OSHA, Heal Thyself

In yet another of its endless list of meaningless alliances with industry organizations that substitute for actual forward movement by OSHA, the agency has initialed an agreement with the American Heart Association that will involve the development of materials involving proper use of external defibrillators.

That's nice.

Maybe OSHA should start by defribulating its own standards program.

The Data Quality Act: Industry and Bush Officials Act As If They Really Care About Data Quality

This is long and appears somewhat complicated, but it's really a preview of the arguments that affected industries will be using to chip away at existing worker, consumer and environmental protections and keeping others from ever being enacted.

We last wrote about the Data Quality Act when a management lawfirm used it to argue for elimination of EPA's guidance warning workers about the dangers of asbestos-containing brake linings.

The DQA was written by business interests and buried in a giant appropriations bill in the waning days of the Clinton administration. It requires that government funded studies, on which regulations, guidance and informational materials are based, should be peer reviewed only by independent scientists. The dangers of the DQA are being discussed today all over Blogland, and even recently in the Wall St. Journal which incredulously asks "Who could possibly oppose this quality control? You'd be surprised. Some health officials, academics and consumer groups say peer review can impede regulations meant to protect public safety."

And why would there possibly be any opposition to "data quality?" The bottom line is this: Business/Bush interests are using the Data Quality Act to argue that only "studies" that are "peer reviewed" by businesses can be used by government when deciding whether to issue a regulation or informational documents. Anyone who has ever done work for the government agency addressing the hazard cannot be objective, according to the Office of Management and Budget, which takes care of most university scientists, leaving only the industry scientists to "objectively" evaluate the harm their products mayh be causing to workers, other users or the environment.

Misuse of science and peer review is particularly dangerous as business interests have been successful lately convincing politicians and the general public that all regulatory initiatives (from ergonomics to pesticide regulation) is based on "junk science."

A few excerpts from today's Blogs. First, from Chris Mooney:

As the testimony of former Clinton administration Energy official and George Washington University epidemiologist David Michaels shows, the guidelines are very troubling. Michaels' complaint is that under the guise of "peer review," industry sponsored or funded attempts to undermine good science are going to get a big boost. That's for a number of reasons, one of them being the key question of who will be doing the peer reviewing.

The current guidelines say that as far as peer review goes, scientists who have worked for government have a conflict of interest and can't participate, but scientists who have worked for industry have carte blanche. As Michaels puts it, the suggestion "that academic scientists are more beholden to public funding agencies than corporate funders is on face ludicrous." And there's more. The peer review guidelines play into clever industry strategies for using the system of science to advance their economic interests.

More from CalPundit

The Data Quality Act, inserted quietly into an appropriations bill by a Republican lawmaker near the end of the Clinton administration, contains what appears to be a benign requirement: government funded studies should be peer reviewed only by independent scientists. The problem is that "independent" means scientists who are not also funded by the government, and as Anthony Robbins writes in the Boston Globe:

To grasp the implications of this radical departure, one must recognize that in the United States there are effectively two pots of money that support science: one from government and one from industry. (A much smaller contribution comes from charitable foundations.) If one excludes scientists supported by the government, including most scientists based at universities, the remaining pool of reviewers will be largely from industry -- corporate political supporters of George W. Bush.

The net result of the DQA is to reduce the influence of academic scientists and increase the influence of industry-backed scientists under the Alice in Wonderland notion that academic scientists are somehow less trustworthy. In plain English, scientists who work for tobacco companies ought to be the ones to review cigarette research and scientists who work for chemical companies ought to be the ones to pass judgment on environmental research.

So, this is all very bad stuff.

But, people are fighting back. GWU Prof David Michaels, who was mentioned above, sponsored a resolution adopted recently the American Public Health Association and highlighted in a Wall St. Journal article

Last month, the American Public Health Association announced its opposition to OMB's proposal, arguing that "public-health decisions must be made in the absence of scientific certainty, or in the absence of perfect information." And at a recent workshop at the National Academy of Sciences, it wasn't only the usual suspects, like Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, who voiced concern. So did pillars of the science establishment.

John Bailar, a leading biostatistician and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, described himself as "greatly concerned about the potential for mischief" in the proposal. Climatologist Warren Washington, chair of the National Science Board, said "there could be opportunities for directing science in a way that is not in the public interest." Because science entails judgment, Sheila Jasanoff of Harvard University told me, she doubts peer review such as OMB envisions would produce better regulatory science.

[Update: And while you're at it, more here by Eric Alterman.]

This is all a lot to read and digest right now. But we will be seeing it again and again as affected industries attempt to unravel whatever government protections now exist, and (should the good guys ever return to power), use it to fight the "scientific basis" of any new regulatory initiatives.

Labels: Asbestos, Chemical Safety Board

Telemarketers are Workers Too

With the job market the way it is, the health care situation the way it is, people often have take any job they can get. Sometimes the only job they can get is telemarketer -- those obnoxious people who interrupt your dinner and few quiet moments at home.

Telemarketing is a viable option for my mother and the more than six million other Americans who work in the industry. According to the American Teleservices Association, the telemarketing work force is mostly women; 26 percent are single mothers. More than 60 percent are minorities; about 5 percent are disabled; 95 percent are not college graduates; more than 30 percent have been on welfare or public assistance. This is clearly a job for those used to hardship.

So be polite before you hang up.

"Reaching" for the U.S. Chemical Industry

The European Community’s “REACH” (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) proposal, that will stop the practice of treating chemicals as innocent until proven guilty, is giving fits to the American chemical industry and the Bush administration. The U.S. is subtly threatening a trade war if American –made chemicals are banned in Europe.

Now Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is considering a way to avoid a trade war – adopt REACH in the U.S. If the U.S. restricts its own chemicals, Europe can’t be accused of trade restrictions for banning the same chemicals. Sounds like a great solution, no?

No, says the U.S. chemical industry. In fact, contamination of the U.S. regulatory system by REACH is the chemical industry’s worst nightmare. Globalization is only OK if it lowers world health and environmental standards, not if it raises them. Silly Senator.

Lautenberg and those knowledgeable about the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) feel that the EPA does not have enough power under TSCA to ban hazardous chemicals. The U.S. Court of Appeals even overturned EPA’s attempt to ban asbestos, an indisputable carcinogen because EPA had failed to prove that asbestos posed an “unreasonable risk.”

(R)etch and Sketch: Erasing American Jobs

Not to make holiday shopping a downer or anything, but…..

SHENZHEN, China — Workers at Kin Ki Industrial, a leading Chinese toy maker, make a decent salary, rarely work nights or weekends and often "hang out along the street, play Ping-Pong and watch TV."

They all have work contracts, pensions and medical benefits. The factory canteen offers tasty food. The dormitories are comfortable.

These are the official working conditions at Kin Ki as they are described on paper — crib sheets — handed to workers just before inspections.

Those occur when big American clients, like the Ohio company that uses Kin Ki to produce the iconic toy Etch A Sketch, visit to make sure that the factory has good labor standards.

Real-world Kin Ki employees, mostly teenage migrants from internal provinces, say they work many more hours and earn about 40 percent less than the company claims. They sleep head-to-toe in tiny rooms. They staged two strikes recently demanding they get paid closer to the legal minimum wage.

Most do not have pensions, medical insurance or work contracts. The company's crib sheet recommends if inspectors press to see such documents, workers should "intentionally waste time and then say they can't find them," according to company memos provided to The New York Times by employees.

After first saying that Kin Ki strictly abides by all Chinese labor laws, Johnson Tao, a senior executive with the privately owned company, acknowledged that Kin Ki's wages and benefits fell short of legal levels and vowed to address the issue soon.

He said that the memos might have reflected attempts by factory managers to deceive inspectors, but that such behavior "did not have the support of senior management."

***

Etch A Sketch is the same child's drawing toy today that it was in 1960, when Ohio Art first produced it in Bryan, Ohio. But efforts to keep its selling price below $10 on shelves at Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us forced the company to move production to China three years ago.

Today the same toy is made not just for lower wages, but also under significantly harsher working conditions. Kin Ki's workers, in fact, are struggling to obtain rights that their American predecessors at Ohio Art won early in the last century, though the workers are without the aid of independent unions, which remain illegal in China.

China now makes 80 percent of the toys sold in America, according to United States government figures, and no industry here has come under greater pressure to adhere to global labor codes.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

An Ohio Town Is Hard Hit as Leading Industry Moves to China

RYAN, Ohio — For 40 years workers in Bryan made Etch A Sketch, a children's drawing toy that has outlasted almost all others, and to a significant extent Etch A Sketch made Bryan.
This town of about 8,000, tucked into the northwestern corner of Ohio, has a tool and die factory, a tire company and a candy maker. But Etch A Sketch, the signature product of the Ohio Art Company, was Bryan's mascot. It marched in Bryan's parades. It was the mayor's calling card and the town's alter ego.

"You tell people you're from Bryan and they look at you blankly," said Carolyn Miller, a longtime assembly line worker at Ohio Art. "You tell them it's the home of Etch A Sketch, and they smile."

That was true, at least, until a winter day three years ago, a week before Christmas, when Ohio Art executives called representatives of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers Union into head offices and delivered the news. The Etch A Sketch line was moving to Shenzhen, China. About 100 union employees would lose their jobs.

The Weekly Toll

Overloaded cords sparked blaze

LANCASTER -- Firefighter Martin H. McNamara V, 31, died early Saturday after entering the basement of a dwelling located at 76 Mill St.

The house fire that killed a Lancaster firefighter last Saturday was likely ignited by a series of interconnected extension cords, according to State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan.

Evidence of the extension cords, as well as a number of power strips, was discovered in the basement, where Coan suspects the fire began near the ceiling.


Md. agency probes worker's death
Case marks 4th investigation in decade for Princess Royale

OCEAN CITY -- Maryland Occupational Safety and Health officials are preparing to inspect the Princess Royale Oceanfront Hotel & Conference Center for the fourth time in 10 years after a four-story fall killed one man and critically injured another.

Michael Koch, 46, of Georgetown was pronounced dead at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin after falling 34 feet onto concrete around the hotel's pool, Ocean City police said.

Koch and Ivan Morales, 34, of Ocean City were putting up Christmas decorations when the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed. Both men were Princess Royale employees, according to a written statement released by hotel officials.

"Investigators believe these electrical cords created the heat that ignited nearby combustibles," said a press release issued by Coan's office Friday.

"The fire then spread ... up through the ceiling and the walls," Coan said in an interview, adding that the fire moved "fairly quickly and rapidly."


One killed, seven injured in bridge collapse

A 20-year-old construction worker was killed and several others injured when a section of a bridge under construction in south Napa collapsed around 1:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Richard Christopher Stevens, of Lodi, died at the scene.

A temporary section of the eastern span of the replacement Maxwell Bridge over the Napa River collapsed in a massive heap of wood and metal.

As crews cleared debris Thursday from a collapsed Napa River bridge, state investigators said the contractor on the project has been involved in 15 other serious accidents.

The death of a worker on the Napa bridge Wednesday was the second fatality since 1991 involving C.C. Myers Inc., Cal/OSHA inspectors said.


Road worker run over by tractor-mower dies

A Harris County Precinct 1 road worker was killed when a tractor-mower ran over him.

Michael Chapa, 39, was standing next to a driverless tractor that had been pulling a grass mower when it lunged forward in the 11600 block of Illene in northeast Harris County about 9:20 a.m. Tuesday. (scroll down)


Wall collapse kills builder

CAIRO, NY - A construction worker was killed Wednesday when a concrete wall collapsed on him, police said.

State police said Wayne Bartlett, 41, of Freehold was pulling forms from the foundation of a home on John Holzman Road Extension in Cairo when a section of the wall fell and pinned him.

Police said co-workers were able to free Bartlett, but he was pronounced dead a short time later at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, where he had been taken by the Cairo Ambulance squad.


Anchor cable kills tugboat deckhand

Portland, ME -- A 29-year-old deckhand was crushed by a cable Thursday as his tugboat was setting a massive anchor used to secure an oil rig in Portland Harbor.

Christopher Cordeau of South Portland was working aboard the Portland tugboat Pete just before 1 p.m. when a steel cable supporting the anchor suddenly pinned him against the tug's railing, authorities said.


Man electrocuted in tree-trimming accident

York, VA -- A Saluda man was electrocuted in a tree-trimming accident in York County.

County authorities say 31-year-old Stacey Cook was killed in the accident just after 11 a,m. Sunday.

Captain Paul Long with the York County Department of Fire and Life Safety says Cook was wearing a harness and was tethered to the tree, about 40 feet above ground, when he cut a large, long limb that fell down onto power lines.

Long says the limb became a conduit for 20,000 volts of electricity and hit Cook and killed him in the tree.


Falling tree kills Unity man

TROY, ME -- A Unity man who was cutting trees on a woodlot was killed Sunday when a tree fell on him, authorities said.

David Bushey, 40, was pronounced dead at the scene, the Waldo County Sheriff's Department said. Bushey was working alone at the site off North Dixmont Road.


Man installing window killed, another hurt

Hazel Green, WI - A construction worker died over the weekend while installing a window, police said Sunday.

Brett C. Runde, 28, of Cuba City died and Adam Pearce, 19, of Hazel Green was injured in the accident shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday in Hazel Green.

The pair were working on construction equipment that tipped over, ejecting them from a basket as they were installing the window, Hazel Green police said.


Construction accident kills worker

Fort Myers man electrocuted when live power lines knocked down

A construction worker was electrocuted Wednesday morning when a fellow employee knocked over a power pole with a backhoe in North Naples.

Jose Guadalupe Sanchez, 27, of Fort Myers, was killed in the 8 a.m. accident, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

The accident happened when the driver of a backhoe — who was moving cement pipes that are being installed along the road — accidentally hit the pole, causing live power lines to fall.


Garbage truck rolls over and kills sanitation worker

HARRIS COUNTY, TX -- An unidentified worker was killed when he slipped and fell from a garbage truck. — A garbage collector was killed Tuesday afternoon during a tragic accident.

It happened in northwest Harris County in a neighborhood near Sutter Park and Canyon Trail. The unidentified worker slipped and fell off the back of the garbage truck as it was backing up. The driver didn't realize what was happening because the workers were in his blind spot.


Construction Worker Kills After Slip From Roof

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A construction worker died after he slipped on an icy roof and fell 35 feet, authorities said.

William Ross Farkas, 48, of Fayette City, Fayette County, had been checking windows at a construction site Tuesday morning. Farkas was taken to Mercy Hospital, where he died about one-half hour after the fall.


Piedmont Worker Killed At Work Site
Victim Dies At Scene

Piedmont, NC High Point police said 24-year-old Joel Ramirez Sanchez died Wednesday while working at Stone Resource Inc.

Investigators said pieces of stone being transported by a crane detached and struck Sanchez.


Woman Dies 7 Months After Accident

YORK, Pa. (AP) — A woman died almost seven months after she was injured at a Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Co. plant in West Manchester Township, authorities said.

Deborah A. Yarnell, 52, of Wrightsville, was pinned against a set of shelves by a forklift that tipped over backward April 29, York County Chief Deputy Coroner Mary Breighner said.


Repairman crushed to death in factory
He was fixing a machine at Tate Access Floors in Windsor Township.

Terry A. Houser, 42, of North Codorus Township, died Monday morningwhile repairing a machine for his employer, Tate Access Floors, of Windsor Township, York County Chief Deputy Coroner Mary Breighner said.


City Worker Killed

A Scranton city worker was killed by a recycling truck. Police say Jerry Malone,50, was at the rear of the truck. He had jumped off to pick up two recycling bins when he began pinned under the rear axle of the truck. He was trapped for nearly 20 minutes. Police say neither the driver of the truck nor the other worker saw how Malone became pinned under the truck.

Labels: Weekly Toll

Ditch Dutch's Dime

Bizarre Cult Attempts to Put Leader on U.S. Coin

I frequently have conversations like this.

Airline Person: "To where would you like to fly sir?"

Me: "Washington D.C."

Airline Person:"Which airport? Reagan, Dulles or Baltimore Washington?"

Me: "National"

Airline Person:"Which one is that?"

Me: The one that's not Dulles or Baltimore. You know, DCA?

Or this one

Me: Take me to the airport please.

Taxi Driver: Reagan?

Me: National

Taxi Driver: Uh, that's Reagan, right?

Me: No, that's National (Followed by a discourse on the crimes of Ronald Reagan lasting the rest of the trip to National.)

You see, when the Republicans floated the idea of changing the name of Washington National Airport to Reagan National Airport, I laughed. I laughed because it seemed so ridiculous. I laughed because it would be so ironic: the President who busted PATCO having the capital's airport named after him. Hah!

And then I realized that it was really about to happen. I quickly mounted a national campaign to stop this atrocity -- about two hours before Congress passed the legislation changing the name.

I soon began plotting revenge, creating the image seen way, way down at the bottom of this site (scroll all the way down) and fantasized about creating a sticker, signing up co-conspirators and clandestinely plastering National Airport. Alas, although I'd be a national hero, I didn't think my kids would appreciate missing soccer games to come see me on visitors days at the local pokey.

So, you can imagine my alarm at the latest ludicrous proposal by the Reagan cultists -- the Reagan Dime. I mean, it's bad enough putting him on any coin, but putting him on a coin replacing Franklin Roosevelt is the height of vindictive arrogance (or arrogant vindictiveness).

A bill putting Reagan on the dime was introduced by Congressman Marc Souder (R-IN), allegedly in response to the controversial CBS mini-series on Reagan that got all the cultists up in arms. Souder has 89 co-sponsors -- mostly fellow conservative Republicans -- for his "Ronald Reagan Dime Act." Rep. James McGovern (D-NY) has counted with a bill keeping Roosevelt on the dime. He has 80 co-sponsors.

“'If they want to find another way to honor Ronald Reagan I’m happy to join with them, but leave the dime alone, that’s all I’m saying,' said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass."

I wouldn't. He's already go an airport and a huge building in Washington. More than enough, thank you very much.

Interestingly, Nancy Reagan is apparently opposed to putting he husband on the dime, and is sure that Ronnie would oppose it as well.

You may be laughing now, but mark my words: laugh not, lest ye be carrying Ronald Reagan in a pocket close to your genetalia for the rest of your life. The current push may die down, but Reagan is 92 and suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Once he goes to the great elephant graveyard in the sky, anything could happen.

Labels: Ronald Reagan

Only Saws Can Prevent Forest Fires

Know what the best way to prevent forest fires is? Cut down all the trees. That seems to be the strategy the Bush Administration is taking according to the Daily Grist.

President Bush signed his "Healthy Forests" initiative into law yesterday, a move that, never mind the name, left many environmentalists feeling sick. The Bush administration says the law will prevent fires by increasing the amount of logging permissible in forests, especially near populated areas, but enviros say the measure amounts to a holiday gift for the timber industry. The president further undermined his credibility among environmentalists by simultaneously adopting a rule that would remove protections for endangered species to speed forest-thinning projects. The federal Endangered Species Act requires all federal agencies to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service before proceeding with thinning projects -- but the new rule would allow federal biologists to unilaterally decide that no endangered species would be affected by a proposed project.

More here.

Labor Rights in Iraq

I've written a couple of times about the fate of labor unions in Iraq under the U.S. occupation. US Labor Against the War has started a Campaign for Labor Rights in Iraq. Check it out

Journey Through Wal-Mart Country

Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerrilla (always a must read) found this article by Rick Perlstein in the Village Voice. Pearlstein took a trip through conservative small town Illinois to talk with people about Bush. These are people, as Pearstein says, don't critically read several newspapers a day."

He found, as expected, some bad news, but also some good.

On one hand, in a bar he found John and Scott, who are inalterably convinced that 9/11 and everthing following were the fault of Bill Clinton.

John and Scott are dead wrong, of course: Clinton knew there was danger to Americans from a terrorist group called Al Qaeda and did do something about it, if perhaps not all the right things, whatever those might have been; Bush knew of the danger before the World Trade Center attacks and probably did less. Playing catch-up, he used the war on terror as pretext for an invasion of Iraq, and well-informed Democrats knew exactly what was going on: that unilateralism and lack of planning for a post-war settlement would lead us into disaster. But there's not much you can do about macho fantasies like Scott and John's; you can't force voters to critically read several newspapers a day. This is, simply, the reality that those who would wish to see George Bush defeated have to work with.

On the other hand, there was this

"I'm very conservative," Eric Anderberg of Dial Machine says, in the boardroom of the machine-parts factory his family built in 1966. "Always voted Republican. But I'm extremely concerned with what I hear from this current administration." Eric is 32, fiercely political, and articulate. He's called over two of his older industrial-park neighbors, Don Metz of Metz Tool and Judy Pike of Acme Grinding. Family manufacturers like these were the foundation of the modern conservative movement, reacting against the moderate Republicanism of Dwight Eisenhower in the '50s. Now they are a wedge in the Republican coalition. I ask if they could imagine supporting, for president, a Democrat. Don Metz, who in his golf shirt looks like he just came back from a midday round, doesn't hesitate: "No problem. Somebody steps forward and says we're going to make manufacturing a priority in this country." They would even donate the legal maximum of $2,000.

The reason is economic near-devastation. Unemployment around here has increased by half in the last three years. In Rockford, it approaches 12 percent. Factories are closing as production is shipped off overseas. (The mantra of "high tech" is unlikely to impress Rockford; one of the most wrenching recent production shutdowns was at the plant that produced a motor for the Segway scooter.) "Service jobs" have replaced some of the work. But where they materialize, with rotten hours, pay, and benefits, they end up destroying families instead of saving them. And it makes these people livid, because it all seems so stupid and unavoidable.

And Wal-Mart isn't pulling the wool over everyone's eyes.

Don notes that an employee at his plant, non-union, starts at $16 an hour and makes as much as $100,000 a year: "sends his kids to private school, he drives a nice car—does that sound like a Democrat to you? . . . Our people, in the past, didn't want government interfering with their life. . . . What happens to these people is that they find out they can't become a Wal-Mart associate . . . at $7.50 an hour without completely undermining their lives."

Here's a riddle: What do shuttered factories manufacture? Democrats. Or at least they might, if the national Democratic Party had the balls to do what needs to be done.

Don again: "If Eric and his family decided to shut this place down, he's not going to end up on a food line. Neither am I." It makes them mad all the same. Mad enough to do something about it. Downsized factory workers and their well-off former bosses: What a wonderful coalition it would be.

Meanwhile, the rock-headed jingoes at the motorcycle track can afford to focus their fears on weapons of mass destruction because they don't have to worry about job destruction. They're truck drivers. They're the ones shipping product to the Wal-Marts.

It all comes together, as a Marxist might say, at the point of production. The last stop of my visit is the shop floor, where a young man Eric's age tells me about the place where he used to work, and his father before him, and his grandfather before him: a paper plant that shut down a few years back. But he's no protectionist either: "I have no problem with a company that uses overseas goods—if they're going to return some of that investment to the American worker, which can in turn spend that here."

He has a particular company in mind. The one that may end up, if Dial Machine has to close, as the next stop down the line.

"I won't go to Wal-Mart. My problem is that the company made $7 billion in profits. And yet they pay their workers substandard wages." Health co-payments are so expensive, he notes, that less than half sign up for the "benefit." This worker fears Wal-Mart more than he fears weapons of mass destruction. Because he knows which one is more likely to end up in his future. Americans who fear Wal-Mart more than apparitional WMDs (and apparitional dreadlocked drug dealers) are proliferating every day—and must be made to proliferate more, for the sake of our nation. This is the Democratic Party's hope: convincing Red America they can provide an economy that's safe for the whole family.

Injured Workers Will Lose in California Workers Comp "Reform"

There's little doubt that California's $29 billion workers compensation system is in trouble. It charges California employers among the highest premiums in the country but provides workers with disability benefits that rank among the nation's lowest. But often forgotten beneath the dollars and debates are the injured workers.

While politicians downtown haggled over a workers' comp system that everybody agreed could use a fix, Jodi Greggs rested her aching back in the crowded waiting room of a nondescript office five miles away.

"I went to school, worked hard to get a degree so I could support myself, and then I wind up in a situation where I'm so broke it's ridiculous," said Greggs, who hasn't been able to work since the back injury she suffered five years ago. "I shouldn't have to feel like I'm a welfare recipient because I got hurt at work."

Although nobody disputes the severity of Greggs' injury, or that it was work-related, or that she is entitled to permanent disability benefits, her case has remained mired in the workers' compensation system for five years. Most of the squabbling has been over her medical care and treatment prescribed by doctors that insurance attorneys think is excessive.

Before her injury, Greggs said she enjoyed "a pretty decent life." She was "madly in love" with the man she'd married a year earlier. (They are still married.) She liked to hike and bike and practice amateur photography. She had a good job with a big company.

These days, she doesn't do much of anything except stay in bed. When she gets up, it's usually to go to the doctor, or to the pharmacy, to fill a cornucopia of prescriptions to relieve her physical and psychiatric pain.

She gets mad at the suggestion by advocates of workers' comp changes that cases like hers might be milking the system for unnecessary benefits.

"They don't know what my life is like," Greggs said. "They don't understand how hard it is. They need to be put in my shoes for a day. They need to come into my home and live this life."

Scharzenegger has made workers comp reform one of his top priorities. Funny thing though, all of his proposals seem to go against injured workers.

Under the Schwarzenegger plan, injured workers would lose the right to be treated by their own doctor unless the employer agrees to it. They would be entitled to no benefits if their occupation was responsible for less than 50 percent of their injuries. Their injuries would have to be objectively verifiable, through X-rays or range-of-motion tests or other exams. Medical treatment would be based on a doctor's definition of "necessity," rather than whether treatment provided the injured worker with "cure and relief." And a new system of "independent medical review," in which outside doctors who never see the injured workers -- including claimants with issues like Jodi Greggs' -- would resolve disputes over treatment.

Juliann Sum, coordinator of the Labor Occupational Health Program at the University of California at Berkeley, characterized the Schwarzenegger package as "sweeping changes that are all in favor of the employers."

Arnold Plans To Terminate Labor Center

In yet another action proving that he has been sent on his mission by California business interests, Governor Arnold Scwarzenegger (Jeez, that's hard to write!) has announced that he plans to eliminate the University of California's Institute for Labor and Employment.

According to a fact sheet put out by supporters,

The Institute for Labor and Employment is the only statewide program within the University of California that specifically addresses the labor and employment concerns of California’s changing workforce. It provides a critical link between the university, the state’s workforce, and the labor movement.

Meanwhile, no university business schools have been slated for elmination. In fact,

The Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley, and the Agricultural School at UC Davis each receive more state funding annually than the total received by the ILE in the past three years.

Although eliminating the Institute won't save much money -- the current $4 million budget will be cut to $2 million next year and then to 0 the following year -- the political value for Schwarzenegger is evident.

The institute drew the wrath of Republicans and other supporters of the recall of Davis this year when a staff member of the institute agreed to participate in a "How to Advocate Against the Recall" seminar sponsored by labor groups.

In addition, the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank has attacked labor education programs like the institute, charging that “Under AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney, these departments have defined their mission chiefly as supporting labor and its organizing effects rather than educating students.”

More information here.

Iraq: Non-Union Corporate Paradise?

Another article by David Bacon (see here for the first one) about the suppression of Iraqi labor unions by U.S. occupation forces.

The new Iraqi state is a case study in the free market unleashed. The Bush Administration foresees two ways the Iraqi economy will be transformed, and it is taking measures to ensure that workers don't disrupt either one. First, it will privatize the old state enterprises that have employed most workers. Second, it will create favorable conditions for an army of (mostly U.S.) corporations to set up shop and repatriate their profits outside the country.

On September 19, the Coalition Provisional Authority published Order No. 39, which permits 100 percent foreign ownership of businesses, except for the oil industry, and allows repatriation of profits. Order No. 37, published the same day, suspends income and property taxes for the year, and limits taxes on individuals and corporations in the future to 15 percent.

Low pay and poor working conditions are encourging workers to organize:

Despite the hostility of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the fall of the Saddam regime has led to an explosion of workplace organizing activity. Low wages are one motivation. The Iraqi government employs 70 percent of the workforce. The authority has set an emergency pay scale. Though The New York Times says wages are going up, that's not what I found. Most workers get about $60 a month, a small group gets $120, and a tiny minority (mostly administrators and managers) $180. This is the same wage scale that prevailed under the last few years of the Saddam Hussein regime.

***

Working conditions are exhausting and dangerous. At the Al Daura refinery, Detrala Beshab, president of the refinery's new union, notes that while the workday is officially seven hours, the day shift is actually eleven hours long, and the night shift thirteen hours. Since workers are paid by the month, there is no overtime pay.

***

No one in the refinery, except the fire department, has boots or gloves. Safety glasses are unknown. "Lots of us have breathing problems, and there are accidents in which people get burned," explains union member Rajid Hassan. If workers get hurt or sick, they have to pay for their own medical care, and they lose pay for the time they're off the job.

Despite organizing efforts, U.S. occupation authorities have refused to rescind a Sadaam Hussein law banning unions in publicly owned enterprises, which makes up most of Iraqi industry, until it is privatized.

But Iraqi workers have a few friends in the U.S.

Meanwhile, labor peace activists in the United States have begun to reach out to the new Iraqi unions. U.S. Labor Against the War, which brought together unions and labor councils that opposed the Bush intervention before it took place, is speaking up again. It has announced it will mount a national campaign to oppose privatization, get the 1987 law lifted, and expose the violations of labor rights in Iraq. "We need Congressional hearings into the union-busting actions by the U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq," says Clarence Thomas, of the San Francisco Longshore local. "If unions here knew what's being done in our name over there, they'd be outraged."

MEMORIAL DAY

On Dec. 3, 1984, more than 4,000 people died after a cloud of gas escaped from a pesticide plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, India.

Who really killed Dr. Erlinda Ursua?

Who or what is to blame for the death of Dr. Erlinda Ursua, bludgeoned to death by a 37-year-old patient, Rene Pavonan, during an exam November 19 at John George Psychiatric Pavilion? Hospital administration, the California budget system or Arnold Schwarzenegger? Maybe all of the above.

As related in my recent posting, there had been plenty of signs that all was not well at the hospital, including several CalOSHA citations. In addition, the union representing workers at John George cited other problems.

Linda Joseph, staff director for Service Employees International Union Local 616, said the union had been urging management to improve safety measures.

The assaults and state citations "are a direct result of misplaced priorities," she said. "They have financial difficulties. Instead of looking at misplaced programs to save money, they just cut staff, and with limited staff they aren't able to cover."

Seems like the union was on to something. Now more details are emerging.

• More than 100 violent incidents by patients were reported during 2002 at John George, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday after reviewing state Department of Health Services logs. Those incidents included assaults on patients or workers.
  
  
• The hospital is overseen by the Alameda County Medical Center, which runs Highland Hospital and other health care services for poor and uninsured residents. The center faces an $80 million deficit and already has closed clinics and cut back services. County supervisors agreed this week to ask voters to raise the county sales tax in an attempt to stop further cuts.
  
  

Logic suggests that these financial problems led the hospital to bypass offers of assistance from the Alameda County Sheriff's Department .

Medical center officials were so concerned about the potential for violence at the hospital that they twice asked the Alameda County Sheriff's Department for proposals to increase security, according to Sheriff's Capt. Gary Schellenberg.

But officials never went ahead with those proposals. Efton Hall, interim chief executive officer of the medical center, said that the decision to reject the sheriff's security proposals wasn't based on cost, but that the medical center wanted to consider other options, including bids by outside security agencies.

Maybe. But the cost of stationing Sheriffs and deputies at the facility ranged from $1.3 million to $2.1 million for the cash-strapped institution.

On the other hand, the Sheriff's department didn't think that they couldn't have stopped the killing anyway, unless they were present in the room with the doctor. What was needed was an attendant in the room with the doctor and patient, which was one of the measures CalOSHA had recommended that the facility take.

CalOSHA had fined the facility for not having an injury prevention program (a requirement for all employers under California law) and not reporting violence-related injuries sustained by workers at the facility. The agency recommended that the hospital place surveillance cameras in the exam rooms and other areas of the hospital, never leave a staff member alone with a patient, and hire police officers to handle security.

As much as I'd like to join the union in trashing the management of the facility (and it’s likely that they may be somewhat at fault – I don’t know all of the details), I think the root cause of the problems at the hospital may go much deeper -- in California and around the natin.

As Paul Krugman described a while back,

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 pointed 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.

When voters, whipped into an anti-tax frenzy by right-wing radio talk/T.V. show wingnuts, as well as politicians seeking to ride the their wave, refuse to see the need to raise taxes to pay for needed government services, you end up with more needy people getting fewer services in understaffed facilities. While the underfunding has ramifications throughout society -- especially for the patients and their families -- it is the workers at the facilities who are literally putting their bodies, and in some cases, their lives on the front lines of these ideological battles.

Security guards and County Sheriffs are fine, but what's really needed is more staff -- adequately paid staff to provide proper therapeutic help, and adequately paid staff to provide support.

OSHA recommended that staff never be left alone with patients. But when the facility is underfunded and understaffed, that's simply not possible. For years, mental health staff have been injured and killed when overseeing numbers of patients without any backup. And how many employees are needed to attend to potentially violent patients? Think about it. Obviously, one is not enough.

Two? OK, so one get's attacked. If there aren't adequate alarms or video camera's (along with attendants to respond), that leaves one person to summon help and the other to deal with other patients until help arrives. Guess how many trained attendants the American Psychiatric Association recommends are needed to safely take down one violent patient. Five.

And how much help is available to come to the assistance of workers who are in trouble? What happens to their patients in an understaffed institution?

There are now two full time deputies on overtime pay posted at the psychiatric hospital. The hospital has added security guards, begun screening visitors and patients with hand-held metal-detection wands, flagging patients' medical records if they pose potential threats because of violent behavior, and attendants have been accompanying physicians into exam rooms.

That’s fine for now. But none of those measures are cost-free, and some area quite expensive for a cash strapped county medical center.

The proposed sales tax increase, if it passes, would provide a temporary solution.

The medical center provides care to the county’s indigent and uninsured and includes Oakland’s Highland Hospital—which serves the majority of Berkeley trauma and emergency patients and is the lone specialized medical care option for Berkeley’s estimated 9,000-11,000 uninsured residents.

The medical center has seen its $353 million budget busted by funding cuts, expense increases and swelling ranks of the uninsured they are mandated to serve.

Last year, 63,500 of the center’s 125,000 patients were uninsured. Coupled with increased expenses for employee benefits and drugs and reductions in government aid—including a $7 million cut from a federal program aiding public hospitals—the center has struggled to balance its books, said spokesperson Rachel Kagen.

But thanks to the Governator many more severe cuts to local health services are on their way.

Which brings us to Krugman’s second point

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.

Arnold, Republicans in general, and the right wing talk jocks have made certain that in the public mind, budget cuts are gut, tax increases are kaput. And those opposing this line are running scared.

But the choice really isn’t simply between tax increases and tax cuts, between "big" government, and people getting to spend their "own" money.

The question is who will pay for the things that society demands to make life in this country civilized and livable? If those who already have more than enough money are to pay, then their taxes need to be raised. The other option is budget cuts and increases regressive sales taxes and “user fees,” in which case the poor and struggling middle class end up forking out the dollars, while those who don’t have the means to help themselves -- unemployed, the disabled, the mentally ill -- end up "paying" in form of fewer services.

In the meantime, workers are paying the price with their health and their lives. Callifornia, and a handful of other states that run their own OSHA programs, like Minnesota, Oregon and Washington occasionally cite employers for exposing workers to the threat of workplace violence. Federal OSHA, although it issued guidelines for health care, social services and retail workers, has not handed down a workplace violence citation since 1995, fearing that a General Duty Clause citation will be struck down by the Review Commission or the courts. Maybe it's time for OSHA to start working seriously on a workplace violence standard.

Who really killed Dr. Erlinda Ursua? She was just the latest victim of right-wing demogogy and anti-big government tax-cut zealots -- the same people who sponsored the California recall in the first place. So, Arnold, maybe this one isn't on you. But the next one is.

Labels: mental health workers, Public Employees, Workplace Violence

FLASH! OSHA Does Something Right

OSHA has decided to appeal the "Ho Decision" by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission which overturned OSHA's “egregious penalty” policy, where the agency could fine an employer for each instance of a workplace violation even when they apply to the same standard.

Egregious citations are one of the only means OSHA has to bring significant penalties down on the heads of particularly bad employers who are fully aware that they may be killing their employees. Without the ability to inflict large penalties or to bring criminal violations, the Bush administration has succeeded in moving OSHA yet one more step toward becoming a completely toothless tiger.

The American Society of Safety Engineers supported OSHA's decision

"ASSE's members are concerned that the Ho decision improperly limits OSHA's ability to continue enforcement actions under the egregious conduct policy, a necessary tool for OSHA to make the worst employers accountable for their willful failure to protect workers from known safety and health risks," ASSE President James 'Skipper' Kendrick Kendrick stated in a letter sent to Assistant Secretary Henshaw today. "If allowed to stand, this decision would be an unacceptable step backwards in the federal government's ability to enforce this nation's occupational safety and health standards against those who deserve enforcement attention the most."

Arnold Strikes

Arnold seems to have learned an important lesson from George W: Run as a moderate, but govern the way business tells you to.

Schwarzenegger's second act in office was to halt all pending state government regulations for a review period of 180 days. Executive Order No. 2 also suspends or postpones the effective date of all regulations that have been approved but haven't taken effect, and requires a review of every regulation adopted, amended or repealed by the Davis administration -- nearly five years' worth.

There's some pretty heady stuff here. Caught in the cross hairs, to uncertain effect, are rules such as the first paid family-leave law in the nation and nurse-to-patient staffing ratios for California hospitals.

Other pending regulations deal with everything from privacy protection to energy efficiency and drinking water standards for toxic chemicals such as arsenic and perchlorate.

Scuttlebutt about the Capitol is that a bunch of business insiders got together after the Oct. 7 election of a business-friendly governor to take aim at new mandates they see as "job killers."

Organized labor is not pleased, to put it mildly:

"Reviewing regulations solely on the criteria of whether they're good for business is weak," said Nathan Ballard, an attorney with the California Federation of Labor. "Where's the balance? Where's the analysis based on whether these regulations are good for working people?

"Executive Order No. 2 looks great to the guys at the country club. But what about the folks who are working two jobs and trying to make ends meet? Is Gov. Schwarzenegger going to look into how his decree affects them?"

The L.A. Times reports that a group called the

The Thursday Group, a coalition of lobbyists for some of the most powerful industries in the state — including chemical companies, defense contractors, real estate developers and biotechnology firms — sent the governor a letter last week with a lengthy list of environmental rules that it did not like.

The memo, which was immediately circulated by environmentalists, raised objections over everything from air pollution regulations on consumer products to the California Coastal Commission.

It also voiced concerns regarding impending regulations on perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel that government scientists have linked to health problems, and a landmark law passed last year that makes California the first state to regulate the carbon dioxide emissions of cars.

The Thursday Group is also concerned with California’s flirtation with the “precautionary principle” which argues that chemical should be proven safe before people are exposed to them. Industry has already plotted to undermine the California movement.

That preemptive approach is a departure from the current practice in the United States, which largely consists of regulating potential pollutants only after they have been scientifically linked to hazards.

Under recommendations approved this summer by a task force looking to improve environmental conditions in poor and minority communities, the California Environmental Protection Agency is set to incorporate the precautionary principle into some of its procedures. Industry groups hope that Schwarzenegger reconsiders the issue.

"We want to take advantage of the opportunity to present our case on the precautionary principle, which we feel is a radical departure from the science-based procedures currently used by the state," said Tim Shestek, a Sacramento lobbyist for the American Chemistry Council. "We are concerned about the vagueness of the recommendations in the [task force] report, and we want to make sure there is a clear criteria that industry can meet."

Hard Times For Unions’ Bottom Line

Distressing AP article about belt-tightening at the AFL-CIO and some of its affiliate unions. AFL-CIO employees will take two “solidarity days” without pay next year instead of facing layoffs, while some AFSCME employees will give up their raises and first class plane tickets (which I somehow missed out on when I worked there.) AFSCME President Gerald McEntee has promised that the savings will go to next year’s “do or die” elections.

On the same note, UNITE announced earlier this week that it was closing its Manhattan-based Immigration Project which has offered immigration-related legal services to its members for the past 20 years due to the program's high operating cost.

Labels: AFL-CIO

Ergonomics in Washington State: Something Wicked Westward Came

The Washington Post’s “Regulator” column caught up on the ergonomics situation today in an article that included the usual industry B.S.

The defeat of the Washington state rule "sends a strong signal that even in a relatively liberal state, voters are willing to listen and see that they don't need this regulation and, hey, maybe it will kill jobs. For it to be adopted by the general public is fairly unprecedented. It sends a shot across the bow to other state legislatures thinking about passing regulations in this area," said Randel Johnson, the Chamber's vice president for labor issues.

Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it all before. The real signal this sent (as we’ve said before) is that voters in even liberal states with high unemployment are vulnerable to industry’s lies fearmongering about the loss of jobs and health care.

The only thing really new in this article was revelation fo the industry’s conspiracy theory:

Tom McCabe, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington, said, "The very people in OSHA who wrote the ergonomics rule moved to Washington state. They brought the ergonomics rule with them and refined it here."

Several Clinton administration Labor Department officials involved with the federal ergonomics rule did move to Washington state, but were returning home after stints with the federal government.
Michael Silverstein, who was director of policy at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is the assistant director for the state's Department of Labor and Industries, which began work on the rule in 1998. In Washington, Silverstein worked under Joe Dear, who was assistant secretary of OSHA and a force behind promoting a federal rule.

Dear also came back to the state and became chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Gary Locke, who supported the rule. Silverstein's wife, Barbara, an ergonomist who was special assistant to Dear at OSHA, now heads the research arm of the state agency.

Most chilling is McCabe’s final quote: "I think what we did has national implications," said McCabe. "If we can do it here, it can be done anywhere."

Let's make it not be so.

Labels: Ergonomics

Save Our Overtime

Click here to sign the petition to stop the Bush Administration from issuing new overtime rules that will stop 8 million workers from getting the overtime pay they have rightfully earned.

You will recall, both houses of Congress passed resolutions stopping the Bush administration from issuing the regulations. But Bush bullied the Conference Committee into deleting the restrictions, even though the Conference Committee is supposed to reconcile differences in House and Senate versions of legislation.

Congress has adjourned, but will be back one more time to pass the appropriations legislation. Make sure your Senators and Congresspersons don't go home for Christmas without saving overtime.

The Real Scandal of 9/11?

Interesting article in the NY Times Sunday about the EPA's response to 9/11. The author maintains that EPA's misinformation about the safety of the air quality after the attack was not so much a coverup, as an inept response to a situation that neither the agency or the White House was eqipped to handle.

Of more interest is the following paragraph:

Other scientists and health experts say the focus on indoor air takes the focus off what some believe will ultimately emerge as the real scandal of 9/11, the fact that wearing a respirator at ground zero was voluntary.

At the Pentagon, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration took an enforcement role in protecting workers. In New York, OSHA was only in advisory mode, which meant that even in October and November, when the rescue efforts were long over, no one could walk through the site and kick people out for not wearing respiratory protection. Thousands of people became ill from working at the site.

Labels: 9/11 World Trade Center Workers

Dean vs. Gephardt, Union vs. Union

The L.A. Times has an interesting article about the conflicts among unions in Iowa resulting from the service sector unions' endorsement of Dean and the manufacturing unions' endorsement of Gephardt.

John Campbell is a blue-collar philosopher who routinely steps off the factory floor at the Firestone tire plant here to marshal fellow foot soldiers in the United Steelworkers Union on causes close to their hearts, minds and wallets.

The 47-year-old high school dropout often joins forces with Judy Lowe — a no-nonsense single mother and an organizer for white-collar government workers — to knock on doors, dial telephones and stage cold-weather rallies to get out the vote for politicians sympathetic to working families.

For years, Iowa's industrial and service unions have generally acted as one clan, one unified political force. But the effort to choose a Democratic candidate to oppose President Bush in the 2004 election has caused fissures in this traditionally ironclad solidarity.

A drop of lemonade in a truckload of lemons

Bill Borwegen of SEIU reports that something good came out of the otherwise disappointing Medicare/Prescription Drug bill -- coverage under the bloodborne pathogens standard for public employees not covered by OSHA -- an issue that AFSCME and SEIU have been championing for years.

Tucked into the massive Medicare giveaway bill is a provision that would require public hospitals not currently covered by the OSH Act (about half of all the states; those without federally approved state plan OSHA programs) to meet the agency's bloodborne pathogen standard -- including the safer needle provisions -- by July 1, 2004, or face civil monetary penalties mirroring those under the OSHAct.

This requirement would be in addition to any state safer needle laws in these non-state plan states. For hospital workers in about a dozen states (AL, AR, CO, FL, ID, IL, LA, MS, MT, ND, NE, SD & WI), this will be the first time that they are covered by these types of protections.

Section 947 on pages 627-629 states that: "In the case of hospitals that are not otherwise subject to the OSHAct, to comply with the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard under section 1910.1030 . . .A hospital that fails to comply . . is subject to a civil money penalty . . [in] an amount similar to the amount of civil penalties that may be imposed under the OSHAct for a violation of the Bloodborne Pathogens standard.

. . The amendments mad