Minneapolis Cab Driver Action Update

The Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote today that

about dozens of Somali cabdrivers drove in a caravan to the State Capitol to honor Salah and Ahmed Ahmed, a driver shot to death last month, and to meet with state and city officials.

Salah, 28, was shot in the head about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 8 at the intersection of 24th St. and 18th Av. S. in the Phillips neighborhood. He had called his pregnant wife to say he had several suspicious passengers.

Their action seems to have generated some promises of action. We'll see:

About 60 drivers -- joint lessors of about 30 taxis -- participated in Monday's caravan from the scene of Salah's death to the scene in north Minneapolis of the July 10 killing of Ahmed and on to St. Paul.

After a meeting with the drivers' leaders in the office of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, officials of the state and the city of Minneapolis vowed to seek ways to finance upgraded protection in taxis.

State Public Safety Commissioner Rich Stanek said that could involve equipping cabs with global positioning systems, video cameras or bullet-resistant shields between the front and back seats.

"I will look for federal and state funds to leverage for that," he told cheering cabbies wearing white T-shirts saying "Stop Killing Cabdrivers/We Serve But Not Protected." Pawlenty was in Indianapolis at the National Governors Association annual meeting.

But it also generated a slightly different response:

While most speakers at a rally at the scene of Salah's slaying focused on calls for government assistance, Minneapolis firearms dealer Mark Koscielski passed out leaflets offering a $40 discount for his state-certified handgun course, a prerequisite for a permit to carry guns in public.

"The Police Can't Protect You!" the leaflets said. "DON'T BE A VICTIM! ARM YOURSELVES, PROTECT YOURSELVES!" Many of the drivers picked up a copy.

On The Road

I'm in Knoxville this week taking a class, so blogging will be a bit on the low and slow side.

The Weekly Toll

The has been a particularly pathetic week with workplace fatalities ranging from the youngest (age 16) to the oldest (age 62) -- crushings, electrocutions, falls, confined space asphyxiations, traffic accidents, explosions. All in all, a typical work in America's workplaces.

To put this all in political perspective, check out the interview with AFL-CIO Health and Safety Director Peg Seminario. This sums up where we are:

We've got 2,000 job safety inspectors in the country responsible for overseeing and enforcing the safety and health laws in more than 6 million workplaces.

OSHA actually has fewer staff today than it did in 1980. The workforce and the number of workplaces has grown, but the agency's resources have not grown.

I missed this tragedy, which was picked up by Susan Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla:

Child labor laws fail boys killed on job

Three 16-year-old boys have died in work-related accidents in Washington this week, prompting calls for stronger enforcement of laws governing underage workers.

On Wednesday, 16-year-old Josh McMahon of Lynnwood was crushed to death at a wrecking yard.

Tyler Rausch and Cody Forrest, former teammates on the Jenkins High School football team, died Tuesday while they were working on the farm owned by Rausch's parents south of Colville.

The 16-year-olds were found dead in a silo filled with alfalfa "haylage" cattle feed.

"We need more field staff to work on consultation and enforcement of the law. Employers know the chances are too slim to be found out, so they continue to abuse the law," says Randy Loomans, the Washington Labor Council's education and safety director.

More here and here.


Hospital says investigation into doctor's death continuing

HOUSTON -- Large pieces of white plywood covered an elevator at Christus St. Joseph Hospital's patient tower Monday where a physician died this weekend when he became trapped in doors as the elevator moved.

***

Nikaidoh, of Dallas, was stepping into the second-floor elevator about 10 a.m. Saturday when the doors suddenly closed, pinning his shoulders. A portion of his head was severed when the elevator began rising.

A female hospital employee witnessed the accident and spent about 20 minutes trapped inside the malfunctioning elevator until firefighters rescued her.

Flores said the physician's body then fell down the elevator shaft to the basement.


Pearland worker killed while atop power lines


Nicholas Garland, 22, a North Houston Pole Co. employee, was performing routine maintenance on a high voltage line near NASA Road 1 and Sarah Deel about 9:30 a.m., Aug. 6, when he was shocked with about 130,000 volts of electricity.


Dump truck driver won't be charged in death of worker
Associated Press

GAFFNEY, S.C. - A dump truck driver who struck and killed a worker at a road construction site will not be charged, the Highway Patrol says.

Buford Phillips, 57, was backing up a state-owned dump truck hauling 8 tons of asphalt Monday morning when he hit 46-year-old David Allen Stapleton, a flag man for the state Transportation Department.

Phillips said the alarm that was supposed to sound when he backed the truck up was not working when he struck Stapleton.


Wayland man dies after fall from ladder

WAYLAND, MA -- A Wayland man died yesterday after he fell off a 20-foot ladder while working on the historic Grout-Heard House on Cochituate Road.

Police would not identify the victim, but Deborah McNeill said her husband, Richard A. McNeill, 52, of Matthews Drive, died working at the 12 Cochituate Road house yesterday.

****

Police said a preliminary investigation shows McNeill was on the ladder working on a second-floor gutter when he touched a power line and fell to the ground.


Auto Mechanic Crushed Under Car

BOULDER, Colo. -- A Boulder auto mechanic was crushed to death Thursday when he was caught beneath a vehicle on a service bay lift.

Officials said Gabrial Slagle, 23, was working at McCaddon Cadillac under a raised lift when a co-worker lowered the lift, killing Slagle. Investigators said the co-worker did not know that Slagle was under the lift when he lowered it.


OSHA investigating death at area oil field

Lawrence, KS -- Investigators from the Occupational Saftety and Health Administration and the Douglas County sheriff's department were at an oil field in southeast Douglas County Friday afternoon where a 33-year-old Osawatomie man died Thursday.



OSHA investigates carpenter's death

SAN ANTONIO -- A federal safety agency is investigating the death of a San Antonio carpenter.

Scott Phillip Fries, 32, was found on the ground Thursday in the 7000 block of Scotsdale where he and others had been working, according to a witness. He was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, police said.

Emergency personnel said Fries may have suffered a heart attack caused by electric shock, according to the preliminary report.


One killed, one injured in explosion at plant

The Associated Press, OCALA, Fla.
An explosion at a plastics processing plant killed one worker, left another hospitalized and forced the evacuation of dozens of other employees Monday, officials said.

The blast occurred about 8:30 a.m. in a hopper containing wood chips at US Plastic Lumber Ltd., which uses plastic waste to make building materials, furnishings, industrial supplies and other packaging materials.

Killed was Scott Stokes, 34, of Ocala.

Part of I-35 closed due to fatal crash

A portion of Interstate Highway 35 south of Des Moines was closed Friday as a crane involved in a fatal crash was removed.

Merlyn McIlrath, 61, of Roland, the driver of the crane, died in the accident near the Iowa Highway 92 exit at Bevington. (scroll down)

Labels: Weekly Toll

TB in MD on the UP

Sometimes I hate to be right.

At the end of May, OSHA trashed its proposed standard that would have protected workers against TB. OSHA Director John Henshaw justified OSHA's action by arguing that TB rates had fallen so much that the standard was no longer needed.

An article in today's Washington Post describes "A 17 percent rise in the number of active TB cases in Maryland last year -- with just a slight decline this year" that has put TB "back on the radar for public health officials."

After falling for a decade, the number of people infected with active TB in Maryland jumped from 262 cases in 2001 to 306 last year. This year, 140 cases were recorded through July.

Right now, Maryland public health authorities are practicing Directly Observed Therapy (DOT), sending nurses out to observe patients each time they take their medication. DOT not only increases the cure rate, but more importantly, by making sure patients take the complete course of medicine, prevents the development of antibiotic resistant TB.

Yet as Maryland grapples with a budget crisis, officials said spending for TB control probably would be cut by about $50,000 next year. The state plans to spend $2.28 million for TB control this year, including about $1.4 million in federal money.

"For a disease that we know how to diagnose and treat and prevent, it's ludicrous for the number of cases to be going up in Maryland. It's unacceptable," said Lee B. Reichman , executive director of the National Tuberculosis Center at the New Jersey Medical School, where many specialists have trained.

To repeat what I wrote in early June:

Ditching the TB standard probably could not have come at a worse time. The United States faced a near epidemic of multiple drug resistant TB in the mid-1980's and early 1990s because the public health system in this country let down its guard. According to the IOM:

Complacency led to neglect of basic public health measures including surveillance, contact tracing, outbreak investigations, and case management services to ensure that individuals completed treatments for latent infection and active disease. This neglect helped set the stage for the resurgence of tuberculosis when new circumstances emerged -- including the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the increase in multidrug-resistant disease (largely due to incomplete treatment), and expanded immigration from regions of the world with high rates of tuberculosis.

In hospitals across the country complacency translated into inadequate isolation rooms, ventilation systems that were not maintained, isolation room doors left open, infectious patients left to wander the halls and no training to recognize symptoms in waiting rooms. In correctional institutions the level of knowledge and control measures was virtually non-existent.

Now we may be faced with a new complacency fueled by an "all-clear" message from OSHA, falling national TB rates, and a public health system stressed to the breaking point by new homeland security demands, huge state budget problems and the Bush tax cuts eating up any chance of significant federal assistance.

Union Bashing 101

I’ve spent some profitable times over the past couple of decades taking classes and teaching at various labor education centers and have always admired the work that they do – especially in health and safety. They are indispensable for training future union activists and supplementing union efforts to train their members in a variety of labor issues. Check out the projects and publications at LOHP at Berkeley or LOSH at UCLA.

Well you can imagine my surprise to find out that labor studies centers are evil, according to a Wall St. Journal article, “Picketing 101,” by Steve Malanga of the right wing Manhattan Institute.

“Under AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney, these departments have defined their mission chiefly as supporting labor and its organizing effects rather than educating students.” (Some – like me -- would argue that “supporting labor and its organizing efforts IS educating students)

The Manhattan Institute is a think tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility. A longer article on the same topic can be found on their web site.

What examples to we have of the labor movement’s crimes in co-opting of academic departments and programs?”

-- U-Mass Amherst has an M.A. program in union leadership and administration – “in essence a school for union leaders.” (Horrors!) Amherst also has a course whose description, in part, reads “we live in ‘an era of crushing corporate power and aggressive opposition to unions.” (as personified perhaps by this article?)

-- Wayne State university provides technical support for “living-wage campaigns around the country which helped to spark successful efforts to raise the minimum wage for some workers in dozens of cities.” (What will they stoop to next?)

And if the subversive course material isn’t bad enough, labor programs go so far as to sponsor internships, which like the vampires of old, direct impressionable students “to do labor’s bidding.”

What do these possessed interns work on? Some help in organizing campaigns, and if hat isn’t bad enough, some of them are guilty of assisting campaigns that involve “forcing business to raise the sallies of some employees,” which somehow works “against the interests of taxpayers” (who are different from workers? I’m getting confused.)

In addition to warping their young minds and recruiting them into the union cult world, these programs also put out reports on “subjects key to the labor movement’s legislative agenda: free trade, globalization, living wage legislation, poverty…These reports, with their veneer of academic objectivity, appear to provide scholarly proof of labors most cherished contentions.”(Hear that John Ashcroft? Any more room in Guantanemo?)

But if it’s really tainted research he’s interested in, he should check out reports by the American Association of University Professors and the Center for Science in the Public Interest who have documented multiple examples of business-dominated university research programs.

The report also identifies more than 30 university-based research centers that draw substantial financial support from companies or corporate trade associations. Among those are several university centers on forestry funded by timber or paper industries and several centers on nutrition funded by food and agribusiness companies. All such centers let corporations put an academic sheen on industry-funded research, according to CSPI.

“People would be far more skeptical of a ‘Corporate Polluters Lobbying Association’ than an industry-funded ‘Harvard University Center on Important Issues,’” said [CSPI Director Michael] Jacobson. “Companies hope that a nonprofit’s or university’s good name will burnish their reputations. Call it ‘innocence by association.’”

More on the CSPI study here.

So what’s the goal of these subversive activities? “Labor programs state plainly that they exist primarily to promote unions and create a generation of activists. For example,

The labor program at UMass Lowell, for instance, uses its website to disseminate “action alerts” about local union campaigns, warning that a union local is under attack from a movie theater chain or imploring readers to assist an organizing effort at a local supermarket chain by downloading a form letter to send to the chain’s president. The labor studies program at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, sponsors intensely partisan radio programs, dubbed “Heartland Labor Forum.”

Well, excuse me, but don’t business schools exist primarily to promote American business. Check out the Wharton business school web page: “Wharton is dedicated to creating the highest value and impact on the practice of business and management worldwide through intellectual leadership and innovation in teaching, research, publishing, and service.”

And last time I checked, it was still just as legal to organize a union or go out on strike as it is to form a business.

But isn’t labor studies just as legitimate as African American studies or women’s studies? Of course not. “Unlike gender or race studies (both disciplines strongly supported by the Wall St. Journal and the Manhattan Institute), labor studies undeviatingly promote the interests of a tiny constituency: the union” (Actually, labor studies promotes the interests of a slightly larger constituency: workers. But let’s not get too picky.)

The longer article on the Manhattan Institute website goes into a bit of labor history. It seems that labor studies programs once served a useful purpose (just as at one time unions themselves served a useful (purpose):

When labor studies programs arose just after World War II, mostly in the “extension” or continuing-education divisions of universities, their aim was modest: to help create a better-educated generation of union workers to combat mob control, corruption, and communist influence. “If labor leaders could be better educated, it was thought this would lead to fewer confrontations and fewer strikes,” says Judy Ancel, director of the Institute for Labor Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

In other words, as long as labor studies programs were teaching workers to accept their conditions, not to confront their employers and never strike, they were OK.

How things have changed. Now we have

Queens College of the City University of New York, professors developed a labor internship program, the Solidarity Project, with help from the university’s Education Center for Community Organizing, whose purpose is to stimulate social activism and community organizing in students.

And the last thing a democratic nation needs is more social activism and community organizing.

Ah, the good old days:

Back in the sixties and seventies, when labor bosses were culturally conservative, supported pro-growth policies, and sent their hardhats to battle long-haired students over the war in Vietnam, who would ever have thought the day would come when union leaders would co-opt the professors?

Or vice versa.

Malanga’s article is clearly an attempt by the Manhatten Institute to foment a taxpayer revolt against these publicly funded programs. Malanga quotes a small businessman viewing a Living Wage who was “shocked to learn that some of those out on street corners agitating in favor of the [Living Wage] law were fulfilling course requirements. ‘As a [California] taxpayer, I'm funding the U.C. system. This isn't the kind of activity I want to fund.’”

Of course, if taxpayers really want to revolt, they could look down the road a few miles from where I’m writing to the public George Mason University and its rabidly anti-union, anti regulatory Mercatus Center. Mercatus is best known for counting up the costs of regulations every year (leaving out the benefits) and for sponsoring anti-regulatory “studies” such as one I quoted a few months ago that argues that OSHA Kills.

So why is labor studies important? As California AFL-CIO President Art Pulaski, Executive Secretary- Treasurer of the California Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, says:

"We are in danger of becoming two Californias: the privileged, highly paid executives and professionals, and the rest of us -- the teachers, the construction workers, the farm laborers, the garment workers, the retail clerks, the child care and nursing home staff. Many of these people are immigrants and minorities who are having great difficulty making ends meet. The University of California should study these jobs and the problems of these workers and offer well-informed advice to policy makers in labor, business, and government. The result will be new policies, partnerships, and employment institutions that contribute to an economy in which prosperity is shared and opportunities are opened to all."

Update: Check out Tapped and the Joe Kenehan Center for other perspectives on this article.

Labels: Union Busting

Suicide by Work or Death by Stupidity?

Sometimes you gotta wonder…..Last January, NY subway conductor Janell Bennerson was killed when her head slammed into a fence as she leaned out of the cab. The New York Transit Authority has now determined that her death was her own fault because she leaned out too far and kept her head out longer than the TA requires to watch the platform.

The union is disputing this conclusion, noting that there had been trouble with the train's doors before the accident.

It is clear and undisputed from the evidence how conductor Bennerson was being diligent in observing the doors due to recurring door problems," said Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. "It seems the TA can not restrain itself from instinctively blaming the victim and evading responsibility.

Oh yeah, and the report also notes that the steel fence was only 18 inches from the train's side and there was a near-blinding glare at the time of the accident. But those were only contributing factors. If she had just been more careful…

Even though it was her fault, “TA spokesman Paul Fleuranges denied that the agency was blaming Bennerson for her own death, calling it a ‘tragic accident.’”

Employer Cuts Pay to Workers At High Risk Of Violence

Here's a workplace where someone dies almost every day and management is trying to cut their pay. Go figure. I doubt if they'll strike, but this probably is not good for morale. More here.

More Workplace Stress, Less Profit

We all know that workplace stress is bad for you. But there is more and more evidence that it is costly to your employer and society as well.

It is estimated to cost U.S. industry a staggering $300 billion a year in absenteeism, health costs and programs to help workers manage stress as unemployment rises and companies cut staff.

I’ve written before about Americans’ vanishing vacation time. But get this: “An International Labor Organization study showed that Americans worked the equivalent of an extra 40-hour week in 2000 than they did 10 years earlier.”

Beyond Arnold: Californians Also To Vote On “Colorblind” Racial and Ethnic Policy

The recall of Governor Grey Davis is not the only initiative in the upcoming California election. Voters will also be asked to vote on the "Racial Privacy Initiative"

The measure would prevent state entities from sorting people by race. Approval would mean that no government agency in California would be allowed to ask for details of race, ethnicity, color, or national origin on job applications. And the state could not use such data to classify people involved in public education, public contracting, or public employment.

It is being pushed by Ward Connerly, the same University of California regent who introduced Proposition 209, which barred racial and gender preferences for all state institutions. It is opposed by state and national civil rights organization, as well as the American Public Health Association which states that

Racial and ethnic health disparities persist in a number of key health conditions, in access to health care and in the quality of health care delivery. If we are to address these disparities, we need the vital information currently collected by our public health agencies and other public institutions to better understand why these disparities occur and ways we can eliminate them.

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People die prematurely because of inequalities in health care and health status. Knowledge of these differences provides important insight into ways to connect the problems, save lives and improve health.

As Jessie Jackson put it, “It's just really stupid. No one who can see would fight for the right to be blind.”

Hanford HazWaste Workers Worry About Their Health -- For Good Reason

The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a powerful, but frightening article about hazardous working conditions among the workers cleaning up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation where 177 tanks hold 53 million gallons of A-bomb chemical and radioactive waste.

Many workers have complained about chemical exposures. But as in many workplaces in this country,

Many workers are afraid to come forward and complain, Hanford watchdogs and whistle-blowers say. Electricians such as Young can earn up to $90,000 a year, and work at the nation's largest nuclear cleanup site is steady.

But for some, the fear of being sickened by the gases has finally trumped the fear of losing their jobs. They're afraid the exposures are responsible for a suite of health problems, ranging from black tongue to numb gums. And there's the specter of hidden diseases that strike years later.

One of the more amazing sections describes workers having to fight to be able to wear respirators:

Earlier this year, one worker was sent to the hospital with a swollen, sore throat after breathing strong vapors. In May, another worker asked for leaking seals to be replaced at two tanks where employees have sought medical attention because of the gases. Officials said they're working on the problem.

CH2M Hill officials defend their policy not to provide masks to everyone whenever they want them, saying they can do more harm than good.

The masks can be hot, making workers in the Eastern Washington desert vulnerable to overheating. They can obstruct vision, inhibit communication, and make workers more prone to trips or falls.

To receive an air-purifying mask, workers must have a medical checkup, be properly fitted and get approval from an industrial hygienist.

"They may or may not be issued a respirator depending on the situation," said Rob Barr, manager of environment, safety and quality with DOE's Office of River Protection, which oversees the tanks.

Reading the article, I'd be nervous too, espcially with the assurances that "'The only health effects we see ... are immediate effects,' said Buffi LaDue, an epidemiologist with the foundation. 'It clears up within 45 minutes to an hour or so.'"

Now where have we heard that before?

Nevertheless, workers are encouraged not to worry:

The U.S. Department of Energy, which is responsible for overseeing the Hanford cleanup, and the contractor responsible for the project, CH2M Hill Hanford Group, insist that tank-farm workers are safe.

They say there is no evidence of long-term health effects from the gases, there is adequate monitoring of the vapors, and protective masks are available when warranted. A committee was created last year to answer questions about the vapors.

This is the Bush Department of Energy speaking. Are these people you would tend to trust about long term health effects, especially cancers, which can take 20 to 30 years to show up?

In the "lessons (not) learned" department, the article notes that

This spring, Hanford workers dating to the 1940s finally began receiving checks from the federal government to compensate them for radiation-related cancers and other debilitating ailments. So far, $5.3 million has been paid to 40 current and former workers, while more than 450 have had their claims denied.

Afraid of becoming the next generation of casualties, Young and others want easier access to masks that filter air, or to have masks with air pumped into them or supplied in a tank.

Read the article. Then scroll down to the article on the European "precautionary principle" and ask yourself where you'd rather be working if you're interested in getting to know your grandchildren.

Nursing Home Fined For Unsafe Needles

"Safety is a Priority"

To OSHA's credit (and it's hard to find much to give them these days), they have issued an appropriate $102,000 "willful" violation to Beaver Valley Nursing & Rehabilitation Home in Beaver Falls, PA where

Managers required workers to use banned needles, exposing them to increased health risks from blood-borne diseases

According to OSHA,

A willful violation exists under the Act where the evidence shows either an intentional
violation of the Act or plain indifference to its requirements.

The employer committed an intentional and knowing violation if:

An employer representative was aware of the requirements of the Act, or the existence of an applicable standard or regulation, and was also aware of a condition or practice in violation of those requirements, and did not abate the hazard.

In this case

Even after acknowledging in internal safety meetings that the needles broke OSHA regulations, managers continued to require workers to use the banned needles, the agency said.

That represented "willful violation" of regulations requiring safer, protective needles, and resulted in a $70,000 fine, said OSHA spokeswoman Leny Uddyback-Forston.

"There were times employees would bring this up (that) they should be using safe devices and these safe devices were not used," said Edward Selker, assistant director of OSHA's Pittsburgh area office.

Unsafe needles weren't the only problem:

OSHA also cited the home for rejecting a union representative's request to view safety records.

"They told us they could not provide us with the information and that we were not entitled to that information," said Kevin White, organizer for Service Employees International Union District 1199P, which represents about 100 workers.

Health care facilities have been required since 1999 to use syringes with guards and sheaths, safeguards designed to prevent workers from "needle sticks" that could transmit such blood-borne diseases as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.

Other violations included improper training, inadequate medical counsel to workers after needle sticks and failure to replace overfilled needle disposal bins.

In its defense, facility administrator John Papasodero said in a faxed statement that safety is "a priority" at the Beaver Valley nursing home.

And I'm sure there are signs on the wall that prove it.

MSHA Issues Quecreek Mine Accident Report

The Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued a final report on the Quecreek Mine accident that trapped nine miners in the mine for 77 hours.

A federal report more than a year in the making concluded inaccurate, abandoned maps caused last summer's Quecreek Mine accident.

But the Mine Safety and Health Administration report issued Tuesday also cited the coal mine's owner, PBS Coals Inc., mine operator Black Wolf Coal and Musser Engineering for negligence. MSHA also castigated state permitting procedures for weaknesses that contributed to the accident that nearly killed 18 Somerset County coal miners.

Fines have not been determined yet, although

Unlike the state, which recently issued a report with no findings against the mine owners, their consultants or the mine operator, MSHA issued negligence violations against PBS, Black Wolf and Musser for failing to provide accurate, certified abandoned mine maps.

The report, which has not yet been seen by the United Mine Workers, is not without controversy:

MSHA also dismissed a Pennsylvania Deep Mine Safety engineer's contentions that PBS representatives showed him a more accurate map of the abandoned mine, but refused to file a copy of it with the state and consistently ignored his warnings that they had not provided a final certified abandoned mine map. Although the Pennsylvania Inspector General's Office issued a report stating that engineer Tom McKnight's statements appeared credible, Lauriski said his team could find nothing to support them.

Safety experts from the United Mine Workers said they had yet to see the MSHA report but were concerned that the Inspector General's report was getting short shrift. Lauriski, who noted his team was not given the Inspector General's report until the final days of its probe, insisted MSHA did everything it could to investigate it.

More here on the report and here is a previous report about the mine.

Preventing illness and environmental catastrophes instead of paying afterward, if ever.

First they play footsie with Saddam, then those Eurosocialist-surrender monkeys attack capitalism-as-we-know-it.

Here is yet another excellent article by Sam Lowenberg in the American Prospect about the European precautionary principle, "a doctrine enshrined in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty among European Union members, governments should protect their populations against risk, even before all the data are compiled," and how they're whipping American companies into shape. I've written about this before, but in a nutshell, those pinko Europeans are

Crafting legislation that by 2005 will require the industry to conduct extensive safety tests on 30,000 common chemicals. At least 1,500 are expected to be banned or severely restricted in their use as a result. The industry estimates that the testing alone will cost it more than $7.5 billion

The most interesting parts of the article are the descriptions of U.S. companies' futile attempts to use the same tactics that succeed here to kill the European regulations. Their problem begins with the whole precautionary principle:

The doctrine is a prescription for government intervention before harm occurs. By contrast, Washington generally doesn't pass broad regulatory overhauls unless there's concrete evidence of harm. U.S. laws that put new burdens on industry -- such as the Superfund or the recent accounting reform -- tend to be attempts to clean up disasters.

The Euros claim that prevention actually saves money:

Proponents claim that the chemical-testing legislation will save companies money in the long run. Dr. Michael Warhurst, who works on the issue for the World Wildlife Fund, argues that the tests will keep especially dangerous chemicals off the market and thus preempt many large lawsuits. He points out that product liability lawsuits cost U.S. industry about $180 billion a year, or 1.9 percent of the gross domestic product

Of course, American companies have another way to avoid spending money on product liability lawsuits: It's called "Tort Reform".

Another quaint cultural difference: The Europeans don't shy away from the fact that the regulations will be costly -- 14 billion and 26 billion euros by the year 2020.

But, by the Europeans' count, this is a small price to pay for the benefits gained. The European Commission estimates that the strengthened regulation of chemicals will result in a drop of 2,200 to 4,300 cancer cases per year, with a savings over 30 years of 18 billion to 54 billion euros in occupational health costs alone.

In America, on the other hand, we avoid such costly regulations by something called "cost-benefit analysis" where we only count the costs and not the benefits.
Clearly they have all of their priorities mixed up:

Last year, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Rockwell Schnabel, complained in a Wall Street Journal Europe op-ed that European regulators did not take enough business input into their decisions and that they were concentrating too much on environment and health at the expense of growth and trade.

Let me repeat that for those of you who spaced out for a minute: European regulators did not take enough business input into their decisions and that they were concentrating too much on environment and health at the expense of growth and trade.

OK. So what cultural psychopathology underlies this clearly deviant behavior?

The current conflict between corporate America and the European Union cannot be fully understood unless one considers that the bribery and corruption that have long plagued European politics are dwarfed by what is legal and accepted in Washington. In the United States, lobbyists can kill legislation at almost any point in its progress. They can keep it from ever being heard in committee and they can cut its funding after it's been passed. Whether the issue is tobacco, health insurance or nuclear power, corporate lobbying tactics in Washington are standard: Give tens of thousands of dollars to candidates, hire former officials who used to regulate the industry, and utilize mass mailings and front groups to produce an appearance of grass-roots support, known in the business as "Astroturf."

Read the article. It's important information that only rarely makes it into the mainstream press. And it gives us over here something to shoot for -- changing the mindset of the American public and the politicians that supposedly represent them, but who actually live in terror of being accused of "concentrating too much on environment and health at the expense of growth and trade."

P.S. You know what pisses me off? (Yeah, I know, everything.) In this country, the slightest whiff of regulation elicits immediate cries of "bankruptcy," "bad business climate," "suffering small businesses," etc. But you know what? When Europe finally issues all of these regs, the U.S. companies will happily participate and whine all the way to the bank.

Why? Because as Lowenberg points out, "they want to do business in Europe's 340-million-person market -- or in its half-billion-person market next year, when the European Union is slated to add 10 new member countries. "

On the other hand, these activities give me a bit of hope that conditions in the U.S. don't really have to be this crazy for all eternity. Even if it's a somewhat difficult these days to change things on this side of the Atlantic, it's at least good to know that an alternative reality exists on this earth and not just in our imaginations. (Oh give me a break, you idealistic twirp!) Blech! I gotta go....

Minneapolis Cab Company Agrees to Put Cameras in Cabs

Speaking of acting like a union....here we have a positive result of a tragedy -- a cabdriver shot to death -- and some good old fashioned organizing. Somali cabdrivers in Minneapolis are planning a one-day walkout on August 18 to honor the two cabbies who were fatally shot in the past month and to draw attention to their security concerns.

Mohamed Saleh's picture was prominently displayed Monday on a national Web site devoted to the nation's steady list of slain cabdrivers, the same day the Minneapolis company he drove for decided to install security cameras in its taxis as a safety precaution.

***
Such safety measures have been credited with a dramatic decrease in cabdriver deaths in other metropolitan areas, including Baltimore, Boston and New York, where the city partly finances cameras or shields in virtually all the city's 50,000 taxicabs. As a result, the number of annual cabbie slayings in that city plummeted from 40 "to close to zero,'' said New York-based transportation consultant Bruce Shaller.

Scroll down for the background story.

For more information on cabdriver safety, check out this website, as well as this one.

Labels: taxi drivers

More Holiday Shopping Tips

Check out www.seeyageorge.com for these T-Shirts:

Save the Environment: Plant a Bush Back in Texas

Like Father Like Son: One Term Only

One Nation...under surveillance.

Regime change begins at home.

Stop mad cowboy disease.

Somewhere in Texas...A village is missing its idiot.

The way you get a union is by acting like a union

Good story in In These Times about UNITE's Cintas organizing campaign. It's inspiring to see unions that really takes organizing seriously.

Since 1998 UNITE has quadrupled the number of unionized industrial laundry workers to 40,000. UNITE now represents about one-fourth of hourly employees in the industry. The union has boosted wages, won company-paid health insurance, expanded other benefits, and given workers a voice in the laundry industry through an aggressive organizing strategy. It has combined community pressure—mobilizing clergy, politicians, community groups, and customers—with vigorous employee organizing to demand “card check” recognition of the union. In other words, rather than go through the NLRB election procedures—which give employers greater opportunities to intimidate workers in anti-union campaigns and then to fight further over negotiating a contract if the union wins—UNITE typically fights to win promises of employer neutrality and, preferably, acknowledgement of the union on the basis of large majorities of employees signing union cards. Often workers strike, in conjunction with a comprehensive community support campaign, to win recognition. “The way you get a union is by acting like a union,” argues Liz Gres, who oversees the 30 organizers now focused on seven major Cintas markets.

The San Mateo Daily Journal has an article about a UNITE rally today at Starbucks, in order to pressure the company to fire Cintas as their apron, mat and linen service.

Cintas was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for serious violations last month, said UNITE spokesman Jason Oringer.

Two Cintas workers have also died because of “illegal and unsafe working conditions,” according to a statement by the group. They also charge that Cintas is under investigation for more than 100 violations of federal labor law including illegally firing and retaliating against pro-union employees.

There are other stories about the Cintas campaign here and here.

Minneapolis Taxi drivers call for one-day walkout over health and safety conditions

I think we could all learn a lesson in direct action for Minneapolis's Somali cabdrivers

August 11, 2003 -- Somali cabdrivers in Minneapolis said Sunday they will stage a one-day walkout to honor the two cabbies who were fatally shot in the past month and to draw attention to their security concerns.

More than 40 cabdrivers met at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul and agreed to park their cabs for 24 hours Aug. 18. They said they plan to ask non-Somali drivers to do the same. There are hundreds of cabdrivers in Minneapolis.

During the two-hour meeting, cabbies also said they intended to drive their cabs in a procession to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's office at the State Capitol in hopes of meeting with him.

Taxicab driving is one of the nation's most dangerous occupations, according to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Drivers at Sunday's meeting say neither their employers nor the city of Minneapolis have done enough to make their jobs safer.

They are asking that bullet-proof partitions and security cameras be installed in their cabs. So far, cab companies have been unwilling to pay for such upgrades, and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak made it clear Friday that public money wouldn't be provided for private businesses.

Cabdriver Mustafa Hussen said that parking the cabs is worth losing one day's pay to show the solidarity that exists among the drivers.

"The strike is to remember the two brothers we lost in the community of taxi drivers," Hussen said. "The strike will be an expression of concerns that have not been addressed."

More here and here and here.

Labels: taxi drivers

The Weekly Toll

State OSHA will investigate cannon death

August 8 -- The state office of the Occupational Safety and Health Division is investigating what caused a cannon to blow apart and kill a 16-year-old Aumsville boy at Camp Meriwether.

Christopher Kroker was employed as a counselor at the camp near Tillamook, so the death qualifies as a workplace accident.

Investigators will look into possible manufacturing defects, procedures, maintenance and training, said Steve Corson, spokesman for OR-OSHA.

OSHA Investigating Roofer's Lightning Death

August 5, 2003

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Lightning from Monday's storms produced a deadly outcome for a local worker, NewsChannel 4's Marshall McPeek reported.

The worker, 17-year-old Herman Harnandez Vasquez, was killed when he was struck by lightning. The accident is under investigation.

Vasquez was working on a roof in Hilliard when Monday's thunderstorms rolled in. He took a direct hit from the lightning bolt. Despite rescue efforts, he was pronounced dead a short time later.

There are more questions than answers at this point. Not the least of which is whether any safety regulations were violated. Did he have safety training? Should he have even been working this job? It's going to take a while for investigators to come up with answers.

"This is simply an act of God," said Mike Feazel of Feazel Roofing.

(Isn't it always?)

More here: The death of an underage worker struck by lightning while roofing this week underscores how immigrant workers are injured or killed at disproportionate rates, advocates said.



OSHA is investigating fatal accident at plant

Tuesday, August 5, 2003

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a forklift accident that killed a Sanford man while he was working in Berwick on Friday.

Thomas Brown, 48, was operating a stand-behind forklift at Prime Tanning Co. Inc. on School Street when he backed into a storage rack.

He got pinned between a shelving unit and the forklift as he backed it up about 3:20 p.m., Berwick police said.



Instructor suspended over death of trainee
A firefighter instructor who allegedly failed to recognize a Pennsylvania trainee's fatal heatstroke symptoms has been suspended without pay for 30 days, a newspaper reported Thursday.

County commissioners in Frederick County, Md., suspended Jeff Coombe late last week in connection with the July 2002 death of Andrew J. Waybright, The Frederick News-Post reported, citing anonymous sources.

Worker died from head trauma, autopsy finds

Aug. 9, 2003

Racine - A fall from a great height and severe head trauma will most likely be listed as the the cause of death of a Milwaukee man who was involved in a construction site accident in Racine last week, Racine County Medical Examiner Thomas Terry said Thursday.

Robinson fell from scaffolding and was impaled on a 5-inch bolt at a construction site near Batten Airport at Mount Pleasant St. and South St. He was 55.



Worker dies after fall at former power plant

Aug. 09, 2003 APPLETON — A 29-year-old man died after falling about 20 feet from the roof of an old power plant.

The man was a member of a five-person crew from A&A Environmental, of Poynette. The group was removing asbestos from the roof.

Labels: Weekly Toll

Gary Hart on Chemical Plant Security

Former Senator and Presidential candidate Gary Hart has followed my lead writing in the Washington Post about the Bush administration's rhetoric (and nothing else) on chemical plant security. He does a good job explaining the problems with the Inhofe bill:

Incredibly, the Inhofe bill provides for virtually no oversight or enforcement of safety requirements. Unlike Corzine's proposal, it would not allow the government to demand emergency action by companies that it has reason to believe are terrorist targets, nor would it insist on government review of facility security plans. (The latter failure is akin to the Internal Revenue Service's telling companies to fill out their tax forms but not to bother to file them.) The Inhofe bill prohibits the federal agency with the most expertise on chemicals, the EPA, from putting its skills to good use. And unlike the Corzine bill, the Inhofe bill would not require companies to replace dangerous chemicals -- which might pose tempting terrorist targets -- even when safer technologies are available and affordable. The chemical manufacturers say that they will consider making their processes safer. But we did not just ask airlines to simply consider improving security -- we made them do it.

If Inhofe's bill were to become law, only the chemical industry would breathe easier. But the Bush administration has an obligation to all Americans to do more than simply permit industry to write its own rules. We need legislation that keeps us safer by requiring chemical companies to reduce their risks and that ensures accountability through government oversight.

Labels: Chemical Plant Security

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire...

You know, I'm starting to think they just can't help it. They have a pathological compulsion to lie. It's not that they think they're doing anything wrong really, it's just that the facts keep getting in the way of the "truth." Facts or the "truth?" The "truth" or the facts. "Truth," facts, "truth" facts. Life in Washington is just so hard. First there's this:


IG Investigates Whether EPA Misled Public on Water Quality

The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general is investigating whether the agency is deliberately misleading the public by overstating the purity of the nation's drinking water, according to EPA officials and agency documents.

Seems the EPA was claiming that "94 percent of the population served by community water systems were served by systems that met all health-based standards," while the actual figure was "79 to 84 percent in 2002 -- putting an additional 30 million Americans at potential risk."

And then there was this....


White House Sway Is Seen in E.P.A. Response to 9/11

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 -- An investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general into official statements about air quality after the collapse of the World Trade Center has found that White House officials instructed the agency to be less alarming and more reassuring to the public in the first few days after the attack.

This is all about the EPA's almost immediate assurance to New Yorkers that the air was perfectly fine, even though they didn't have the information to support that. In fact, according to this report, EPA had originally intended to be much more cautious.

But the Inspector General got hold of EPA's original draft press release -- before the White House's Council on Environmental Quality got a look at it.

The report compares two news releases with their draft versions and concludes, "Every change that was suggested by the C.E.Q. contact was made."

The title for the original version of one news release was, "E.P.A. Initiating Emergency Response Activities, Testing Terrorized Sites For Environmental Hazards." In the final version, the second clause was changed to read, "Reassures Public About Environmental Hazards." In the same release, a section that said, "Even at low levels, E.P.A considers asbestos hazardous in this situation" was deleted and replaced with a section that read, in part, "Short-term, low-level exposure of the type that might have been produced by the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings is unlikely to cause significant health effects."

And then there was this unrelated article, except for the common theme of truth-challenged Administration officials...



Iraqi Trailers Said to Make Hydrogen, Not Biological Arms

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 -- Engineering experts from the Defense Intelligence Agency have come to believe that the most likely use for two mysterious trailers found in Iraq was to produce hydrogen for weather balloons rather than to make biological weapons, government officials say.

The classified findings by a majority of the engineering experts differ from the view put forward in a white paper made public on May 28 by the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which said that the trailers were for making biological weapons.

***

The engineering team that has come to believe the trailers were used to produce hydrogen includes experts whose task was to assess the trailers from a purely technical standpoint, as opposed to one based on other sources of intelligence. Skeptical experts had previously cited a lack of equipment in the trailers for steam sterilization, normally a prerequisite for any kind of biological production.

Bush administration officials have said the most compelling information that the trailers were used for making biological weapons has come from a human source, an Iraqi scientist who described the trailers and what he said was their weapon-making role to American experts months before.

So what do we believe? They eyes of our experts or an Iraqi scientist seeking to curry favor with the Americans?

For those of you who follow the wild goose chase for Weapons of Mass Destruction know that the fact that these trailers made weather balloons and not anthrax was available way back in May. For more information, you can read all about it at Daily Kos.

For my purposes, I thought the following paragraph was the most significant:

Senior administration officials have said repeatedly that the White House has not put pressure on the intelligence community in any way on the content of its white paper, or on the timing of its release.

No, of course not. Why would anyone ever suggest that the White House would put pressure on any agencies to hide truth or lie?

Christmas is just Around The Corner

And it's not to early to start your shopping.

Sharing the Stealth: They Lie About Science Too

Congressman Henry Waxman has put out a report detaling the Bush Administration's manipulation and distortion of the scientific process in a few issues like Abstinence-Only Education, Agricultural Pollution, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Breast Cancer, Condoms, Drinking Water, Education Policy, Environmental Health Food Safety, Global Warming, HIV/AIDS, Lead Poisoning, Missile Defense, Oil and Gas, Prescription Drug Advertising, Reproductive Health, Stem Cells, Substance Abuse, Wetlands, Workplace Safety, and Yellowstone National Park.

Not much on workplace safety and health except for blackballing qualified nominees for scientific committees because of their support for the OSHA ergonomics standard.

Labels: Ergonomics

Bush Administration Earns Failing Grade on Chemical Plant Security

Terrorists didn't need Saddam Hussein's mythical chemical weapons of mass destruction to launch a catastrophic attack against the United States. It turns out they can literally find all the ammunition they need right here -- thanks to the inattention of the Bush administration.

This is a subject about which I've written extensively here and here. But the situation does not seem to be improving, according to an article in yesterday's Government Executive:

Despite the Bush administration's public promises and alarms, the White House has taken almost no action to improve security at any of the nation's 15,000 facilities -- including chemical manufacturing plants, petroleum tank farms, and pesticide companies -- that contain large quantities of potentially deadly chemicals. For that matter, the administration has done virtually nothing even to assess those facilities' vulnerability, even though the dangers are far from theoretical: An accidental leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, immediately killed between 3,800 and 8,000 people in 1984 and, according to some reports, has since claimed an additional 12,000 lives. Closer to home, an accidental chlorine gas leak at a Honeywell refrigeration plant in Baton Rouge, La., on July 20 sent four workers to the hospital and forced 600 residents to stay indoors.

Counterterrorism experts shudder to think about the number of deaths an intentional release of a toxic chemical could cause. And the Bush administration's inertia heightens their worries.

"These chemical plants have a vulnerability which has a catastrophic characteristic ... that could approximate the World Trade Center," Rand Beers, a White House counterterrorism adviser for 30 years, told National Journal. Dissatisfied with the Bush administration's approach to security, Beers resigned in March and now advises the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

How real is the danger?

Based on reports from the 15,000 facilities required to submit that worst-case-scenario information, the EPA warned that a terrorist attack on any one of the 123 chemical facilities located in densely populated areas could expose 1 million people to toxic chemicals. An attack on one of 700 other facilities could threaten at least 100,000 people. And an attack at one of 3,000 other chemical sites could affect 10,000 people.

It's not that the issue hasn't been on Bush's radar screen. It's just that he keeps changing the channel. Like the proverbial hot potato, the EPA earlier this year backed down before threats of chemical industry lawsuits and tossed responsibility for regulating chemical plant security over to the Department of Homeland Security.

Still struggling to get on its feet, Homeland Security has no authority to require the chemical industry to adopt stricter security measures. It also doesn't have the money or personnel to inspect industrial plants for potential security problems.

True to form, the Bush administration is relying on the voluntary efforts of the chemical industry to protect the country even though "two-thirds of the facilities that use or store high volumes of toxic chemicals...don't belong to those groups, according to EPA officials."

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the chemical industry succeeded last year in killing Senator Jon Corzines chemical security bill after a unanimous vote from the Senate Committee considering the bill. Corzine's bill called for (gasp!) regulations that, among other things, would have required chemical facilities to move toward "inherently safer" production -- for example substituting safer chemicals for potentially hazardous ones and reducing the quantity of hazardous chemicals kept in the plant.

Corzine has resubmitted his bill this year, but instead of killing it outright again, the chemical industry has given luke-warm support to a much weaker bill introduced by Senator James Inhofe (D-OK)."Inhofe's bill would not require companies to submit vulnerability or security-improvement plans to Homeland Security. It also would not require companies to consider using alternatives to current chemicals and practices." Their theory is that we simply need to have more guns and higher fences, and keep the contents of chemical plants secret (as if!) -- which means keeping information away from those loose lips at EPA. (And, of course, this also means saying goodbye to citizens' post-Bhopal right to know what's brewing next door.)

Ironically, the Republicans' arguments end up supporting the philosophy behind Corzine's push for inherently safer processes:

Texas Republican Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, said that although he's monitoring the situation, he sees no need for tough new chemical security requirements in the aftermath of 9/11.

"The problem you have in an open society is that it's physically impossible to make any large industrial site terrorist-proof," Barton said in an interview. "If there are enough terrorists who are dedicated enough and equipped well enough, they're going to overwhelm everything that you put up short of some sort of Fort Knox -- which doesn't make much sense, given the cost and the relatively remote possibility that any specific site is going to be targeted."

But to requote myself from a previous posting

how much sense does it make to only commit resources to guard a target (with questionable effectiveness) when in most cases it's entirely possible to shrink or even remove the target completely? As outlaw Willie Sutton explained, they robbed banks because that's where the money was. Chemical plants are potential targets for terrorists because that's where the greatest potential for terror is. Take the money out of the banks -- or the catastrophic potential out of chemical plants -- and no one cares.

So how has the industry been doing with its voluntary efforts?

A July 9 survey by the Conference Board, a New York City-based business research group, found that since 9/11, U.S. companies have increased their spending on security an average of only 4 percent. Other studies by the Brookings Institution, Rand, the Congressional Research Service, and the Progressive Policy Institute also raised serious questions about security problems at chemical plants and other high-risk facilities with large amounts of hazardous material.

Newspapers repeatedly report reporters successful attempts to walk unchallenged right into chemical plants and the Government Accounting Office also has serious doubts about the industry's ability to guarantee its own security.

But hey, ultimately we don't need no stinkin' terrorists to blow up our neighborhood chemical plant. We can do it ourselves. At this point, the prospect of terrorist attacks against U.S. chemical facilities is scary, but it's hypothetical. What is real are the hundreds of workers who have died and communities that have been threatened from explosions caused by the very real hazards of reactive chemicals -- which, if you scroll down a bit -- you will see that the Bush administration also refuses to regulate.

The bad news is that we're perfectly capable of causing mass destruction without Saddam Hussein's weapons and without terrorists. But the good news is that the solution to all of these threats is the same: Inherently safer production, better and safer management of chemical plants, and regulations to make sure it all happens.

Labels: Chemical Plant Security

California:Who Does Labor Love?

Apparently no one. Good article by Harold Meyerson in the LA Weekly on labor's luke-warm support for Gray Davis -- not because they like Gray, but to prevent what could be a precident-setting theft of a democratic election.

Union chiefs tell horror stories of Davis’ reluctance to agree to last year’s bill providing arbitration in farm-labor disputes; they note his aversion to populist causes and add that Davis is so shy about touting the good bills he has signed that their members don’t credit him with any significant achievements.

But the prospect of Dianne Feinstein is worse.

In just the past several weeks, Feinstein has sided in committee with Orrin Hatch, and against all her fellow Democrats, to limit the recompense workers can collect from employers for poisoning them with asbestos. She has come out in favor of private-school vouchers within the District of Columbia. And who can forget her vote for Bush’s 2001 tax cut, the only one of the 12 Democratic senators to side with Bush who came from a solidly Democratic state?

Of course all of this was written before Arnold, Bustamante and Garamendi got in, and before Feinstein got out. So who knows which way is up at this point. Maybe Davis should just resign. Democrat Bustamante becomes Governor, the recall is off and the R's are left sucking their thumbs.

Privitization: If it works for the Army, it'll work for the rest of the federal (and state and local) government(s) too

This nugget was mined from Suburban Guerrilla:

More on outsourcing - this time, in Iraq - with disastrous results.
U.S. troops in Iraq suffered through months of unnecessarily poor living conditions because some civilian contractors hired by the Army for logistics support failed to show up, Army officers said.

Months after American combat troops settled into occupation duty, they were camped out in primitive, dust-blown shelters without windows or air conditioning. The Army has invested heavily in modular barracks, showers, bathroom facilities and field kitchens, but troops in Iraq were using ramshackle plywood latrines and living without fresh food or regular access to showers and telephones.

Even mail delivery -- also managed by civilian contractors -- fell weeks behind.

Though conditions have improved, the problems raise new concerns about the Pentagon's growing global reliance on defense contractors for everything from laundry service to combat training and aircraft maintenance. Civilians help operate Navy Aegis cruisers and Global Hawk, the high-tech robot spy plane.

Workplace Tragedies/Union Action Produce NJ Reactive Chemical Protections

The New Jersey rule to protect workers and communities against catastrophes caused by reactive chemicals that I wrote about a couple of days ago was a result of two workplace disasters and strategic organizing by unions and environmentalists.

Eight years after the notorious Napp Technologies explosion in Lodi and five years after another blast in Paterson, New Jersey is becoming the first state in the nation to regulate the potentially explosive chemicals blamed in both incidents.

Chemicals not regulated as hazardous materials were inadvertently mixed in a vat at Lodi plant, causing an explosion that killed five workers, injured 41, and forced 300 residents to be evacuated. Similarly, ingredients were incorrectly mixed at Morton International's dye manufacturing subsidiary, with the reaction injuring nine employees and rocking homes 15 blocks away.

Both catastrophes prompted calls from unions and environmentalists for regulation of such "reactive chemicals" - substances not considered hazardous on their own but which can become volatile if exposed to air or water, or mixed with the wrong ingredient.

As a result of these and other explosions caused by reactive chemicals, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has recommended that OSHA and EPA issue federal regulations. But the Bush administration has refused to act on the CSB's recommendations.

Without regulations like these, workers and people living in the surrounding communities are at risk from the kind of runaway reactions these kind of chemicals can have," Poje said.

Current regulation forces a company to give special training only to employees handling substances that are hazardous on their own, such as chlorine or ammonia.

So workers don't know the potential dangers of lesser-known chemicals such as ethyl nitrate and potassium hydrosulfite, "and they don't know to respond if there is an incident," Poje said. He noted that workers did not immediately evacuate after the accident at the Morton plant because the dangers were unknown to them.

Ergo Repeal Qualifies for Washington Ballot

This pretty much says it all

OLYMPIA, Wash. - An initiative to repeal the state's sweeping workplace-ergonomics rules qualified for the November ballot after a $350,000 campaign by homebuilders who called the regulations "an unnecessary job-killer."

The initiative would immediately repeal the ergonomics rules issued by the Department of Labor and Industries in 2000 in a bid to reduce worker injuries caused by repetitive motion, heavy lifting, and awkward working positions.
But the BIA didn’t just have money, they have the untruth (lies) on their side as well. See here and here and here.

(In case you want the true facts about the Washington State ergo standard, click here.)

The State AFL-CIO doesn't think much of the initiative either:

BIAW cash, lies land I-841 on ballot despite bogus signatures

Despite uncovering an extraordinarily high number of invalid and potentially fraudulent signatures, the Secretary of State's office announced Wednesday that the Building Industry Association of Washington's Initiative 841 to repeal our state workplace ergonomic safety rule narrowly qualified for November's ballot.

Time out for a little humor. Apparently the Associated Press headline writers don’t know their geography very well. Here’s the original headline about the Washington STATE ergonomics repeal:

Thursday, August 7, 2003 · Last updated 6:44 a.m. PT
Ergonomics repeal ready for D.C. ballot

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- An initiative to repeal the state's sweeping workplace-ergonomics rules qualified for the November ballot after a $350,000 campaign by homebuilders who called the regulations "an unnecessary job-killer."

Seen one Washington, you’ve seen ‘em all.

Labels: Ergonomics

Despair of the Jobless

Good Bob Herbert column in the New York Times today about the desperate unemployment situation in George Bush's America.

First, things are much worse than the official numbers show:

The official jobless rate, now 6.2 percent, does not come close to reflecting how grim the employment situation really is. The official rate refers only to those actively seeking work. It does not count the "discouraged" workers, who have looked for jobs within the last 12 months but have given up because of the lack of offers. Then there are the involuntary part-timers, who would like full-time jobs but cannot find them. And there are people who have had to settle for jobs that pay significantly less than jobs they once held.

When you combine the unemployed and the underemployed, you are talking about a percentage of the work force that is in double digits. That's an awful lot of lost purchasing power for a society that needs broad-based wage growth among its consumers to remain economically viable.

And the Bush Administration? Message: I don't give a shit.

The simple truth is that the interests of the Bush administration's primary constituency, corporate America, do not coincide with the fundamental interests of workaday Americans. On the business side of this divide, increased profits are realized by showing the door to as many workers as possible, and squeezing the remainder to the bursting point. Productivity (based primarily on improvements in technology) is way up. Hiring, of course, is down. Part-time and temporary workers are in; full-time workers with benefits are out.

And then there's the ominous trend of sending higher-skilled jobs overseas to low-wage places like India and China, an upscale reprise of the sweatshop phenomenon that erased so many U.S. manufacturing jobs over the past quarter century.

Working Americans need jobs just to survive. But the Bush administration equates the national interest with corporate interests, and in that equation workers can only lose.

Glad the recession is over. Someone better let these people know.

Terminate Arnold

Arnold just announced that he was going to run against Grey Davis in the California recall. He took the opportunity to bash the labor unions as special interests.

I have to take this opportunity to repeat one of my favorite lines from Bill Maher about Arnold's candidacy: "Finally, a candidate who can explain the Bush administration's positions on civil liberties in the original German."

Think I can get my money back from Terminator 3? (Hey, my kid made me see it.)

Washington State Ergonomics Referendum Resolution

Although the Building Industry Association of Washington's Initiative 841 to repeal the workplace ergonomic safety rule has yet to be officially certified for this fall's ballot by the Washington Secretary of State's office, the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO is urging all labor organizations to adopt a resolution formally opposing the initiative.

Linked here is a draft resolution that can be used or adapted for this purpose. Even if you're not a resident of Washington State, I'm sure they'd appreciate the support. And don't forget that the bell tolls not just for them. If this turkey passes, it will make it all the harder to issue ergonomics protections on the federal level or in any other states.

Adopt the resolution and send it to them.

More information here and here.

Labels: Ergonomics

Subway Hazards

Two good articles in Newsday about the hazards to workers and passengers in the New York subway tunnels.

The MTA is shortchanging straphangers' and workers' safety with an antiquated tunnel system and limited employee training for emergencies, critics charge.

"I think what has happened is that the health and safety of the workplace in the subway has been given less consideration than other aspects of the system," said Davitt McAteer, former chief of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. He recently surveyed the system's tunnels for the city's largest transit union and found the situation for riders is worse than for miners.

The safety expert, lawmakers and union leaders want better marked exits, brighter tunnels, improved evacuation procedures and more employee training on helping passengers escape underground dangers

Emergency response procedures in the event of another terrorist attack are one problem:

Subway workers have complained they have been given conflicting lessons about what to do in a terror attack. Some say supervisors have told them to run, while others report being told to stay and help passengers. New York City Transit says workers are told to assist passengers and notify emergency personnel.

Frank Goldsmith, director of occupational health for Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, said of subway employees: "The problem that I feel, personally, is the lack of training and the lack of understanding. They simply are not being given proper training."....

The conductor of that F train said that in five years on the job, he had never been trained for a fire. He also said leaving the station in a dark tunnel was harrowing. "I couldn't see at all," said Florizel Gordon. "You're like a blind man, walking and feeling your way out."

The union said the smoke was worsened by fans operating in the wrong direction - a charge New York City Transit denies.

A tunnel in Queens where a worker was killed in 2001 still does not have enough light, union leaders say. Samuel McPhaul, 49, was killed when he tripped on the tracks and hit the third rail near the Grand Avenue station in Elmhurst. Union officials say better lighting would have made the tunnel safer.

And a rather chillilng article about what happened during a recent subway fire.

Subway conductor Florizel Gordon staggered through the smoky tunnel underneath York Street in Brooklyn, twisting his ankle and falling hard on the tracks. The feeble glare of his Transit-issue flashlight proved useless.

A passenger shouted to Gordon that another passenger was having a heart attack. Gordon picked himself up and walked over to an older man hobbling on a bad knee and experiencing chest pains.

"I told him to cover his face and put his hand over my shoulder, and I helped him out," Gordon, a conductor since 1998, said in the cadence and diction of his native Jamaica.

"Sir, you can't fall down on me," the 41-year-old conductor, himself barely able to stay up, told the stranger. "We have to get out of here."

This was the early-morning subway fire at the York Street station two Saturdays ago. As flames and sparks raged from underneath two subway cars, workers and passengers scrambled the more than 600 feet to the southern end of the platform on the F line before plunging into the dark, smoky tunnel. Now came a treacherous trek of several hundred feet over the tracks to the nearest emergency exit.

"There were no lights," Gordon said. "The tube was pitch black. ... The smoke was so thick. You're like a blind man walking and feeling your way through."

Subway worker safety is being investigated by President Clinton's former Director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration Davit McAteer. McAteer said he was shocked to see that the lighting in the subways was worse than lighting in coal mines.

Confined Space Fatalities

Earlier this week I wrote about a confined space incident that had a happy ending. Those workers were lucky. The ones I ran across today weren't:

Authorities in Hanover County are trying to determine what caused the death of a landfill worker. The accident happened Monday afternoon at a privately owned landfill.

Officials say two maintenance workers went into a manhole 18 feet deep to check on a sump pump. One of the men passed out and died before they could get him out. Investigators are not sure what caused the man to collapse. The man's name has not been released.

This is a confined space incident where the toxic gas was apparently introduced by the workers when they a gasoline-powered pump into a hole. This is an example of a poor or missing safety program and another where the rescuer almost ends up dead:

One city worker is dead and another was in serious condition this morning after an accident late Sunday afternoon that occurred while they were trying to repair a sewage pump station in Athens.

Mike Stanley, a 14-year city employee, was pronounced dead at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, according to Athens Service-Safety Director Wayne Key.

Dave Carder was listed in serious condition this morning at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, a hospital spokesman said.

The two men were overcome, possibly by carbon monoxide, after responding to a maintenance problem at the Oakmont sanitary lift station. Worker Scott Lambert also was at the scene.

Key said an underground portion of the lift station had flooded, and the workers attempted to use a vacuum truck to pump it out. When that failed, they gradually lowered a gasoline-powered pump into the 20-foot-deep hole, emptying it as the pump was lowered.

Stanley then descended into the lift station, but became ill. Lambert left the immediate area to call 911, and while he was away Carder apparently went down into the pump station to try to rescue Stanley, Key said.


And the U.S. is not the only country with confined space problems, as well as higher injury and fatality rates among foreign workers. This is from Greece:

Dimitris Kolovos, 45, and Vasili Passa, 42, died when they were overcome by methane fumes in a sewer while carrying out a project for Acharnon Municipality at Menidi.

Dimitris Tsakalis, 32, first went into the sewer to measure its depth and was overcome by the fumes. His colleagues went in to save him and they too collapsed. They were pulled out a short while later by the fire department, but the two were dead and Tsakalis is being treated at Sismanogleio Hospital, where he is in critical condition. Labor Inspectorate officials said the three belonged to a small private team that was working on the area's sewerage system. They had not taken the necessary precautions, such as wearing gas masks, and no one was supervising them. If a supervisor was there, he had run away to evade arrest, officials said.

The accident underscored the dangers faced by foreign workers especially, as Passa and Tsakalis are Albanian citizens. Foreign workers are usually more likely to carry out dangerous work without objecting, are not union members, and often don't have the necessary training. Last year, 40 foreign workers died in work-related accidents, 38 died in 2001 and 20 in 2000.

Labels: confined space hazards

Workers Comp Notes

Insurance Company Rate Hikes Force Comp Cuts

Leaders Call for Insurance Reform

Around the country, insurance company rate hikes have forced states to cut workers’ compensation benefits, according to AFL-CIO and Workplace Injury Litigation Group (WILG) leaders attending a national Workers’ Voice meeting in San Francisco July 19. For more information, check out the AFL-CIO's Workers' Comp Notes.

Tysons Settles Wrongful Death Suit

This is an interesting story, as well as another confined space tragedy.

A wrongful death suit filed by the families of two Tyson Foods Inc. workers who suffocated at the company's rendering plant four years ago has been settled in federal court.

The families of the late James Dame Jr. of Slaughters and the late Michael Hallum of Madisonville settled their case against Tyson about a month ago.

The terms of the confidential settlement were sealed by the judge's order at the families' request.

Dame, who was 40, died July 22, 1999, after being overcome by fumes while trying to retrieve a forklift bucket that had fallen into a gas-filled pit at Tyson's River Valley Animal Feeds rendering plant near Robards.

Hallum, 24, perished trying to rescue his co-worker from the pit....

The families sought compensation for pain and suffering, medical and funeral expenses and loss of future earnings. Additionally, Dame's family sought $20 million in punitive damages.

Now I'm glad Tysons was forced to pay for these workplace killings, but I don't understand how they got around the "exclusive remedy" of Workers Compensation which generally prohibits workers or their families from suing their employers. Any attorneys out there who can explain this?

Oh, and one more thing. I'm awarding the "Sensitivity Award" to Tyson Attorney David Sarvadi (who in a previous life was also one of the leading anti-ergo extremists):

"This is a very sad occasion, a very tragic accident," David Sarvadi, a Tyson attorney, told the hearing officer, Thomas J. Hellman, in his opening remarks last November.

But, Sarvadi said, "The employees did not follow rules that had been established. They did not follow their training."

Got what they deserved, I guess.

Labels: confined space hazards

Illinois Governor Signs Pro-Labor Laws

From Nathan Newman

Governor Blagojevich signed 4 pro-labor bills yesterday, mostly aimed at easing organizing among public employees by eliminating delays in recognition by the state. Under the new system, when a majority of workers sign cards requesting union recognition-- they will get recognition without the delays and lawsuits they've faced in the past.

This is the model for labor law reform in the private sector -- unlikely for the foreseeable future since that will require national legislation. But the more states approve it for the public sector, the more compelling it will be as a model for labor law reform.

This is the type of action that should win Blagojevich and the Democrats much more labor support. Good move in a potential battleground state which also has one of the increasingly rare winnable Senate seats.

What I can never figure out, however, is why so many other Democratic Governors (and other politicians) don't automatically do everything the can to help unions organize -- considering that the Democratic party would completely dead (as opposed to being on life support) without labor. It's a basic law of current politics which too few seem to understand: More Labor Union Members = More Democratic Votes.

Civil War Brews over Ergonomics: OSHA vs. Anti-Ergo Industry

OSHA has been forced to face some SHOCKING truths lately. First, musculoskeletal injuries really do exist and implementing ergonomics fixes really does help. Second, just because a company (even a big, respected company) has a good program on paper, doesn’t mean it translates down to where people are actually working.

But the business associations, especially the National Coalition on Ergonomics, spawn of the National Association of Manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce, are having none of it. To ward off potentially precident-setting (for Republicans) ergonomics citations, NAM and NCE are considering forming a legal defense fund and taking legal action against OSHA, according our underground investigative reporter who knows all (one of my many valuable correspondents who, for reasons of homeland security, are forced to remain anonymous.)

And that’s OSHA’s third unpleasant revelation. Your friends may not remain your friends if you don’t join them in fantasyland.

The first reason the business associations are upset is because OSHA had the temerity to level a general duty clause ergonomics citation against a Coca-Cola bottling facility in Ohio.

OSHA also cited a Missouri SUPERVALU warehouse for ergonomics problems.

The evaluation of this manual lifting task indicates that employees are exposed to hazards that are causing or likely to cause MSDs, including low back pain (LBP) and shoulder related MSDs, as shown by a review of the company's injury and illness records from 1998 to the time of the inspection, which document that a significant number of MSDs have been caused by exposure to stressors; including 6 shoulder surgeries in 2001 and 2 shoulder surgeries in 2002.

Seems like it's hard to argue with shoulder surgeries. So what has the industry's undies in such a twist? A couple of things.

First, the Coca Cola citation involves truckers and the trucking and delivery industry (American Trucking Association and U.P.S., for example) were among the most rabid foes of the Clinton ergonomics standard. It's one thing if OSHA cites a couple of wimpy nursing homes, but it's quite another when they go after the big boys.

Industry mouthpieces point out that both Coca Cola and SUPERVALU have extensive ergonomics programs in place and note that OSHA Administrator John Henshaw had stated many times, including a recent speech to the American Occupational Health Conference that

We are not going to focus our enforcement efforts on employers who have implemented effective ergonomic programs or who are making good-faith efforts to reduce ergonomic hazards.

Clearly his industry buddies assumed they had a blank check. As long as companies had something decent on paper, reality (as in shoulder surgeries and other injuries) didn't count in individual facilities that may not be taking ergonomics problems as seriously as they need to.

Apparently that kind of enforcement strategy didn't pass the laugh test even in George Bush's OSHA.

Oh please don't give me a ticket, officer. Even if I was going 120 in a school zone, my parents have immaculate driving records and I got an "A" in drivers ed.

(And particularly embarrassing for OSHA and SUPERVALU, SUPERVALU’s Corporate Director of Risk Control James Koskan is a member of OSHA’s National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics.)

In response to this outrageous (and unusual) display of enforcing the law, the National Coalition on Ergonomics is considering forming a legal defense fund, presumably to aid in the defense of other mom and pop type businesses like Coke and SUPERVALU from violations of their purity by OSHA's gestapo agents....Even if they're Republican gestapo agents.

Don't you just hate it when the children fight?

Footnote: Coca Cola, incidentally, is no virgin when it comes to OSHA citations. The Atlanta Business Journal revealed that

Last year The Coca-Cola Co. and its network of bottlers were cited for 222 violations of federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration standards and fined $156,831.

In 2001, OSHA cited Coke (NYSE: KO) and its bottlers for 212 violations and fined them a total of $170,091.

Over the past decade, the companies have been cited for 2,264 violations.

A list released by OSHA in February that identifies 14,200 U.S. facilities that had accident and illness rates at twice the national average of about three illnesses or injuries for every 100 workers included 96 facilities owned by Coke bottlers.

Labels: Ergonomics

Worked to Death

Dr Sid Watkins died when his body could no longer stand his "crazy" working hours. Stressed out teacher Pamela Relf killed herself. So did mental health nurse Richard Pocock. And postal worker Jermaine Lee. All died because their jobs were just too much to bear.

These weren't recorded as job-related deaths. And that's the topic of a new page of Hazards magazine -- Worked to Death -- assembled by British workplace safety activist, Rory O'Neill.

I've written here a number of times over the past several weeks about the dwindling vacation time and increasing work hours of American workers. Well, as Worked to Death makes clear, overwork is not just a nuisance, it's a killer.

When I was at AFSCME and at OSHA I would often receive reports of workers' deaths "by natural cause" in the workplace. These would never be investigated. Probably bad eating habits, overweight, or it was "just their time." I wish I had access to this web page back then. This information would have come in handy and maybe have saved some lives:

The British Trades Union Congress TUC research shows that stress is Britain’s number one workplace health hazard. Now the ‘modern workers health check’ reveals worldwide evidence of employees being worked into the ground:

-- Workers with stressful jobs are more than twice as likely to die from heart disease.

-- An individual’s mental health deteriorates when a change in workload results in higher demands, less control and reduced support. Poor management planning and organisation can lead to heart disease.

-- Working for unreasonable and unfair bosses leads to dangerously high blood pressure.

-- Workers are smoking, drinking and ‘slobbing out’ to deal with workplace stress.

-- Long-term work-related stress is worse for the heart than aging 30 years or gaining 40lbs in weight.

Check out the accompanying "Drop Dead" fact sheet as well as a fact sheet featuring an interview with workplace stress authority Paul Landsbergis about work-induced heart attacks.

So next time you hear that a worker has died on the job from a heart attack, look at the working conditions a little bit more carefully.

New Jersey Adopts Reactive Chemical Regulation

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced expansion of New Jersey's Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act (TCPA) program to add reactive chemicals to the list of extraordinarily hazardous substances that trigger risk management planning requirements of TCPA.

These chemicals can explode when accidentally exposed to air or water, or when they are improperly mixed with certain other chemicals. The force of the explosion can kill or permanently disable people outside the facility.

New Jersey will require companies handling reactive chemicals to prepare accidental release prevention plans and examine safer technologies to prevent industrial incidents like the tragic ones that occurred at Napp Technologies in Lodi in 1995 and at Morton International in Paterson in 1998. The Napp and Morton International accidents were the result of reactive chemistry interactions.

The U.S. Chemical and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) recommended last year that OSHA revise its Process Safety Management standard to add reactive chemicals. The Bush Administration withdrew a plan to begin rulemaking on reactives last year and the agency has not yet responded to the CSB's recommendation.

"New Jersey is the first state in the nation to address reactive hazards," said Charles Jeffress, chief operating officer of the CSB. "The Chemical Safety Board is very pleased by this step forward to protect residents and workers from chemical accidents."

Much of the credit for this rare (these days) progress in workplace safety and health goes to the Rick Engler and the New Jersey Work Environment Council who who led the way, along with other allies, including Paper, Allied- Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union Local 2-943 (representing workers at DuPont, state’s largest chemical plant) in planting the seeds for this measure.

Labels: Chemical Safety Board

Democratic Presidential Debate Wrapup

The AFL-CIO Presidential Candidate debate was interesting and occasionally inspiring. Some candidates looked better than others. (Some looked much better than others), but on the whole, I'd take any of them over the current resident of the White House (although I'm leaning toward Bob Edwards who hosted the event.)

Rather upsetting to us Confined Space groupies was the almost complete and total absence of any mention of health and safety issues (beyond a few token words by Kucinich and Kerry).

I mean, OK, maybe I'm a member of that wierd workplace health and safety cult (and so are you or you wouldn't be reading this), but what was the first major piece of legislation signed by George W. Bush? Yes, repeal of the federal ergonomics standard.

Not that I would ever think of criticizing the powers-that-be at the AFL-CIO....and there were lots of important issues discussed (jobs, health care, labor rights, corporate corruption, pensions, etc), but for many of these issues you just got the predictable platitudes that didn't particulary challenge the candidates (I mean, who was going to oppose workers' right to organize?)

A discussion of some actual workplace issues -- health and safety, overtime, living on less than a living wage, etc -- would have not only revealed the candidates' real understanding of workers' lives, but might also have been educational for the non-union members that may have been watching.

And a discussion of Bush's ergonomics crimes might have reminded people of some of the early misdeads of this administration that continue to affect millions of workers every day.

So fellow groupies and cultists: Now is the time to start thinking about how to make workplace health and safety a campaign issue in the coming elections (That's elections -- plural.) Ideas are welcome. Talk among yourselves. Then e-mail me.

Labels: AFL-CIO, Ergonomics

AFL-CIO Presidential Forum Tonight

Tonight, Tuesday Aug. 5, the nine Democratic presidential candidates working to beat President Bush in next year's election will join thousands of union members at the AFL-CIO's Working Families Presidential Forum in Chicago.

You can watch the entire forum when it is broadcast LIVE on C-SPAN beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

So far Gephardt has the most union endorsements, but it will be hard for any candidate to get to the two-thirds necessary for a national AFL-CIO endorsement.

Labels: AFL-CIO

Confined Space Close Call

I figure being as this Blog is called Confined Space, I should occasionally write about confined spaces.

This story has a happy ending -- barely -- unlike most of the confined space incidents that make the papers.

Two workers were rescued from the bottom of a Cape Coral manhole Friday after apparently succumbing to toxic fumes, emergency crews reported.

Rodney Jones and Michael Radford of the Cape Coral company Reliable Divers were taken to Cape Coral Hospital. Radford was treated and released, a hospital nursing supervisor said.

The conditions were not unusual for this type of incident:

One of the men apparently passed out from a combination of low oxygen levels and hydrogen sulfide and methane fumes, said Tom Tomich, operations chief for the Cape fire department. Both gases are a byproduct of sewage and are found in sewage pipes.

NIOSH reports that more rescuers are killed in confined space incidents than original victims. We almost had an example here.

Tomich said the two men were inside the shaft apparently fixing a leak. One of the men passed out and fell part of the way down the 12- to 15-foot shaft. Tomich didn't know how far the man fell.

The other man went down to help him; he also began feeling the effects of the gas and fell.

Luckily, the fire department got there fast and ventilated the pipes to provide life-saving air to the workers before rescuing them. Many workers and rescuers aren't so lucky.

One more rather disquieting note:

Tomich said people often pass out after working in such tight quarters in sewage shafts. The sewer pipes weren’t hooked up yet, he said, but apparently there still were fumes.

People often pass out? Hello? Doesn't that tell you something about your program? One person passing out is a pretty frightening "close call" from which serious lessons should be learned. But often?

And one more thing. As the article says, oxygen deficiency, hydrogen sulfide and methane gas are "byproducts of sewage." But they are also byproducts of any decaying organic material -- plant material like weeds or grass, dead animals, whatever. So, as Tomic notes, there can still be fumes, even if the pipes aren't hooked up. Lesson: Assume any sewer line is a potentially deadly confined space. Always follow the OSHA standard: monitoring, ventilation, training, proper procedures and equipment, and safe rescue preparations.



More confined space information here.

Labels: confined space hazards

Ground Zero Syndrome

Nearly two years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, half of the emergency workers who responded to the tragedy are ill, many suffering from respiratory problems. Some wonder whether workers were given enough information and equipment to protect them.

Linked here (scroll down) is an excellent National Public Radio story on the plight of the workers and the measures that weren't taken to protect them. Also featured is NYCOSH Director Joel Shufro who was warning from the first that workers needed better protections and that OSHA standards needed to be enforced.

Labels: 9/11 World Trade Center Workers

The Unbearable Heaviness of Industry

Postcards From China's Industrial Caldron

Check out this article in the NY Times today about an excellent photo exhibit about Chinese workers and working conditions by photographer Zhou Hai. The images are reminiscent of American labor photographer Earl Dotter and photographers of America's early industrial period.

"As our society has developed, so many workers have been marginalized, and fewer and fewer people care about them," Mr. Zhou said last month at the 798 Photo Gallery, appropriately housed in a renovated factory space in northeast Beijing. "So I felt a need to record this era and these people."

More pictures can be seen on Zhou's Web site: www.zhouhai.com.)

The Weekly Toll

Worker killed in trench collapse
Official: Walls lacked required supports at Dixie Highway site

Kentucky safety officials are investigating a trench collapse that killed a 35-year-old worker yesterday.

Eric R. West, of Bedford, Ky., died at the scene. An autopsy will be performed today, said Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Rick Siclari.

And a warning to those tempted to rush in an rescue trench collapse victims:

Pleasure Ridge Park Fire Chief Doug Atwell said he doesn't recommend that people try to rescue others who are trapped in a trench, because they risk becoming trapped themselves in another collapse. He said the trench's walls collapsed twice more yesterday as emergency workers labored to recover the body, but no one was hurt.

Contractor Cites 2nd Death In Fla. In The Past Week

TAMPA - A road construction worker helping to rebuild the downtown interchange of Interstates 275 and 4 was killed Tuesday night when a crane hit his head, authorities said. It was the second fatal accident in Florida this week for the contractor and the third since December.
James David Hall, of 125 Weeping Willow Road, Winter Haven, died a day before his 37th birthday, police said. ...

It was the second fatal accident in Florida in one week involving a Granite Construction employee.

A U.S. 98 bridge project in Panama City claimed the life of a worker July 23 when a scaffolding collapsed, dropping him and four others 50 feet into the water.

Electrocution accident kills two locals

PHENIX - Two men were killed and a third seriously wounded after they were electrocuted in an accident at 22 Pleasant St. in West Warwick yesterday.

Thomas D. Walker, 24, of Coventry and Jared D. Gendron, 18, of Hope, died when 7,200 volts of electricity penetrated their bodies. Kyle D. Moffat, 19 of Coventry was admitted to Kent County Memorial Hospital and is listed in good condition.

According to Narragansett Electric Vice President of Public Affairs Fred Mason "some workers were doing some shingling or siding trying to erect some staging. Using big, tall aluminum poles that would hold the planks that go across, the aluminum pole somehow came in contact with the electrical line. "

Truck fire claims life of painter; 12 critical

Greenwood man, 30, suffered 3rd-degree burns over 90 percent of his body; cause of blaze is unclear

One man has died as the result of an inferno that may have reached 1,000 degrees when it erupted in the back of a truck loaded with 13 painters, but authorities Wednesday were only beginning to understand the origin of the blaze.

The worker died at 10 p.m. Tuesday, about eight hours after the fire started, and his 12 companions all were listed in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns today.

More here


Albany man killed in junkyard accident

PORTLAND — A truck driver was killed Friday at a Northeast Portland salvage yard when he was hit by a crushed car being loaded onto a truck.

Timothy A. Bowers, 37, of Albany died at the scene, Portland Fire Bureau spokesman Lt. Neil Heesacker said.


Council Bluffs man killed in forklift rollover

OMAHA - A Council Bluffs man was killed Thursday morning at a construction site in Omaha when a forklift rolled over on top of him.

James Kirk, 42, of Council Bluffs was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident occurred at the Quality Pork International worksite in southwest Omaha around 11:20 a.m. Kirk, a forklift operator, was working for KFR Inc., a company subcontracted by Dietzel Enterprises to work on installing a support wall at the business, according to Omaha Police Sgt. Cathy Cook.



State investigating Ireton man's death on farm

State investigators are looking into the work-related death of an Ireton, Iowa, man.

The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health agency has visited the Bar-K Farms in Carmel, Iowa, to investigate the July 18 death of 31-year-old Kenneth Van Wyk.

A report won't be completed for at least a month, said Mary Bryant, IOSH administrator.

Van Wyk died while repairing a steel 11,000-gallon liquid storage tank, said a Bar-K employee who declined to give his name. Van Wyk was inside the tank, which contained gas fumes, and passed out, the man said.


Honeywell worker dies after chemical leak

BATON ROUGE, La. A Honeywell International worker has died after being injured during a chemical leak at the plant, prompting another investigation by local, state and federal officials.

Delvin Henry of Baton Rouge was pronounced dead Wednesday at Baton Rouge General Medical Center, Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Darrell O'Neal said.

A container at the plant sprung a leak Tuesday while being filled with antimony pentachloride, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The corrosive chemical can burn the skin, irritate the nose, mouth, throat and lungs; and cause headaches and nausea.

This latest accident follows a chlorine leak July 20 in which eight workers and some nearby residents were hospitalized after complaining of burning lungs and other irritations. The July 20 leak prompted safety investigations by the Fire Department, DEQ, Louisiana State Police, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.


UI worker dies from Sikorsky accident

David Bagdasarian was supposed to join friends today for the group’s annual summer trip to a major league ballpark to watch the Mets play.

Bagdasarian will not make that trip.

The United Illuminating Co. employee from Shelton died Thursday from injuries he suffered in a July 10 accident at Sikorsky Aircraft.

Bagdasarian, 49, died at Bridgeport Hospital from complications associated with injuries from the accident that occurred as he and two other UI employees surveyed electrical equipment in an outdoor cage in a parking lot at Sikorsky’s sprawling factory on Main Street in Stratford. The three men were surveying the equipment in preparation for work they were to do that weekend when an electrical arcing occurred.

Industrial accident claims Rock Springs man

GREEN RIVER -- A Rock Springs man died early Tuesday morning from neck and head injuries after the lift vehicle he was driving fell off a loading ramp, according to Sweetwater County authorities.

Douglas Ray Bernard, 35, was found by coworkers at around 6:45 a.m. at Wyoming Rents on Sunset Drive in Rock Springs, said County Coroner Dale Majhanovich. He estimated the accident occurred around 4:30 a.m.


2nd Skyway Construction Death Of Summer

Aug 2 (Chicago) -- A worker fell 50 feet to his death Friday after he stepped on an unsupported platform while working at a construction site on the Chicago Skyway, marking the second fatality from the area in less than a month.

The victim, identified by the medical examiner's office as David Stevens, 36, fell at about 1 p.m. from the Skyway at 75th Street and Greenwood Avenue, Gresham District Sgt. Robert Orlando said.

Stevens was laying a platform to pour concrete from when he stepped on a 3-by-4-foot piece of plywood that had no support under it, according to a Calumet Area detective.

The worker plunged 50 feet and struck his head on the ground, the detective said. He did not know the name of the construction company the victim worked for.

This was the second time in less than a month that a construction worker was killed falling from the Skyway.

Dennis McNamara, 63, 249 Lincoln Ct. in Wood Dale, was working on the Skyway near 77th Street when he plunged to the ground at about 11:10 p.m. July 9.


Worker Killed By Driver
A suspected drunken driver slammed into a Central Florida GreeneWay tollbooth under construction early Friday, killing one worker and injuring two others.

Grady Hill, 38, of Casselberry, suffered fatal injuries, according to the FHP. Injured were Paul Kimbro, 44, of Oviedo, and Charles Starrett, 43, of Geneva.
More here.

Labels: Weekly Toll

California Nightmare

Wondering about the economics behind California's recall circus? And the national significance? Read yesterday's Paul Krugman.

One problem:

California's slide into irresponsibility, in which politicians refuse to acknowledge any connection between the government services the public demands and the taxes that pay for those services, is being replicated all across America.

Krugman points out that it was initiatives that got California into this mess: Proposition 13, which cut property taxes, and later, Proposition 98, which mandated that the state replace educational funding cut due to Prop 13. So now

the state faces a huge deficit, and spending must be cut. But shouldn't the state also seek more revenue? During California's last crisis, Governor Wilson increased the sales tax and temporarily raised income taxes on top brackets. This time Governor Davis proposed doing more or less the same thing — but Senate Republicans refused to go along. Their counterproposal relied entirely on spending cuts — but, tellingly, offered no specifics about what, exactly, should be cut.

And the federal implications?

Outside the Social Security system, the federal government is now running a deficit equal to a third of its spending — worse than California. The administration says it will never, ever contemplate increasing taxes; it says it will narrow the deficit through spending restraint, but has never said what spending it intends to restrain.

If the federal government isn't in crisis, that's only because — unlike state governments — it isn't obliged to balance its budget each year. And so far bond markets have been willing to give the feds the benefit of the doubt.

But the people now running the country are every bit as irresponsible as those blocking a serious response to California's crisis. And sooner or later that irresponsibility will have the usual consequences. California, here we come.

Republican-Controlled Committee Passes Republican Bill to Weaken OSHA

In a series of SHOCKING votes, Republicans on the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections passed three mini-OSHA bashing bills on three party-line votes, with all the Republicans on the committee voting in favor of the amendments and all the Democrats voting against them.

The bills were broken out of an original larger "OSHA Fairness (sic) Act of 2003. One of the measures that passed (H.R. 2728) would have the effect of extending the time period allowed for an employer to challenge the validity of an OSHA citation. Another would expand the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission from three members appointed by the President to five.

The third would shift the balance of power in legal proceedings from the Secretary of Labor to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Such a move would be significant if the Review Commission disagreed with OSHA about the validity of a citation. Now, if OSHA loses a case before the Review Commission, it can appeal to a federal court, and the court is legally required to give "deference" to the Labor Department's position on legal questions. If the bill passes, the courts would be required to give that deference to the Review Commission instead.

(I'm too tired and disgusted to go into more detail once again on these bills, but if you're interested in more information, check here and here and here.)

In a NYCOSH interview with Rep. Major Owens (D-NY)

Owens said "The majority is trying to pass these bills off as insignificant technical changes in the Occupational Safety and Health Act, but each of them makes the law slightly more difficult to enforce, and their cumulative effect can only be bad for workers and their families. I find it particularly interesting that the majority is proposing to expand the size of the government by adding two seats to the Review Commission. Any time the Republicans want to increase the size of the government, you can be sure it will not be good for working families."

Most of the above article was taken from the NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health July - September 2003 which you should all check out. It's got more good stuff.

Green Labor

Linked here is the first edition of Green Labor, a newsletter dedicated to building coalitions between labor and environmentalists. The newsletter contains articles about global warming initiatives supported by Canadian unions and a "Call to Action" by David A. Foster, Director, USWA District 11: Labor, Environmentalists Must Join Forces "to stop corporate crafted attacks on labor rights and health care, the deliberate stalemate on climate change or the promotion of trade agreements that threaten both family-supporting jobs and the planet."

For more information or to subscribe, contact Green Labor, 31 West 15th Street, New York, NY 10011 or greenlabor@erols.com or call 973.233.1946.

Asbestos Comp: Who Benefits?

And now for the "other side" of the never-ending asbestos compensation debate. This editorial from the Hampton Roads Pilot puts it all in perspective:

There's an ancient myth that crocodiles lure their prey with moans, then shed a river of mocking tears as they devour their victims. That's why the tens of thousands of sailors and shipyard workers in Hampton Roads who made a living breathing in the dust from asbestos fireproofing should be careful, lest they drown in crocodile tears shed on their behalf by backers of a national asbestos trust fund.

And who will benefit? Guess

It's the asbestos manufacturers, not the victims, who stand to gain the most, according to a report by Mark Peterson, one of the nation's leading experts on asbestos claims.....

By far the biggest beneficiary is Halliburton Co., the global oil services giant that was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney before he was tapped by President Bush. Halliburton agreed in December to resolve 200,000 suits for $4.2 billion. Then, Halliburton hailed the settlement to stockholders as "good news" that leaves the company "strong and healthy."

"In other words, outside of the global asbestos settlement, it will be business as usual," Halliburton said in a statement on its Web site. If a $4 billion settlement is good news, then the trust fund should make Halliburton stockholders positively giddy. The trust fund legislation releases Halliburton from its eternal $4 billion obligation, requiring it to pay only $546 million, for $3.7 billion in savings. Owens Corning saves $2.5 billion in the same way. W.R. Grace gets back $1.7 billion, Honeywell $1.5 billion.

Peterson found that 12 corporations with the largest liabilities would escape $12.5 billion in settlements to which they already have agreed. In a rebuttal to the popular argument that asbestos suits are creating economic havoc by driving companies into bankruptcy and forcing thousands of workers to be laid off, Peterson's analysis showed that employment at the six companies with the largest asbestos liabilities had actually increased since they filed for bankruptcy.

Asbestos: The gift that keeps on giving and giving and...

This article is about Libby, Montana, a

small town of 2,800 residents in remote northwestern Montana [that] has become shorthand for a public health disaster of tragic proportions - and lingering questions of corporate and governmental culpability....An estimated one-third of area residents have the tell-tale signs of asbestos-related lung disease, and more than 200 have died from it.

Gosh. That's terrible. If only we had known....

As news reports and several books have documented over the years, state inspectors found asbestos dust of "considerable toxicity" in the vermiculite processing plant in the 1950s, and yet workers were not adequately protected from it. News accounts and books have also reported that Grace officials were aware of the problem as well - the company-sponsored annual X-rays revealed lung abnormalities in its workers, who say they were not told of the results. Grace has said it informed the workers' physicians.

Grace? Grace? Why does that name sound familiar? Oh yeah. Look up a few paragraphs. They're slated to save about $1.7 billion out of Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) asbestos compensation bill.

Labels: Asbestos

A Little Help From My Friends

Many of you probably assume that I'm some kind of Superman for constantly finding all of this good news to pass on. Very perceptive of you Actually, the truth is that I get plenty of help from people who send me articles and ideas. While there are too many to mention here, I do want to give special thanks to my European correspondent (who also finds a lot of U.S. news), Rory O'Neill of Hazards, as well as my New York/National correspondent, Jonathan Bennett of NYCOSH, without whom most of this -- especially the good stuff -- would not be possible. I'm always looking for more ideas and articles, so everyone, keep those cards and letters and e-mails coming in.

Science Friction

Guess what. President Bush really doesn't like scientists, especially if they don't happen tell him what he wants to hear.

The article by Nicholas Thompson in the Washington Monthly talks about the Bush Administration's politicization of the science. And it's not just Bush. It's the Republicans in general. It all brings back fond memories of the OSHA ergonomics hearings in 2000 when the Republican-led House of Representatives questioned and harrassed the scientific experts who testified for OSHA in favor of the standard, alleging that they had been improperly influenced by OSHA because they were paid a stipend for their work. (Which, by the way, has been common practice during OSHA hearings in both Democratic and Republican Administrations.)

In fact, the Republicans were so full of respect for science that they commissioned not one, but two National Academy of Sciences literature reviews in an effort to stall OSHA's rulemaking until a possible Bush Administration could stop the rulemaking. "Wait for the science" was the Republican refrain. They kept it up even after both studies came back strongly supporting the connection between working conditions and musculoskeletal injuries, anchoring their refrain on the NAS's endorsement of additional research. (Has anyone ever seen a scientific study that didn't call for more research?)

But I digress. Back to the article. No one ever accused the Republicans of not being able to hold a grudge:

The administration has stacked hitherto apolitical scientific advisory committees, and even an ergonomics study section, which is just a research group and has no policy making role.

Ergonomics became a politicized issue early in Bush's term when he overturned a Clinton-era rule requiring companies to do more to protect workers from carpal tunnel syndrome and other similar injuries. Late last year, the Department of Health and Human Services rejected, without explanation, three nominees for the Safety and Occupational Health Study Section who had already been approved by Dana Loomis, the group's chair, but who also weren't clearly aligned with the administration's position on ergonomics. Loomis then wrote a letter saying that "The Secretary's office declined to give reasons for its decision, but they seem ominously clear in at least one case: one of the rejected nominees is an expert in ergonomics who has publicly supported a workplace ergonomics standard." Another nominee, who was accepted, said that she had been called by an HHS official who wanted to know her views on ergonomics before allowing her on the panel.

The administration has further used these committees as places for religious conservatives whose political credentials are stronger than their research ones. For example, on Christmas Eve 2002, Bush appointed David Hager--a highly controversial doctor who has written that women should use prayer to reduce the symptoms of PMS--to the FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Commission.

Bush has also taken to unprecedented levels the political vetting of nominees for advisory committees. When William Miller, a professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, was considered as a candidate for a panel on the National Institute of Drug Abuse, he was asked his views on abortion, the death penalty, and whether he had voted for Bush. He said no to the last question and never received a call back. "Not only does the Bush administration scorn science; it is subjecting appointments to scientific advisory committees and even study sections to political tests," says Donald Kennedy, editor in chief of Science, the community's flagship publication.

You get the idea. Read the article. It's chilling.

Labels: Ergonomics

Organizing Around Health and Safety

I've written a couple of times about UNITE's organizing campaign a Cintas (here and here), a Cincinnati-based laundry and uniform rental company, partly in response to health and safety problems.

Earlier this week, nearly 100 union members rallied at a Branford, CT plant, calling on Cintas Corp. to remedy health and safety violations. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, (D-CT), spoke at the rally, pledging to continue supporti of Cintas workers nationwide.

She joined union leaders in demanding that the uniform company address violations cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which fined the company $10,000 two weeks ago....OSHA cited Cintas for several "serious" violations, including fire exits blocked by 55-gallon drums, illegal use of extension cords to operate heavy machinery, failure to provide showers to workers handling sulfuric acid, and failure to provide hepatitis B vaccinations to employees exposed to blood or other harmful materials.

Three weeks ago, DeLauro and 90 other congressional leaders sent a letter to the chief executive officer of Cintas asking the company to remain neutral should workers decide to unionize. She said she has not received a response.

Many Cintas workers are immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries. Supporters held up balloons and signs in English and Spanish as a police officer controlled the flow of cars into the parking lot.

The union has accused the company of intimidation and unfair labor practices.

Stop that bleeding and pee in this bottle boy!

What's the first thing you think of when someone gets hurt on the job? Unsafe working conditions? Unguarded machinery? Violated OSHA citations?

Nah. The guy was probably on drugs.

Workers Comp? Nah, he deserved what he got.

At least that's the philosophy behind a proposed Ohio law where business groups are again pushing to deny injured workers benefits if the workers were drunk or on drugs at the time.

The Ohio Supreme Court overturned a similar law last year that forced injured workers to prove they weren't under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but it was found by the court to violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

The new bill is much better:

The proposed legislation offers specific examples of when a worker can be tested, such as when an employer suspects a worker is impaired or at the request of a doctor or police officer, Geiger said.

"You've got to specifically think there's a problem and specifically order a test when an injured worker shows up in the hospital," he said.

Oh, OK, I feel much better now.

But business groups are banking on more than just a a few different words to change the Court's mind. A new Republican justice has taken the seat of a retiring justice who voted against the last law.

Everything You Need To Know About Bush's Attempt to Cut Overtime

The Newspaper Guild-CWA held a news conference on this morning, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, to discuss the radical and negative changes in overtime regulations, proposed by the Department of Labor (see below).

In addition to the playback of the conference, you can click here for a summary of the changes, an explanation of how the Department of Labor is actually encouraging employers to cheat workers out of OT, a brief history of the law, and more.

Overtime Out

I wrote the other day about Americans’ vanishing vacations. Well, the Bush administration obviously figures if you can’t go on vacation, you might as well be working more for less.

But it seems there are a few people out there who are upset about making less money next year in order to make life better 9and more profitable) for American business. The U.S. Labor Department has been flooded with over 80,000 letters from irate workers around the country whose living conditions depend on the overtime they earn.

One typical letter:

"Shame on you, President Bush," Patrick L. Crane, 47, a prison guard from Highland, Ill., wrote to the Labor Department in early June. ". . . I would not appreciate being mandated to work extra hours in a prison and become injured or killed for working exhausted."

And what is he wasting his overtime pay on?

Crane said he has used his time-and-a-half pay to replace his car's broken transmission; help care for his mother, who has dementia; and pay medical bills for his brain cancer treatments.

The AFL-CIO and the Economic Policy Institute estimate that over 8 million workers will lose overtime under the new regulations while the Labor Department claims that the number is only around 644,000. Democrats in Congress have been trying to stop the new regulations, so far unsuccessfully.

The Labor Department claims not to be surprised at the response.

Victoria A. Lipnic, assistant labor secretary for employment standards, said department officials were not taken aback by the heavy volume of comments, in part because Internet filing makes it easier for people to air their opinions. "It's not surprising when you propose a change to something that has been in place for 54 years," Lipnic said.”

Today overtime and the 40 hour work-week, tomorrow Social Security, Medicare and the right to organize unions. We clearly need to get rid of all of those old, tired laws. This is the 21st century, after all.

Solution: Deep Breathing

As you may imagine, all of this overtime, in addition to downsizing, fear of layoffs, and rising unemployment levels are taking their toll on us poor humans. According to USA Today,

The rise in stress — driven by mounting unemployment, leaner workplaces and a jobless recovery — could pose a bottom-line threat to companies as workers suffer more mental and physical health problems related to job pressure, experts say.
Chicago-based employee assistance provider ComPsych experienced a 23% increase in crisis- and stress-counseling requests from client companies in the first quarter of 2003 compared with the first quarter of 2002. Nearly 30% were because of worker anxiety and terminations.

Nearly 35% of workers say they've seen an increase in anxiety and stress-related physical ailments in their workplace in the last year, according to a May survey by The Marlin Co., a North Haven, Conn.-based workplace communications firm. Twenty-seven percent report a rise in emotional problems such as insomnia and depression.

So how can employers deal with these problems: Maybe higher staffing levels or more job security? How about better working conditions and longer vacations? Nah!

At AstraZeneca, a Wilmington, Del.-based pharmaceutical company, a form of meditation called Qi Gong has been introduced. Classes take place at regular department meetings, including a pre-meeting meditation and — instead of a coffee break — there is an afternoon energy break with Qi Gong and tea.

Well that’s progressive of them. No? No.

One reason for the attention: Human-resources experts say employees exposed to stresses such as layoffs are more likely to engage in violent behavior.

Maybe they should just replace the meditation with medication. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Free Prozac.

What Did You Pay for the War, Daddy?

And now for something really depressing: HERE.

Asbestos Comp Feud: Round 20 and Still Rewriting History

The story of attempts to pass an asbestos compensation bill is old and getting older:

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of workers unknowingly exposed to cancer-causing asbestos were sick and dying. The courts were clogged with lawsuits. Asbestos manufacturers were going bankrupt. And Congress was debating whether to create a fund to compensate victims.

The year was 1982. Twenty-one years later, Congress is still debating the issue. The difference now is that the asbestos crisis has grown far worse. Hundreds of thousands of additional victims have stepped forward. The number of corporate defendants has jumped 28-fold. And their potential liabilities exceed $200 billion.

The Senate committee has passed a bill establishing a compensation fund and the unions, quite understandably, think the fund is too small. The insurance companies think it's too big and Orrin Hatch's Republicans and businesses think it's just right. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Heard it all before. Will continue to hear it. Who knows? Maybe they'll figure something out eventually.

But this is an interesting paragraph:

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was once used widely in many industrial processes because of its fire-retardant and insulating properties. When inhaled, though, asbestos fibers can cause lung disease and cancer. As a result, its use has been sharply curtailed in recent years though it is still found in vehicle braking systems, asphalt roof coatings and gaskets.

Let me repeat part of that: "When inhaled, though, asbestos fibers can cause lung disease and cancer. As a result, its use has been sharply curtailed in recent years."

If one didn't actually know the history of asbestos, one might think that the fact that "its use has been sharply curtailed" was somehow related to the fact that it "can cause lung disease and cancer."

Actually, the asbestos industry knew as early as the 1930's that asbestos caused serious lung disease. They hid it until courageous people like Dr. Irving Selikoff uncovered the health effects and the scandals in the 1960's. And then more decades would pass before decent regulations were issued to "curtail its use" and protect workers. Even today workers are still being exposed to the asbestos left over in buildings and still being used in pipes and automotive brakes.

Despite the impression given by this article, none of this progress happened by itself or because it 'was learned' that asbestos kills. It happened because of lawsuits and organizing by unions, sick workers and public health activists. And this is not just a tragic isolated story about asbestos. Look at any law or regulation that protects workers. No progress has ever been made in this country in the fields of occupational health or the environment because someone 'discovered' that harm was being done. Nothing happens without organizing, electing the politicians that will actually represent workers and communities, keeping the pressure on them once they are in office, and then more organizing.

It can be done. It has been done. It will be done again. But for many it's way too late:

More than 625,000 people have filed claims for asbestos-related injuries over the years. By the end of 2000, businesses and insurers had paid out more than $54 billion in claims, according to a 2002 Rand Corp. study. More than half the money went to defense and plaintiff attorneys' fees and other administrative expenses, the study said.

Rand found that more than 300,000 cases were still pending and another 500,000 to 2.4 million claims could be filed in the years ahead, costing businesses upward of $210 billion. There are more than 3,000 asbestos lawsuits pending in the New Jersey court system.

Sixty-seven companies have filed for bankruptcy because of their asbestos liabilities, compared with three back in 1982, and additional companies are likely to seek Chapter 11 protection.

I can't help wondering, even with the pain that this situation is causing these companies and the economy, how much information about toxic chemical is being covered up and how many more asbestos tragedies thousands will have to endure before people wake up.

In Europe, good things seem to be happening. Here in the U.S., we seem to be heading in exactly the opposite direction.

More on the asbestos comp bill here and here.

Labels: Asbestos

Or maybe two or three.

NY Councilman "Will Be Missed"

Here is an article by NYCOSH Chair Bill Henning in the NY Daily News about NY City Councilman and worker advocate James Davis.

Here in New York State, violence is the No. 2 cause of workplace fatalities. This is an epidemic that Councilmember Davis was well aware of before becoming a victim of it himself.

Ironically, on the day he was murdered, Davis was scheduled to introduce a City Council resolution urging the New York State Labor Department to adopt a set of regulations to protect workers from violence in the workplace.

Labels: Workplace Violence

Vacation!? We don't need no stinkin vacations!

If you're reading this, you're probably not on vacation. And you aren't alone. That's because, according to an article in the Washington Post, "Americans manage to live with the stingiest vacation allotment in the industrialized world -- 8.1 days after a year on the job, 10.2 days after three years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics." And it's getting worse: "We're now logging more hours on the job than we have since the 1920s. Almost 40 percent of us work more than 50 hours a week."

Why is it getting worse?

Just a couple of weeks ago, before members of the House of Representatives took off on their month-plus vacations, they opted to pile more work onto American employees by approving the White House's rewrite of wage and hour regulations, which would turn anyone who holds a "position of responsibility" into a salaried employee who can be required to work unlimited overtime for no extra pay.

Vacations are being downsized by the same forces that brought us soaring work weeks: labor cutbacks, a sense of false urgency created by tech tools, fear and, most of all, guilt. Managers use the climate of job insecurity to stall, cancel and abbreviate paid leave, while piling on guilt. The message, overt or implied, is that it would be a burden on the company to take all your vacation days -- or any. Employees get the hint: One out of five employees say they feel guilty taking their vacation, reports Expedia's survey. In a new poll of 700 companies by ComPsych Corp., a Chicago-based employee assistance provider, 56 percent of workers would be postponing vacations until business improved.

But it doesn't have to be this way:

Europe chose the route of legal, protected vacations, while we went the other -- no statutory protection and voluntary paid leave. Now we are the only industrialized nation with no minimum paid-leave law. Europeans get four or five weeks by law and can get another couple of weeks by agreement with employers. The Japanese have two legally mandated weeks, and even the Chinese get three. Our vacations are solely at the discretion of employers. The lack of legal standing is what makes vacations here feel so illegitimate -- and us so guilty when we try to take one.

And not only have studies found that short vactions are bad for productivity, but they're also bad for your health:

Overwork doesn't just cost employees. The tab paid by business for job stress is $150 billion a year, according to one study. Yet vacations can cure even the worst form of stress -- burnout -- by re-gathering crashed emotional resources, say researchers. But it takes two weeks for this process to occur, says one study, which is why long weekends aren't vacations. An annual vacation can also cut the risk of heart attack by 30 percent in men and 50 percent in women.

(You also may have noticed that I'm not on vacation -- and won't be. That's because when you change jobs, you go back to go and start over again. I left 5 weeks a year of vacation at AFSCME and started over again with two at OSHA. Haven't come close to catching up.)

So what is to be done?

This is why we need a law that will put an end to the bait and switch of vacation time, as well as leave that's being yanked completely. Legalized paid leave also would end the loss of accrued vacation time for downsized workers in their thirties, forties and fifties, who have to start their paid leave banks over again, as if they were at their very first job.

State of the States

Susan Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla was probably the kid you always wanted on your team in a treasure hunt because she always finds the good stuff. Like these...

Check out this hilarious rant by Bill Maher from the L.A. Times about the Grey Davis recall. My favorite parts:

What's going on here in California, if you're lucky enough to not have been following this, is that the economy turned, so we're getting rid of the governor. But what if we drive him out of office and the economy still doesn't get better? I guess we'll have to burn him. And if that doesn't work, we'll kill his dog.

Yes, in baseball when the team stinks, you fire the manager. But you don't fire him because it rains. And you don't let the opposing team choose a new manager for you.

And you don't fire him between innings. And replace him with a Viennese weightlifter.

The Viennese weighlifter, for those of who aren't Terminator fans, is, of course, Arnold Schwarznegger. Which brings me to my favorite line: "Finally, a candidate who can explain the Bush administration's positions on civil liberties in the original German."

And then she found this article about Bush's "Let Them Eat Cake" economics by Jonathan Alter:

When Al Gore exaggerated the details of his dog’s prescriptions, it helped cost him the presidency. The very same people who eviscerated him for it are now saying, hey, cut President Bush some slack—he wasn’t lying about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions, only exaggerating. This flap won’t hurt Bush in 2004, except to undermine his credibility on other issues.

SO WHEN, FOR instance, he says “this nation has got a deficit because we have been through a war,” people might begin to wonder whether he is telling the truth. They might wonder if the 13 percent state-college tuition hike in Maryland or the $1 billion state-tax increase in Ohio or the state Medicaid crisis now raging from coast to coast might have something to do with priorities in Washington. If Bush loses, it won’t be on yellowcake uranium but on “let them eat cake” economics.

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article somewhere about the impact the states' budget problems are having on normal people, but how they haven't connected the dots back to Washington yet. So in case you're wondering why the states have fallen into such a deep whole and what this has to do with what's going on in D.C.,

It’s a hole that the states—required by law to balance their budgets—are now being forced to fill. The tobacco-settlement money is gone; the “rainy day” funds exhausted. Under intense pressure from the governors, Washington ponied up $20 billion in emergency aid, but added tax breaks for corporations that will cost the states billions. The House just passed a plan for health savings accounts that will set the states back another $33 billion if enacted. And that’s not even counting the monster haunting every governor, every night—”unfunded mandates.” To take just one example that is relevant in school districts across the country: special education. Congress pledged it would pay for 40 percent of the cost; it actually covers 17 percent. In California alone, where nearly half the budget goes to K-12 education, that’s more than a billion dollars the state has been stiffed on.

I’m no Gray Davis fan, but let’s be honest about the facts. While some states have been mismanaged, most are simply contending with rapidly growing numbers of hurting people who need their services. Those services are now being slashed almost everywhere. Nineteen states—all of them facing sharply increasing demand—will have smaller budgets than last year, not just smaller budget increases. But telling a laid-off mother with three kids that she can’t see a doctor will not be enough. Governors and state legislatures are taxing everything that moves. Even the most conservative states are doing so. Republican Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama, a devout Christian, says raising taxes on the wealthy to help the poor is what the Bible compels. He’s had enough of so-called religious politicians who turn Christ’s commandments on their head.

NY Councilman, Workplace Violence Foe Shot Introducing Workplace Violence Resolution

Lee Clarke, Safety and Health Director of AFSCME District Council 37, went down to City Hall Wednesday intending to watch Councilmember James E. Davis introduce a City Council resolution urging the New York State Labor Department to adopt a set of regulations to protect public employees from violence in the workplace. "We were working with him on the anti-workplace violence resolution and I wanted to be there when he introduced it"

Instead, Clarke watched as Davis was shot and killed in the Council chambers, making him the latest victim in a epidemic of workplace violence affecting public-sector workers in New York State.

Davis's resolution read:

Public-sector workers of the City of New York continue to be the victims of crime in the workplace, including murder, rape, assault, verbal abuse and harassment,” the resolution said. “Because of hazardous working conditions and the absence of any systematic method for removing these dangers, workers and their families continue to suffer as a result of unnecessary and preventable incidents of violence at work.”

According to a statement released by NYCOSH, the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health,

“Yesterday’s shooting is a tragic example of what we are working to end,” said William F. Henning, Jr., the chair of NYCOSH’s Board of Directors. “Public-sector workers and unions are calling for a regulation that would require state and local government employers to establish and adhere to policies, procedures and practices for preventing, reporting, and responding to violence in the workplace.”

Clarke observed that

When the shooting started, the Council chamber was filled with people who were at work, all of whom were in danger of being hurt or killed. I can’t imagine a clearer example of exactly the kind of thing we are trying to prevent. The councilman grasped the right of people to a safe workplace and he was willing to spearhead the City Council’s effort to ask the state for a standard to protect workers. He will be sorely missed.

The resolution was supported by an ad hoc anti-workplace violence coalition of public-sector unions in New York City, including the New York State AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 37, Public Employees Federation, Civil Service Employees Association, United Federation of Teachers, Transport Workers Union Local 100, Communications Workers of American District 1, Professional Staff Congress, New York State United Teachers, and New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH).

According to the New York Times,

investigators said the killing appeared to stem from a simmering political dispute between Councilman Davis of Brooklyn, and the gunman, Othniel Askew who had planned to challenge Mr. Davis this fall for his seat representing central Brooklyn in the Council.

Mr. Askew was apparently able to slip his gun into City Hall by accompanying the councilman, who did not have to pass through metal detectors, officials said.

Most of this article was taken from a NYCOSH Press Statement.

Labels: AFL-CIO, Workplace Violence

Oops, McWane Does it Again: Mistakes Are Made

No more than a minute after finishing the posting immediately below this, I come across the following headline:

OSHA investigating Tyler Pipe after worker critically injured

7/24/03 7:36 PM

DALLAS (AP) -- Federal labor officials are investigating an incident at Tyler Pipe earlier this week that left a maintenance worker in critical condition, agency officials said Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is looking into whether proper safety equipment was provided during the incident at the steel foundry early Tuesday that injured David Willis, 46, agency officials in Dallas said.

Willis remained in critical condition late Thursday afternoon at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, said a nursing supervisor.

Ruffner Page, president of Birmingham, Ala.-based McWane Inc., Tyler Pipe's parent company, said Willis suffered a collapsed lung and broken ribs.....The incident comes as Tyler Pipe, which employs about 1,700 workers, is trying to repair its reputation for safety violations that have been linked to worker injuries and deaths, many of which were documented by The New York Times and Public Broadcasting Service's "Frontline" earlier this year.

According to Page, the accident occurred

as Willis was doing routine maintenance work on a machine that makes cast iron fittings. The company is still investigating the cause of the accident, but Page said it appears that Willis accidentally flipped a switch that turned the machine on, causing him to become pinned between the machine and an elevated deck.

McWane is, as usual, taking full responsibility for the incident. Noting that the company had just purchased new, supposedly safety equipment, Page said

"I think the message it sends is that, as hard as you work, and as much money as you spend and as much time as you devote to training, sometimes mistakes are made," he said.

Yeah, mistakes are made. Just nothing you can do about it.

EVER HEARD OF LOCKOUT/TAGOUT?

Well let me help you. Click here.

Labels: McWane

Three Finger Defense: McWane/Atlantic Pipe Talks to the Press

G. Ruffner Page Jr., the President of Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. and the corporate parent he heads, McWane Inc, stated to the New Jersey Express-Times that "are a 'changed company now' in terms of workplace safety and environmental issues. "

McWane was made (in)famous by the New York Times/Frontline series detailing the high numbers of injuries and deaths at McWane Facilities.

Page was quote talkative about the safety improvements McWane has made, and even talked for the first time about

for the first time identified Hector Velarde Lazo of Allentown as the employee who lost three fingers on his right hand during a Dec. 7 industrial accident at Atlantic States. They did not give Lazo's age.

The company did not have to report the accident to government regulators. Officials with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned about the accident after receiving an "informal complaint" from an unidentified source.

OSHA fined Atlantic States $130,000 for 12 workplace infractions during a general inspection and after investigating Lazo's accident.

He was apparently less talkative about Senator John Corzine's (D-NJ) bill that would toughen federal criminal penalties for workplace negligence.

"Sen. Corzine has his reasons for putting forth that legislation, but I couldn't comment on what is the legitimacy of it or not, Page said.

Probably a good idea.

Labels: McWane

The Daily Toll

OSHA investigating death of man at Copperweld Shelby

SHELBY -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating what caused a Missouri man to fall to his death Tuesday morning at Copperweld Shelby Division.

Clayton Guhr, 59, of Versailles, Mo., was standing on tubing on a tractor-trailer truck about 11:15 a.m. when it appears he slipped and fell to his death, striking his head on the concrete.

Cause sought in deadly Ocean City explosion

OCEAN CITY - Investigators could not say Wednesday what caused a boiler explosion that killed a custodian at the Intermediate School this week.

Jean Siegfried, 52, of Upper Township, was killed Tuesday afternoon when a pipe filled with scalding water ruptured in a boiler room.

Scaffolding Collapse Kills Worker

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - A bridge construction project claimed a second life and four other workers fell or jumped 50 feet into St. Andrew Bay when a scaffolding collapsed Wednesday.

Alan Stockton, 44, of Laguna Beach was killed. Richard Martin James, 33, of Fountain, was killed Dec. 14 when he fell 90 feet into the water while working on the bridge.

Contractor electrocuted on top of light tower

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A contractor who was replacing lights on top of a 90-foot baseball stadium light tower died of electrocution, authorities determined Thursday.

John H. Lill, 72, died Wednesday at the historic Point Stadium in Johnstown, said Jim Zangaglia, Cambria County chief deputy coroner. The light standard carried 4,100 volts of electricity.

Because Lill worked for himself, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration won't be participating in the investigation, Zangaglia said

Well isn't that just too damn convenient!


Industrial accident claims Rock Springs man

GREEN RIVER -- A Rock Springs man died early Tuesday morning from neck and head injuries after the lift vehicle he was driving fell off a loading ramp, according to Sweetwater County authorities.

Douglas Ray Bernard, 35, was found by coworkers at around 6:45 a.m. at Wyoming Rents on Sunset Drive in Rock Springs, said County Coroner Dale Majhanovich. He estimated the accident occurred around 4:30 a.m.

Bernard was operating a manlift from a semi-tractor trailer to an unsecured upholding ramp when accident occurred, Majhanovich said. A manlift is a four-wheel vehicle about the size of an SUV automobile can that lift workers in a cage 30 or 40 feet in the air.

Bush Administration to Study Global Climate Change

What do politicians do when they don't want to act on something? Study it some more.

The Bush administration will announce today final details of a 10-year plan to study global climate change to determine whether greenhouse gases and other human-generated pollutants have contributed to an unnatural warming of Earth's atmosphere.

Yeah, and next on the national research agenda: Is the really Earth round?

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Workplace Safety, But Were Afraid Was True: Interview with Peg Seminario.

We complain a lot (and rightfully so) about the health and safety conditions faced by workers in this country. But we've also made an enormous amount of progress over the past decades and a huge amount of credit goes to Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO Health and Safety Director since any of us can remember (and yet she's still so young!)

Linked here is an excellent interview with Peg from the Multinational Monitor about the state of workplace safety and health in this country today and the Republican war against workers. Print it out and keep it handy. It will be useful for the upcoming elections.

Some of the biggest problems: Not enough inspectors

We've got 2,000 job safety inspectors in the country responsible for overseeing and enforcing the safety and health laws in more than 6 million workplaces.

OSHA actually has fewer staff today than it did in 1980. The workforce and the number of workplaces has grown, but the agency's resources have not grown.

And no political will to enforce the law effectively:

For fiscal year 2002, the federal OSHA only issued 392 willful violations, down from 600 in fiscal year 1999. The average penalty for a willful violation was $27,000, where the maximum would be $70,000.

What we've seen is that while the inspection levels have been maintained by the Bush administration, the level of enforcement and the aggressiveness of enforcement has decreased. The number of willful violations, the number of repeat citations, and then the penalties that are associated with OSHA violations are all down.

Read the rest.

Go Away Ralph

This one is for your friends and relatives who still think voting for Nader is a good idea (Come on, we all have a few of those too.)

Michael Tomasky in the American Prospect gives three good reasons that Nader would be a politco-cidal maniac to run again and advice to Democratic candidates. The second reason for not running is probably to most important:

Second, some voted for Nader because they just weren't inspired by Gore personally. Fine. But it should be obvious today that a candidate's personality is one of the last things serious people ought to be thinking about. No one can survey the past 30 months and conclude, whatever the Democrats' shortcomings, that there's no difference between the parties. We would not have John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Gale Norton, the USA PATRIOT Act, this Trotskyist war in Iraq, two major class-war tax cuts -- the list goes on and on (and on). And that's only the stuff you hear about. In every agency of government, at every level, there are political appointees who are interpreting federal rules and regulations and deciding how much effort will really be put into pursuing federal discrimination cases, for instance, or illegal toxic dumping. These are the people who are, in fact, the federal government. The kinds of people who fill those slots in a Democratic administration are of a very different stripe than the kinds who fill them during a Republican term, and the appointments of these people have a bigger effect on real life than whether Al Gore sighs too heavily or speaks too slowly.

And then Tomasky goes on to give some not-too-subtle, but completely necessary advice to Democratic candidates:

Attack Nader right now, and with lupine ferocity. Say he's a madman for thinking of running again. Blast him especially hard on foreign policy, saying that if it were up to the Greens, America would give no aid to Israel and it would cease to exist, and if it were up to the Greens, America would not have even defended itself against a barbarous attack by going into Afghanistan. Have at him, and hard, from the right. Then nail him from the left on certain social issues, on abortion rights and other things that he's often pooh-poohed and dismissed as irrelevant. Cause an uproar. Be dramatic. Don't balance it with praise about what he's done for consumers. To the contrary, talk about how much he's damaging consumers today by not caring who's in charge of the Food and Drug Administration or the Federal Communications Commission.

Don't go away mad Ralph, just go away.

16 Words And What Do You Get?

Another war over (not) and deeper in death....

Need a way to respond to those Republican and Independent relatives and friends (come on, we've all got a few) this summer when they try to dismiss George the W's lies as "just" sixteen little words in a great big speech?

Check out this gem from Buzzflash: 24 "Deceptions" In 704 words: Bush's 2003 State Of The Union. A couple of samples:


4. "92 million Americans will keep, this year, an average of almost $1,000 more of their own money." Bill Gates goes into a bar where nine unemployed workers are nursing their beers. "Whoopee we're rich!" shouts one of them. "The average net worth of every one in this room is 3 billion dollars."

23. "And as we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies -- and freedom." Not enough food, medicine, supplies or freedom to go around in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

The continuing plight of undocumented immigrant workers. As if life wasn't hard enough, they also have to risk their lives:

A 29-year-old man from Ecuador showed a few weeks ago that the undocumented toil not only underground but sometimes high above it. His work conditions also showed that some employers have little concern about safety.

With two other young men from his homeland, he stood near a subway entrance on 33rd Street in Manhattan and looked up at the 20-story building that he and the others were about to fit with new windows.

For four years, he has been in New York and for that time all his employers have known he has no work documents, he said. He is not in a union. No benefits are offered. The hazards of his job are monitored only by a building inspector who may or may not know of his undocumented status, he said.

And if he is injured, he will have no compensation to cover the medical costs.

"We get paid $10 an hour, in cash," he said just before his foreman came and barked, "Let's do this bit," and darted a finger upward.

Soon the men were on a scaffold that dangled from the roof to the 11th floor, at times sitting on the top bar of its safety railing. A tether was tied to each man's waist to prevent a fall, but it can't stop them from slamming into the scaffold or the building itself.

The foreman would not comment on the workers' safety and immigration status. His superior did not return calls for comment.

Asbestos Comp Bill: First Kill the Lawyers?

Well, not all the lawyers, not the corporate attorneys, just the trial attorneys.

As I've said before in reference to the jihad against trial lawyers, it's easy to criticize them as greedy, but in the absence of any recognition withing the current regime -- or the media -- of the importance of regulation and enforcement against corporate crime, lawsuits and trial lawyers are the best -- perhaps only -- thing workers, communities and consumers have going for them.

Labels: Asbestos

Norwood’s Cluster Bomb: Mini-Anti-OSHA Bills

Figuring his chances of making “progress” are better with many small bills than with one big bill, Representative Charlie Norwood (R-GA) has broken down his “OSHA Fairness Act of 2003” into several smaller bills which will be brought up for “mark-up” on Thursday. Mark-up is when the committee considers amendments to bills and then votes on them. Norwood, who once accused OSHA of killing the toothfairy when it issued the bloodborne pathogens standard, has made it a personal crusade to castrate the agency.

Norwood’s bill (see here and here) would have provided new “tools” to employers to fight OSHA citations. The most controversial part of the bill, an amendment to the OSHAct’s definition of a willful citation, has been dropped for now. Instead, Norwood is proposing four bills: HR
2728-- --Contesting Citations (extending the time period allowed to challenge a citation if an employer accidentally misplaces the citation or his dog eats it) HR 2729--OSHA Commission (which would expand – stack -- the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission);HR 2730--Independent Review and HR 2731--Attorney Fees (which would require OSHA to pay all court costs when it loses a case against a small business).

Things I don’t get:

All of you faithful readers of Confined Space notice how I periodically list fatalities that I’ve found in newspapers on the web. Most of these are unfortunately common ways to die in the workplace – falls, trench collapses, welding incidents, electrocutions…. All preventable, well known hazards, covered by straight-forward, well known OSHA standards. But workers keep dying from these same well-known hazards, hundreds every week.

So what’s the problem? Employers don’t have enough information? Maybe they need more guidelines and warnings? Bushit. What’s clearly needed is a large enough budget (and the political will) to fund more enforcement, more inspectors, more worker training, higher fines and time in jail.

Let’s put all of this in perspective. According to Rummy, we’re spending $4 billion a month in Iraq – and that’s just what they’re admitting to. So, let’s see. That’s something like 9 to 10 times the entire OSHA annual budget each month. And far more Americans die each month of fatal workplace injuries than have been killed during the entire Iraq war. And there are far more chemical and biological weapons threatening American workers every day in our factories, chemical plants and hospitals than we’ve found in Iraq.

And while we’re at it, what ever happened to the tuberculosis standard (oh yeah), the PPE Payment standard, and the reactives revision to the Process Safety Standard?

But no, Charlie Norwood and his little committee focus instead on some red-herring anecdotal stories about oppressed small businesses while workers continue to die because OSHA can't get to enough workplaces.

It’s enough to make me want to call Congress. Speaking of which, see that box on the right hand side of this page. Here are the members of the committee. You know what to do.


Republicans

Charles Norwood (GA)
Judy Biggert (IL)
Cass Ballenger (NC)
Pete Hoekstra (MI)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Ric Keller (FL)
John Kline (MN)
Marsha Blackburn (TN)

Democrats

Major Owens (NY)
Ranking Minority Member
Dennis Kucinich (OH)
Lynn Woolsey (CA)
Denise Majette (GA)
Donald Payne (NJ)
Tim Bishop (NY)

As a matter of fact, call you congressional representatives even if they're not on the committee. Tell them you're tired of people dying in the workplace while Bush gives tax cuts to his friends. Or better yet, take a delegation and go visit them when they're on break next month. I'm sure they'll be glad to hear from you.

Other Congressional News

PPE Standard

The FY 2004 House Labor Appropriations Bill includes language criticizing OSHA for its “lack of progress” on issuing its “payment for PPE” standard that would require employers to pay for personal protective equipment that is required by OSHA standards. This rule was on the verge of completion when Bush took over. The UFCW and Congressional Hispanic Caucus have petitioned OSHA for its immediate issuance.

The committee stated that it was especially concerned because of the growing rate of deaths and injuries among Hispanic workers.

Along with inclusion of language urging OSHA to issue an airborne disease standard, this makes for a very interesting Appropriations report.

OSHA Budget

The bad news is that the House would provide $300,000 less to OSHA in FY 2004 than in 2003. The good news is that the Senate bill provides for $13 million more for OSHA and the Senate is expected to prevail. The House bill would provide for drastic cuts in OSHA’s training grant program, while the Senate bill, for the third year in a row, requires OSHA to continue to fully fund its Susan Harwood Grant Program.

Labels: Charlie Norwood

All in a Day's Work: While Republicans Fiddle, Workers Die

Calpine contractor dies in geothermal blast
New Mexico man becomes second of firm's specialists killed this year

A 44-year-old New Mexico man was killed over the weekend in a blast in geothermal fields in northwest Sonoma County in the second death this year of specialists hired by energy giant, Calpine Corp.

Calpine Corp. said the victim, identified by the Sonoma County coroner as Barry Carpenter of Farmington, N.M., was single. Carpenter worked for a drilling company, Air Comp....In May, a Merced maintenance worker who was inside a steam-cooling tower perished when a fan with blades was turned on.

More here.

Worker Dies After Falling Into Vat Of Cyanide
State Labor Department Inspecting Metal-Plating Company

MUNCIE, Ind. -- A worker at a metal plating company was killed when he fell into a 7,000-gallon vat of cyanide.

Investigators said no safety equipment appeared to have been in place that could have prevented 56-year-old Joseph Gray from falling into the vat Friday at Mid-City Plating Co.

Accident Kills Pair of Painters

Two construction workers who were painting the back side of a building at a Fairfax County, VA country club yesterday were killed when the cherry picker they were in tipped over, Fairfax County police said.

Former Princeton man dies in radio tower fall
PRINCETON, Ky. -- A former Princeton resident has died following a 450-foot fall from a Pennsylvania radio tower last week.

Clifford T. Williams, 26, of Paducah, formerly of Princeton, fell while he and another man per-formed maintenance on a 490- foot radio transmission tower in Greene Township, Pa., near the Ohio state line.

Coroner's officials said Williams was wearing a safety belt, though investigators have not disclosed whether the belt was connected to any of the tower's safety devices.

'Nothing more noble... nothing more humbling': Singapore Health Care Workers Saluted

They stood where few dared to stand, and died in the line of duty.

Last night, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong saluted the five health-care workers - two doctors, two nurses and a hospital attendant - who paid the ultimate price.
His tone was sombre as he named the five, one by one in a measured cadence.

Mr Goh said: 'Ong Hok Su, Alexandre Chao, Hamidah Ismail, Jonnel Pinera and Kiew Miyaw Tan knew the danger of Sars. But they did not flinch from their duties. They sacrificed their lives in the service of others.

'There is nothing more noble. There is nothing more humbling.'

NY Public Employees Call for Workplace Violence Standard

Responding to a continuing rise in the rate of workplace violence in New York, public employee unions are calling on the state Hazard Abatement Board to issue a standard protecting workers against workplace violence. According to the Public Employees Federation,

The number of assaults on state employees has risen from 1,396 in 1999 to 1,710 in 2001. And the rate of assaults and injuries per 10,000 state employees rose to 83.5 in 2001, a 26 percent increase over the 1999 rate.

When you factor in direct and indirect employment costs, workplace violence costs the state an estimated $42.5 million annually.

Thanks to joint efforts with PEF, injury statistics for the state Office of Mental Health have improved, but still show an extremely high statewide accident rate of 25.1 accidents per 100 workers in 2001-02. This rate is doubled to 51.1 when only forensic facilities are considered.

Labels: Public Employees, Social Workers, Workplace Violence

More Problems with Asbestos Compensation Bill

Interesting notes from a trial lawyer about the recent hearing on Senator Orrin Hatches Asbestos Compensation bill and how it would affect his clients with mesolthelioma.

Labels: Asbestos

Greens: Re-elect the President

Where have they been, under a damn rock for the past 2 ½ years?

Most, however, said the party should join the race. Many said they believe there is still little difference between the major parties -- one activist tagging them "Republicrats and Demopublicans."

For those lost souls reading this, check out Repentant Nader Voter.org. Come on guys. You can do it. One day at a time.

Suspicious Rumblings in Hawaii.

We all know that the Republicans’ wildest dream is to transform OSHA from an enforcement agency into a consultation agency where they would just give advice to employers instead of acting like the Gestapo and (gasp) actually penalizing them when they break the law.

Well, Hawaii Republican Governor Linda Lingle may be a dream come true for George Bush and Elaine Chao. The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported that Lingle had told the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii that:

HIOSH (Hawaii OSHA) will soon send warning letters to businesses, without citations, and will no longer be an enforcement agency, but instead become a "consultation" agency, Lingle said.

If that quote is true, it would mean that Hawaii, a state-plan state that runs its own OSHA, would be handing enforcement back to the federal government. All state plans are required to be “at least as effective as” federal OSHA, which means that they actually have to enforce the law, not just hand out good advice and hope everyone follows it.

What set Lingle off? According to the Star Bulletin,

"There was a case," Lingle said, "where a moving company was cited for moving a 50-pound box. A moving company! That's what they do, move!"

Yeah, and a window washing company washes windows. Does that mean that OSHA shouldn’t cite the employer if a worker falls to his death while washing a window? “But they’re a window washing company. That’s what they do, wash windows!” “But they’re a trenching company. That’s what they do, dig trenches!”

Well, to quote the old Saturday Night Live line (for those of you old enough to remember): “Linda, You ignorant slut!”

There are safe ways to wash windows and unsafe ways. There are safe ways to dig trenches and unsafe ways. And there are safe ways to lift boxes and unsafe ways.

Anyway, Lingle's administration

is about "creating quality jobs," by passing good laws, repealing or vetoing bad ones, and working administratively to create a better environment for Hawaii businesses.

"We want a safe workplace," Lingle said. "But that's the same thing you want. In the past HIOSH had the attitude that they want a safe workplace, and you don't."

No, it's not that you don't want a safe workplace. You just don't want to pay for a safe workplace. Quality jobs? Ugh!

Anyway, this may, in fact, just be a Republican wet dream. A couple of days later, the Star Tribune reported another version of Lingle’s speech

Instead of issuing a no-fine citation on the first violation, creating a mandatory "repeated offender" fine on any subsequent violations, the administration plans to issue warning letters for minor infractions, she said.

"We want to become known as a consultation agency rather than an enforcement agency in order to ensure workplace safety," Lingle said. "We think it's a better approach."

What she's actually going to do with HIOSHA is not clear. But what she wants to do is crystal clear. The same thing that the current regime here in Washington wants – an agency that will just give out friendly warnings instead of citations; slaps on the wrist instead of fines. For now they won’t because they can’t without major changes in the law that would reveal what they're really up to.

But don’t think that’s not what they’re planning. Download an illegal song off the internet or try to sell a bong and you’ll earn the wrath of John Ashcroft, fines and jail time, but injure or kill workers? Tsk, tsk. No supper for you tonite.

Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted. Any Hawaiian readers out there who can fill us in? Or am I going to have to come on out there and find out for myself?

Labor's Silver Lining

Former neighbor and UE staffer Lance Compa argues in a Washington Post column, that like Mark Twain's reported death, the demise of the labor movement has been greatly exagerated. Compa points out that despite labor's falling percentage of the workforce, "union members are more engaged in community and social affairs than unorganized workers, and continues in electoral politics. "

Despite hostile laws and significant number of American workers who aren't even allowed to join unions, in certain important economic sectors, labor still has a strong showing.