspections are becoming increasingly
brief. Under the Bush administration, the average amount of time
spent on each safety inspection by O.S.H.A. has declined 13 percent.
Given the previous position by O.S.H.A. to require employers to pay
for personal protective equipment, there's no justifiable reason
that the Bush administration should not have formalized this rule
by now. O.S.H.A. was created by Congress to protect the health and
safety of America's working men and women. It's unfortunate that
workers now have to rely on litigation to ensure their basic
safety. The federal courts should move quickly to hear this
lawsuit and force the government to protect the nation's workforce.
[Posted by Alex Constantine on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 0
Comments]
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database:
269.8.15/848 - Release Date: 6/13/07 12:50 PM
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
