It's Always Something

Change of topic. This health and safety stuff gets so depressing sometimes. Let's talk about other depressing issues. And why not? Without the ability to vote or civil rights, what's the point?

I've been noticing, but not closely following the controversy over computerized voting machines. (I have to ration what I get upset over.) I am a computer-nerd, however, so when I saw this nice, concise, but terrifying article in the NY Times computer section, I took note. You should too.

Then came last Sunday's New York Times, which presented a terrifying report on Diebold, a leading maker of paperless touch-screen voting machines. Eight million of us will be tapping on Diebold computers in the next Presidential election.

So what's wrong with that?

Wrong Thing 1: Wally O'Dell, the company's chief executive, is a Republican fundraiser. He writes letters to wealthy Bush contributors vowing to "deliver" his state's electoral votes to the Bush campaign. He hosts campaign meetings at his house. He's also a member of Bush's "Rangers and Pioneers" club (each member of whom must contribute at least $100,000 to the 2004 re-election campaign).

No matter what your politics, you can't deny that there's a strong whiff of conflict of interest here

Read it. It only gets worse.

And then there's a rather terrifying speech by Al Gore on November 9 at a MoveOn Conference. It's good. If Jimmy Carter is the nation's best ex-President, Al Gore is the nation's greatest near-President.

Or, to take another change – and thanks to the librarians, more people know about this one – the FBI now has the right to go into any library and ask for the records of everybody who has used the library and get a list of who is reading what. Similarly, the FBI can demand all the records of banks, colleges, hotels, hospitals, credit-card companies, and many more kinds of companies. And these changes are only the beginning. Just last week, Attorney General Ashcroft issued brand new guidelines permitting FBI agents to run credit checks and background checks and gather other information about anyone who is “of investigatory interest,” - meaning anyone the agent thinks is suspicious - without any evidence of criminal behavior.

So, is that fine with everyone?

Listen to the way Israel’s highest court dealt with a similar question when, in 1999, it was asked to balance due process rights against dire threats to the security of its people:

“This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an individual’s liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day they (add to) its strength.”

I want to challenge the Bush Administration’s implicit assumption that we have to give up many of our traditional freedoms in order to be safe from terrorists.

Because it is simply not true.

In fact, in my opinion, it makes no more sense to launch an assault on our civil liberties as the best way to get at terrorists than it did to launch an invasion of Iraq as the best way to get at Osama Bin Laden.

In both cases, the Administration has attacked the wrong target.

In both cases they have recklessly put our country in grave and unnecessary danger, while avoiding and neglecting obvious and much more important challenges that would actually help to protect the country.

In both cases, the administration has fostered false impressions and misled the nation with superficial, emotional and manipulative presentations that are not worthy of American Democracy.

In both cases they have exploited public fears for partisan political gain and postured themselves as bold defenders of our country while actually weakening not strengthening America.

In both cases, they have used unprecedented secrecy and deception in order to avoid accountability to the Congress, the Courts, the press and the people.

Indeed, this Administration has turned the fundamental presumption of our democracy on its head. A government of and for the people is supposed to be generally open to public scrutiny by the people – while the private information of the people themselves should be routinely protected from government intrusion.

But instead, this Administration is seeking to conduct its work in secret even as it demands broad unfettered access to personal information about American citizens. Under the rubric of protecting national security, they have obtained new powers to gather information from citizens and to keep it secret. Yet at the same time they themselves refuse to disclose information that is highly relevant to the war against terrorism.

Comments: Let me hear from you

As you can see, in an attempt to make this more interactive, I've added a comment link to the page. You can add your two-cents, others can read it, and add another comment supporting you or tearing you to shreds. Sounds like fun. Use it. Seriously, I think a little more reader participation would be a good thing.

FLASH! Auto Mechanics: Don't Worry, Be Happy. Asbestos is Safe.

Another in a continuing series on lies and lying liars who are trying to kill workers.......

(This story has been flashing through my e-mail for a couple of weeks, but like a faint memory of a bad dream, I've avoided reading it...until now)

True or false: Asbestos is still used in this country.

While Confined Space readers would get the correct answer to this question, most Americans would probably say "false."

They are wrong. Although the major car makers say they no longer use asbestos, the brakes on many older cars contain the fibers. More than $124 million worth of asbestos brake material was imported into the United States last year. Thus, the potential danger will exist for decades as replacement brakes containing asbestos continue to be put on vehicles.

The Post-Dispatch talked to about two dozen St. Louis mechanics or garage managers. All but two said that asbestos had been banned and is no longer in brakes.

A little background. Not too long after I began working at AFSCME over 20 years ago, EPA (Reagan's EPA) came out with the "Gold Book," and accompanying videos describing the dangers of working with asbestos-containing brake linings and ways to prevent exposure. We invited in for demonstrations several manufacturers of equipment that encased the wheels and vacuumed up the dust while mechanics worked on the brake linings through a glove bag. Pretty nifty, considering we couldn't get rid of the asbestos.

Fast forward 17 years. Fearing lawsuits from workers or home mechanics made ill by asbestos in brake linings, industry lawyers are claiming that working with asbestos-containing brake linings is perfectly safe.

Yes, you read that right. The lawfirm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius has petitioned "the Environmental Protection Agency to stop distributing warning booklets, posters and videotapes that give mechanics guidance on the need to protect themselves from asbestos."

The main target in their petition is a thin gold-colored EPA pamphlet titled "Guidance for Preventing Asbestos Disease Among Auto Mechanics." Tens of thousands of copies of the Gold Book and other asbestos warning material have been distributed to schools, garages, auto dealers and unions since they were first published 17 years ago.

For two years in the mid-'80s, the EPA and asbestos experts from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration gathered extensive research on exposure to mechanics from leading government and civilian scientists.

The petition says that the EPA has it all wrong and that brake repair work is safe.

"The continuing availability of the Gold Book, and its alarmist and inflammatory tone continues to hinder a fair-minded assessment of the hazards, if any, imposed to users of asbestos-containing friction products," the petition states.

I find this astonishing. One of the most hotly debated issues in Congress lately has been asbestos compensation legislation which is seeking to rescue firms from inherited asbestos liability. And the origin of that liability was the fact that asbestos companies had covered up the hazards of the material for decades. And what are they basing this piece of garbage on?

The lawyers took their action under an obscure law passed in 2001 called the Data Quality Act. It demands that government agencies work with the White House's Office of Management and Budget to establish a process that permits "affected persons" to challenge information gathered and disseminated by the government.

The Data Quality Act was yet another effort by business-backed right-wing, Republicans to "to ensure accountability to the taxpayer." As long as the taxpayer isn't inhaling asbestos fibers.

The fear, of course, was that the Act would be used to undermine workplace safety and and environmental protections. And as with most of the "good ideas" of this Congress and this Administration, our worst fears are generally exceeded.

OSHA is supposed to enforce regulations protecting workers from exposure to asbestos, but the agency hasn't been much help.

An examination by the Post-Dispatch of 31 years of OSHA inspection records shows that nationwide, fewer then ten gas stations a year had been cited for asbestos problems.

Richard Fairfax, OSHA's director of enforcement, said in a telephone interview that OSHA does not have a national program on asbestos exposure.

"I know we've done sampling. Going through the old inspection reports I found a couple that I did," Fairfax said. When asked when his were done, he answered: "A long time ago. In the '70s."

In 20 phone calls to various OSHA regional offices and some of the states designated to do their own OSHA inspections, the Post-Dispatch found no one who could recall the last time they'd actually tested for asbestos in a gas station or garage.

"Most of the operations are small businesses and do not have a lot of employees. Our targeting system is geared at employers with 40 or more workers," Fairfax said.

Senator Patty Murray, who has introduced a bill to ban asbestos completely, has sent a letter to EPA urging them to reject the petition. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has also sent a letter signed by five Congressmen to EPA and OSHA strongly opposing the petition.

The "funny" thing is that the company behind the lawfirm's petition is too embarrassed to allow the lawfirm to reveal its name. Personally, I can't blame them, although according to OMB Watch, this failure to take responsibility may present a legal problem:

It should be noted that it is unclear for who or for what specific reason this law firm has filed this petition. Under the EPA’s data quality guidelines, requestors seeking a correction of information must explain how they are affected by dissemination of the information. Nowhere in the petition does Morgan, Lewis & Bockius establish that they are an affected party. EPA would be well within the guidelines to simply reject the petition on these grounds.

The Tullhoma News (Tennessee) sums it up well

Even in this cynical age, when legislators exhibit greater concern for the financial health of polluters than for the physical well-being of their workers, the law firm's actions display a level of misanthropic malevolence rarely seen outside the tobacco industry. Scientific evidence gathered over the past 17 years confirms the deadly results of inhaling asbestos fibers. Federal and state governments should be doing more, not less, to warn and protect workers.

"Misanthropic malevolence." I like that.

Or, as my friend said below: A level of despicableness beyond imagining.

----------

More information on the hazards of asbestos in brake linings can be found here.

A Seattle Post-Intelligencer article from three years ago describing the extent of asbestos contamination in auto repair shops can be found here.

New Jersey Steps into Chemical Plant Security Debate

Governor James McGreevey of New Jersey is reportedly on the verge of issuing a memorandum of understanding between the state and three chemical industry organizations that would address chemical plant security and allow chemical companies to avoid state regulation.

Senator Jon Cozine (D-NJ), who has introduced legislation into the Senate requiring stronger federal regulations, is not pleased. A spokesman for Corzine stated that "Senator Corzine believes we need a strong regulatory approach with strong requirements and serious teeth."

Environmental and worker advocacy groups are also unhappy:

The memorandum would require chemical plants to adhere to the Responsible Care Security Code, a set of guidelines crafted by the American Chemistry Council. The DEP would develop a program to inspect facilities and determine whether they are living up to those standards, a draft of the memo said. Any companies choosing not to participate would be subject to state security regulations, which have yet to be created but presumably would be harsher.

Jamie Conrad, a lawyer for the American Chemistry Council, said the Responsible Care standards run hundreds of pages, providing extensive guidance on plant security.

"There's an enormous amount of detail in these guidance documents as to how to do it," Conrad said.

But Rick Engler of the Work Environment Council, a group that links organized labor and environmental issues, said industry should not be able to write its own rules.

"We think it's outrageous," Engler said. "It's kind of ironic that this secret deal is being cooked up in the home state of Senator Corzine, who is leading the fight for national standards."

AFSCME/SEIU Endorse Dean

A number of good articles today in the Washington Post , LA Times, NY Times and Christian Science Monitor on the endorsement and the reasons behind it.

More blog commentary on AFSCME/SEIU endorsement here and here and here.

Association of Washington Business Continues to Lie and Distort

"A level of despicableness beyond imagining"

Even as they celebrate their victory over workplace safety -- a campaign based on lies -- the Association of Washington Business (AWB) still can't seem to tell the truth.

Check out their post-election Press Release.

“We believe that employers and workers should address injuries related to ergonomics,” AWB President Don Brunell said. “Our problem is with L&I’s rules which were wide open to interpretation and which no one fully understood.”

No one? Well maybe not 53% of the voters who actually believed your distortions.

“While Gov. Locke provided a six-year phase-in period, the fundamental problem was with the ambiguity and sweeping impact of the rules themselves,” Brunell said. “There are extensive federal, state and local laws and rules on the books today which protect worker safety. Therefore, if someone is willfully violating laws or regulations, they will be penalized.”

Lies, lies, lies. There are no federal, state (with the exception of a weak California regulation) or local ergonomic laws or rules on the books. And they know they're lying.

By delaying the implementation of the rules as the Governor did, there were some questions about which rules could be enforced when it came to ergonomics and worker safety. AWB believes the passage of I-841 clarified that issue.

Bullshit. There was no question in anyones' mind except the ones you dishonestly planted there.

AWB also believes the passage of I-841 strengthened the court challenge the “We Care Coalition” filed to suspend the rules. We Care believed the regulatory process in which the rules were adopted was flawed. “We feel the courts now will have a clearer sense of the public’s mood toward the regulatory process and that will help employers, workers and citizens in general.”

Oh yeah, since when does any self- and law-respecting court base its decision on the public mood? If the U.S. Supreme Court had done that, Al Gore would be president today (and we'd still have a national ergonomics standard).

AWB is launching an ergonomics education effort through its foundation (Institute for Workforce Development and Sustainability) and scheduled its first Ergonomics Solutions Workshop for Nov. 20 in Olympia.

Yeah, and O.J. is hot on the trail of the real murderer.

Think I'm exagerating about their evilness? Judge for yourself. I received this note from a friend in Washington after the election:

Saturday before the election I was getting my hair cut. I asked the guy who cuts my hair if he had voted yet. When he said no, I asked him if he knew about the initiative related to ergonomics. He asked, "Oh, is that the one about kids' health insurance?" I thought I had heard him wrong, but as this was the only initiative on the ballot, I didn't pursue his confusion, and just launched into my discussion of what ergonomics is all about, what the rule did/didn't do, etc.

Much to my amazement, when I mentioned this to my husband, who had been sick one afternoon, came home early and watched the local evening news--that was the tag line on the TV ads!!!! The ad never explained how they reached that conclusion. (Presumably it was linked to the allegation that people would lose jobs due to the ergo rule, or maybe that the ergo rule would cost so much employers would no longer provide health insurance to employees.) The ad was full of cute kids swinging on swings, and there was apparently a banner at the bottom of the screen that warned voters that if they didn't repeal the ergo rule that thousands of kids in Washington state would lose their health insurance coverage! (Like anyone in the residential construction industry, which sponsored the initiative, provides any employee with health insurance....even if you were persuaded that the rule would put anyone out of business, which we all know it wouldn't have.)

It seems to me they have stooped to a level of despicableness that is beyond imagining.

Amen

Chemical Plant InSecurity

More on chemical insecurity from the Progressive. I've written several times before about Senator Jon Corzine's (D-NJ) attempt to pass a bill address chemical security issues. Corzine's bill, initially introduced following 9/11, would have required companies using large amounts of dangerous chemicals to consider "inherently safer technologies.

As you may recall, following unanimous Senate committee approval of the Corzine bill,

An alarmed chemical industry sprang into action, "mounting daily assaults on the Republican members of the [Environment and Public Works] committee throughout August," reported John Judis in The New Republic last January. An August 29, 2002, letter, signed by thirty members of the chemical and oil industry lobby and sent to Republican members of the committee, deplored the new bill, particularly its proposal to "grant sweeping new authority to EPA to oversee facility security." The lobbyists objected strongly to a particular provision that would have required plants to use "inherently safer technologies." This would "allow government micromanagement in mandating substitutions of all processes and substances," the letter stated, adding that it could "result in increased security risks."

By September 10, seven out of the nine Republican members on the committee bowed to the pressure, issuing a letter against the Corzine bill, claiming it "severely misses the mark" (emphasis in the original).

During that same summer, members of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) "gave more than $1 million in political contributions, most of it to Republicans. Eight Senators who were critical of the Corzine bill have received more than $850,000 from the ACC and its member companies," according to a Common Cause report dated January 27, 2003.

Not only did the EPA, the White House and Congress succumb to chemical industry pressure, but the Department of Transportation caved as well.

Toxic chemicals are regularly transported through well-populated areas. DOT had proposed to address this problem through a regulation stating that "Routes should minimize product exposures to populated areas and avoid tunnels and bridges, where possible."

The chemical and petroleum industry successfull lobbyed to remove this language:

"There's nothing really in there that says anything about restricting transport at any time," says Hind. He expected the rule at least to require constraints on dangerous chemicals in heavily populated areas during orange alerts. "But they didn't even do that," he says.

In September, the Sierra Club photographed a rail tank car carrying chlorine near the U.S. Capitol. Greenpeace took notice. "We are formally requesting immediate action by the Secret Service to address a near and present danger to the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and all other national leaders living and working in Washington, D.C.," Rick Hind, legislative director for the Greenpeace Toxics Campaign wrote to the Secret Service. By the EPA's own worst-case estimates, a leak from one ninety-ton rail car of chlorine could kill or injure "people in the Congress, the White House, and any of 2.4 million local residents within fourteen miles," Hind wrote.

Greenpeace isn't the only one raising alarms. On June 20, FBI Special Agent Troy Morgan, a specialist on weapons of mass destruction, addressed a chemical security summit in Philadelphia. "You've heard about sarin and other chemical weapons in the news," he said, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "But it's far easier to attack a rail car full of toxic industrial chemicals than it is to compromise the security of a military base and obtain these materials."

Supermarket Workers: They're Striking For All of Us

This about says it all: "For the cashiers and stockers on the picket lines, the fight to fend off large-scale concessions is a struggle to avoid being thrown into one of America's lowest castes, the working poor." Check out the article.

And, as the headline says, they're striking for all of us:

"The stakes are enormous," said Ruth Milkman, chairwoman of the University of California Institute for Labor and Employment. "If the employers succeed in their effort to extract large concessions, they will turn these into low-wage jobs, and other employers across the nation will see this as a green light to try to do the same thing."

Check out the UFCW strike page for more information about the strikes and some things you can do (like send e-mails to Safeway, or send money to the strike fund.)

Safety Training Offered

AFL-CIO George Meany Center

Attention union activists, staff, and local union health and safety representatives who would like to teach their membership about workplace health and safety issues. The George Meany Center for Labor Studies will offer two six-day Train-the-Trainer health and safety programs next year.

The first is a Train the Trainer Program on Workplace Health and Safety For Bi-Lingual (Spanish-English) Union Trainers February 8 – 13, 2004. Click here for flyer and here for application.

The second class, for English speakers runs from May 2 – 7, 2004. Click here for flyer and here for application.

Topics of both classes include

• Worker and Union Roles in Workplace Safety and Health
  
• Identifying Hazards in the Workplace
  
• Legal Health and Safety Rights of Workers and Unions
  
• Recordkeeping (OSHA 300 Log) Requirements
  
• Introduction to Ergonomics
  
• Effective Health and Safety Committees

The costs of the classes are $1000, which includes a single room for six nights (Saturday-Thursday) and all meals (cost per person for a double room is $730). For commuters, the cost is $250, which includes lunches and dinners. There is no charge for tuition or materials.

For more information, Sharon Simon at the George Meany Center at 301- 431-5414, or at ssimon@georgemeany.org.

Sign up soon. Space is limited.

Workers Sensed Danger Before Collapse of Parking Garage

This is chilling:

ATLANTIC CITY, Nov. 7 — They are construction workers, not engineers or safety experts. But George Tolson, Norman Williams and John Pietrosante Jr. found themselves focusing on a common thought: something unsafe or at least unsettling was going on as they rushed to complete a $245 million expansion of the Tropicana Casino and Resort.

The job had gotten off to a slow start, given bad weather last winter. As the April 2004 deadline approached to complete the new 502-room hotel, a 10-story, 2,400-space parking garage and a sprawling retail and entertainment complex called the Quarter, each could feel the pressure building to quicken the pace. But not just the pace of work disturbed them.

Mr. Tolson and Mr. Williams, laborers who helped install so-called pole shores — metal pogo-sticklike devices that temporarily hold up the concrete floors until they harden enough to support themselves — could see that half a dozen or so of these poles had somehow been bent out of shape. The implication was unmistakable: the floors, even if just so slightly, were moving.

"The concrete was too green," Mr. Tolson, 60, said he told his foreman, using slang to describe concrete that has not fully hardened. Mr. Williams, 49, recalled thinking: " `There is too much weight on those shores.' "

Mr. Pietrosante, 25, saw a similarly disturbing condition: cracks in the concrete floors and columns he was helping to build, at an unusually rapid pace. "Usually you pour one floor of concrete every three weeks, but we were being pushed to do a floor a week," he said. "This job was rush, rush, rush."

Hmm. "an unusually rapid pace," "rush, rush, rush." Maybe this is that "productivity" they've all been talking about (see below.)

Unemployment Down. Good News?

So unemployment is now down. Good news for American workers? Not necessarily:

Even though economic growth surged at a rapid annual rate of 7.2 percent in the third quarter of this year, business executives around the country say they are still cautious about expanding their work forces and building factories.

And a new economic study, prepared for the United States Conference of Mayors, concludes that wages are significantly lower in the service sectors that are adding jobs than in the manufacturing industries that have been losing jobs.

According to the study, prepared by the economic consulting firm Global Insight, the biggest job growth over the next two years will be in the areas of administration and support services, health care, travel and tourism.

The average wage in those sectors over the next two years is expected to be $36,000, the study concluded. By contrast, the average wage in manufacturing sectors that lost jobs is $43,000.

Individual companies also aren't as optimistic as the Administration:

The Union Pacific Corporation, the big freight rail company, is preparing for a year of strong growth. But although the company is hiring, it expects productivity gains to allow it to keep its overall work force around its current size of 46,300 people or somewhat fewer.

"We're going to handle more business with fewer people," said Jim Young, Union Pacific's chief financial officer.

In its regular survey last month of chief executives at large companies, the Business Roundtable found that 71 percent of the executives expect their sales to increase in 2004 but only 12 percent expect to expand their work forces.

"Productivity continues to astonish everybody," said Henry A. McKinnell, chief executive of Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical producer. While executives are far more optimistic about next year than they were just a few months ago, he said, their mood is still "not ebullient."

In themselves, the new job numbers are not that impressive. By comparison with the rebound in jobs after other recessions, including the so-called jobless recovery of 1991, the pace of job creation now remains anemic.

Happy days are here again.

Better than a Political Novel

Major environmental disaster. Government investigates. Cabinet Secretary overseeing agency conducting investigation married to Senator from that state. Official in investigating agency alleges whitewash, no bid contracts, etc. Agency threatens to fire whistleblower.

Plot of the latest political novel? No, according to the NY Times, the latest alleged scandel of the Bush Administration.

The Bush administration has notified a mine safety official who has sharply criticized federal mining policies that it intends to fire him, according to documents and the official's lawyers.

The official, Jack Spadaro, the superintendent of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley, W.Va., has been an outspoken critic of a federal investigation into a huge spill of coal sludge in eastern Kentucky three years ago. The accident, at the Martin County Coal Company, is considered one of the biggest environmental disasters in the Appalachian region.

Mr. Spadaro accused political appointees in the Mine Safety and Health Administration of cutting the investigation short, playing down the coal company's culpability and not holding federal regulators accountable for weak oversight. He was a member of the team investigating the spill before he resigned in protest in 2001.

Mr. Spadaro has also raised questions about no-bid contracts that he contends were awarded to friends and former business associates of David D. Lauriski, the assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, and other senior mine safety officials. His complaints led to an investigation by the Department of Labor's inspector general.

The dispute has become a flashpoint between the Bush administration and critics of its mining policies, who contend the administration has tried to weaken environmental and safety regulations to help big coal companies that contribute heavily to the Republican Party. Mr. Spadaro's firing, the critics contend, is retribution for his outspokenness.

Hmmm. First OSHA goes after one of its Regional Administrators who turned whistle blower, now MSHA. Yawn. So what else is new?

California Fire Photos

Many more amazing photos can be found at the L.A. Times.

Mark Boster / LAT

Gina Ferazzi / LAT

The Weekly Toll

Another long list of workers killed on the job over the past couple of weeks.

I also want to point out another group who lost large numbers in the past two weeks on the job. Those are the military men and women just doing their job in Iraq. I've already written a long article about the fact that astronauts and the military get so much more attention than the larger numbers of regular workers who die every day on the job.

This week, for example, there has been much attention paid (and rightfully so) to the high number of soldiers lost in Iraq (over 30) even though many times more men and women were killed in American workplaces over the same period of time with much less press attention.

Construction worker dies in fall from condo project

A construction worker fell to his death from the eighth floor of The Waterfront on Venice Island condominiums Friday. The incident happened at 8:26 a.m.

Killed was William J. Molinaro, 44, 1000 block West Baffin Drive, Venice. He is survived by a wife and three children, according to Venice police investigators. Molinaro worked for Associated Interior Drywall, Sarasota.

Venice police Sergeant Mike Treanor said the man was putting drywall in an eighth-floor unit.

"He stepped out and apparently leaned against the two cables stretched across the balcony," he said. "The lead anchors holding the cables pulled out of the wall when he leaned on them." More Here.


Power Line Kills Man

Queens, NY -- A worker was killed and two others injured yesterday when they were electrocuted in a construction accident, police said.
The incident occurred shortly after 3 p.m. when three employees of CAC Industries were attempting to secure a metal cable swinging from a crane at a construction site.

Authorities suspect that while performing that task, either the crane or its cable somehow came into contact with a nearby power line, sending a powerful electrical current through the cable and shocking the workers.

Thomas Tierney, 35, was rushed to Peninsula General Hospital, where he died an hour after suffering burns throughout his body. Anthony Nelson, 42, was standing in a puddle of water at the time and was injured. Mitchell Gust, 40, was also shocked. Both men are in stable condition.


2 workers killed when crane touches power line

St. Clair Shores, MI -- The St. Clair Shores construction company that was involved in a double fatality Wednesday morning has no previous safety violations in the three years it has been in business, according to state records.

Two workers were electrocuted and a third injured when a crane they were working on either came near an overhead power line or touched the line, sending a powerful electrical current through them.

The incident happened as a Klee Construction crew was lifting roofing trusses with an estimated 100-foot crane on a canal in the area of 10 Mile Road and Jefferson, investigators said.

The victims were identified as Edward Spaccarotelli, 25, and Ryan Surant, 19, both employed by Kree Construction. Company workers said the men were "like family."

A preliminary report issued by the Michigan Occupational, Safety and Health Administration indicated the men were erecting a truss for a two-story house when the crane being used to lift the trusses into place made contact with an overhead energized electrical line.

Apparently Surant was holding a metal cable lifting the truss while Spaccarotelli was the crane operator.

Witnesses told reporters that Surant was unable to release the energized equipment as Spaccarotelli desperately tried to pull him away, only to be electrocuted himself.

More here.


Local man killed in Wallingford industrial accident

WILLIMANTIC CT— The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is currently conducting an industrial investigation into an accident that caused the death of a local man.

Philip F. Hopkins, 55, of Pennywood Lane, died Monday as a result of the workplace accident in Wallingford.

According to Lt. Marc Mikulski of the Wallingford Police, Hopkins was working at Infra Metals when a chain-driven crane in the plant was exchanging a Dumpster filled with scrap metal for an empty Dumpster.

For some reason, the filled Dumpster tipped over and fell off the crane and spilled its cargo, causing Hopkins’ death.

Mikulski said he believes Hopkins was struck by both the Dumpster and its contents.



Worker Killed in Plant Explosion

At the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co., workers and managers are repairing their plant, damaged in a deadly explosion on Oct. 22, in hopes of resuming production of ethanol -- and their prized product, Shakers vodka -- within a couple of weeks.

But no one wants to celebrate when the next batch of the hot-selling Shakers Original American Vodka, now being marketed coast to coast, rolls off the line.

The Benson, Minn., plant is mourning the death of a welding contractor in the blast while opening its doors and records to Minnesota safety inspectors who will determine whether the plant was at fault.

The explosion killed Robert Olson, a 20-year-old welder from Granite Falls, Minn., who worked for Lundin Construction of Hanley Falls. At the request of Benson plant officials, Olson was cutting into the roof of a corn-mash storage tank when a flammable vapor inside ignited, according to the state Fire Marshal Division in St. Paul. More here.

Worker Dies In Fall At Louisville Airport
Victim Employed By Oklahoma Company

LOUISVILLE -- A man was killed early Thursday while working on a construction project at the Louisville International Airport. The man fell through the framing of a skylight in Concourse B at about 2:30 a.m. and landed on the floor below.


Source of plant blast eyed in Huntington

Huntington, IN -- Investigators continue to look for the origin of a fatal explosion at a Huntington wheel manufacturer.

About 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29, an explosion ripped through the Hayes Lemmerz International factory on Huntington's western edge. One worker was killed and two others were seriously injured.

A maintenance worker, David Ripplinger, remains in critical condition in the St. Joseph Regional Burn Center, said Geoff Thomas, spokesman for Lutheran Health Network.


Death inquiry may take a month

No witnesses in MMNA fatality

BLOOMINGTON, MI -- Results of a federal investigation into the Oct. 23 suffocation death of a Mitsubishi Motors North America worker likely won't become public for at least a month.

John Foster, 42, of Metamora was killed when he was pinned between pieces of equipment while he was performing preventative maintenance. He had worked at the plant for 15 years.


Worker Dies in Fall

(Janesville-AP) -- A worker who died in an accident at the Janesville General Motors plant is identified as 44-year-old Douglas Mellom.

An autopsy by the Rock County Coroners office conducted today found Mellom died yesterday morning when he fell from the top of an elevator shaft.

Mellom was working on repairing equipment when he fell down the shaft 18 feet.


Four Killed In Casino Parking Garage Collapse

ATLANTIC CITY -- Engineers and safety inspectors are beginning the delicate and dangerous work needed to stabilize the ruins of a parking garage that collapsed in New Jersey.

Crews worked through the night using steel cables to stabilize the building because they feared another collapse.

The garage was under construction at the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City when the top five floors on the 10-story structure collapsed Thursday, like a house of cards. The collapse occurred while workmen poured concrete on the top floor of the structure. Four construction workers died, and 20 people were injured. More here, here and here.


Ohio man killed in plant accident

WINFIELD, W.Va. -- A welder died Friday after falling at least 70 feet from a catwalk at the John Amos Power Plant.

Tim Siders II fell at about 7:30 a.m., said Sharyn McCaulley, a spokeswoman for The Babcock & Wilcox Co. of Barberton, Ohio, a contractor installing a pollution control system at the plant, which is operated by American Electric Power.

Siders, 27, of Gallipolis Ferry, was taken to a Charleston hospital but died during surgery, McCaulley said.


Salem man dies after hitting wire

A heavy-equipment operator was killed Thursday when the machine he was operating touched a live wire near Bonneville Dam.

Luther Stinson Jr., 34, of Salem was operating a piece of machinery with a large boom that drives guardrail posts into the ground. Oregon State Police Lt. Dale Rutledge said Stinson was putting rail posts in the park area, near exit 40 on Interstate 84, when the pile driver touched a live wire about 2 p.m.

Explosion at oil production site in Donna kills 1
OSHA investigators called in to look into the blast

DONNA, TX — An explosion at an oil production site north of the city killed one person Thursday morning and seriously injured another.

Ernesto Garza, 22, died en route to McAllen Medical Center after sustaining injuries from an explosion involving a compressor, officials said.

The other man, whose identity was not released, remained in critical condition late Thursday at the hospital.


OSHA Launches Probe into Workers' Fatal Fall from Ladder

Northport, Alabama-- Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into the death of a Tuscaloosa man who fell while working on a restaurant sign.

OSHA said 40-year-old Robert Daniel Stone, an employee of Knight Sign Industries, was changing bulbs at a McDonald's restaurant in Northport when the extension ladder he was using collapsed.



Road worker killed in construction zone

Pittsburgh -- A motorist struck and killed a construction worker Wednesday morning along a busy stretch of Painters Run Road in Mt. Lebanon.
James Vena, 48, of Meyersdale, Somerset County, was taken to St. Clair Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:20 a.m., about a half-hour after the accident near the road's intersection with Cedar Boulevard. An autopsy is expected to be completed today.

Authorities identify worker who died after fall

FARGO - A man who fell about 40 feet to his death while working on power poles has been identified.

Cass County authorities say Toby Windels, 21, of Sebeka, Minn., died after he fell from a bucket truck near Horace, south of Fargo.

Indiana County Power Plant Worker Killed

NEW FLORENCE, Pa. -- A man working at an Indiana County power plant was killed when he slipped or was dragged by suction into a coal stock pile.

Officials from the Conemaugh Generating Station in West Wheatfield Township say 36-year-old Michael Kuhns, of Fairfield Township, was found buried beneath the coal in a bin that feeds a conveyer belt. Kuhns, a subcontracted painter, was trapped in the bin around 3 p.m. Monday.


Construction worker dies when dump truck backs over him

STUART, FL — A construction worker died this morning when a dump truck loaded with fill dirt backed over him at a building site on Central Parkway.

Stuart Police said the worker was doing some surveying work and he didn't notice the truck. It wasn't known Tuesday morning if the truck was equipped with backup warning signals.

OSHA probing Ark. man's cell-tower death

LEOMINSTER -- State police and the federal Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) this week are continuing to investigate the death of a man who fell from a cell tower Friday.

"Cell tower work is particularly dangerous because the elevations are so high and there are so many of them going up because of consumer needs," said regional OSHA director Ronald E. Morin. (Ed. Note: Did that statement provide any useful information?)

William R. Clist, 24, of Yellville, Ark., died Friday when he fell from high atop a Sprint PCS cell tower under construction in west Leominster, according to Elizabeth Stammo, spokeswoman for District Attorney John Conte's office.

Safety officials review fatal fall in new arena

Federal workplace safety authorities are looking into the death of a Florida man who fell from a ladder last week while preparing a fireworks display in Toyota Center for the Houston Rockets' home opener on Thursday.

Christopher Boyd Spang, 47, of Auburndale, Fla., was working on a rocket to be fired from the scoreboard when the accident occurred about 5 a.m. Friday, said a report by the Harris County medical examiner's office.

For tree-removal workers, Isabel's dangers persist

VIRGINIA BEACH -- It should have been a routine job, one that Ed Monroe had seen done hundreds of times before.

But it wasn't.

Thursday's job for Green Tree, a local tree-removal company, would claim the life of one of Monroe's employees. He was one of four tree-trimming and logging professionals to die on the job in Virginia this year. With cleanup from Hurricane Isabel continuing, officials fear more such accidents.

Omar Garcia, 19, a crew member of three years, was killed Thursday afternoon while taking down a tree in Virginia Beach. Garcia's best friend was in the tree, as a climber, when a piece of the tree came down and struck Garcia.

Garcia's brother was also on hand, the site's CPR Supervisor, but there was little he could do to save his badly injured brother.

Garcia is the second local professional with a tree-removal company to be killed within the past two months

Mining accidents: 'Alarming trend'--Deaths of supervisory personnel raise red flag

Two mine-related fatalities in the state within a four-day span, including one at Holly Hill's Holcim Inc. plant, have Mine Safety and Health Administration officials digging for answers and clues as to the underlying causes for the back-to-back incidents.

Most disturbing, officials say, is the nature of the fatalities. Both involved experienced employees in supervisory roles.

"We have had a number of fatalities this year, and about 50 percent have involved supervisors," said Mike Davis, district manager of the southeast region MSHA, metal and non-metal division. "This has caused the greatest amount of concern this year. It is an alarming trend."

The first metal and non-metal fatality occurred Sept. 22 at Holcim when Antonio Gonzalez, 39, of Ridgeville was using a back-hoe to dig out along the side of a building to replace a retaining wall. The victim and the two co-workers were in a 15-foot-deep hole when the bank caved in, burying the victim. A second employee received minor injuries while a third co-worker escaped injury.

The fatal accident was the second at the plant in under two years. A worker was killed in February 2002 during the construction of a cement kiln at the site.

American Military Killed in Iraq Since October 26. There are 33 names here, and at least six more have died since. Photos and additional information can be found here.

James Anderson Chance III
Paul Fisher
James R. Wolf
Jose A. Rivera
Robert T. Benson
Francisco Martinez
Daniel Bader
Ernest G. Bucklew
Steven D. Conover
Anthony D. D'Agostino
Darius T. Jennings
Karina S. Lau
Keelan L. Moss
Brian H. Penisten
Ross A. Pennanen
Joel Perez
Brian D. Slavenas
Bruce A. Smith
Frances M. Vega
Paul A. Velazquez
Joe N. Wilson
Benjamin J. Colgan
Joshua C. Hurley
Maurice J. Johnson
Todd J. Bryant
Algernon Adams
Michael Paul Barrera
Aubrey D. Bell
Steven Acosta
Rachel K. Bosveld
Charles H. Buehring
Joseph R. Guerrera
Jamie L. Huggins

Our Their government at work.

Rejection of 'Earmarks' Angers Democrats
GOP Subcommittee Chairman Says He Won't Honor Party's Projects in Bill

Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), who chairs the subcommittee that controls spending on education, health and jobs programs, recently stunned Democrats by announcing plans to reject every "earmarked" project they are seeking in the final, compromise version of the bill, which funds the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor.

His reason: When the House passed the bill on July 10, all 198 Democrats present voted against it, several of them saying it shortchanged education programs. The bill passed, 215 to 208.

***
Democrats say the real victims of Regula's policy will be the poor. Of the nation's 50 poorest congressional districts, 42 are represented by Democrats. Democrats say schools and community groups in these districts often need help from their member of Congress for worthwhile projects.
Hoyer had hoped to get $400, 000 -- the same as last year -- for a group called Rebuilding Together. The nonprofit organization works with volunteers to rehabilitate homes of the poor, elderly and disabled.

White House Puts Limits on Queries From Democrats

The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers.

For La. Lobbying Firm, a Victory on Workers' Comp

A Louisiana firm scored a quiet lobbying victory this week when House and Senate negotiators decided not to transfer a compensation program for ill weapons-lab workers from the Energy Department to the Labor Department.
***
Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) inserted language into an energy and water spending bill that would have transferred control of the DOE program to Labor, which they say has more experience working through such claims. They said the DOE has not properly implemented the program, creating a seven-year backlog of claims.

They wrote the top Senate negotiators, Sens. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.): "Based on DOE's own publicly available data and the General Accounting Office's evaluations so far, it is plain that this program is failing."

But Science and Engineering Associates -- which in 2001 obtained a non-competitive contract worth more than $15 million to process the DOE claims -- fought back. It brought in heavy hitters such as former House Appropriations Committee chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.) to make its case on Capitol Hill. It also increased its political contributions between 1998 and 2002 from $4,000 to nearly $50,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

(Ed. Note: By “their,” government, I don’t necessaryliy mean the R’s as much as I mean business money. In this case the “good guy” was a Republican, and those bought off were Democrats.)

White House to End Power Plant Probes
Move Follows EPA Easing of Enforcement

The Bush administration confirmed yesterday that it will close pending investigations of 70 power plants suspected of violating the Clean Air Act and will consider dropping 13 other cases against utilities that were referred to the Justice Department for action, following the Environmental Protection Agency's decision in August to ease enforcement rules.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

NFIB's Agent In Government

Sometimes you have to admire the Republicans for their candor.

Check out this quote from the Small Business Administration's Chief Council for Advocacy, Thomas Sullivan. Sullivan was executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation, "which guides small businesses on legal issues and promotes their interests in the court," when he was appointed SBA by President Bush in 2002.

Even while in government, however, Sullivan is keeping his eyes on the prize:

"I am doing the exact same thing as chief counsel for advocacy," Sullivan said, "only NFIB does not have to pay me now."

Isn't that nice.

The fact that the Bush administration is doing the business of the business assocations is not exactly shocking news to us, but it's always nice to have someone come right out and admit that NFIB has just switched it's office over to government housing, and is billing the taxpayers for its payroll.

In an interview with the San Antonio Express News where he was in town to address the effects of immigration policy on small business, Sullivan boasted about the clout of the SBA:

The office always had clout. It helped stem the burdensome ergonomics rule from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that could have bankrupted many companies several years ago.

Well, not exactly. He seems to be confusing the SBA with his previous job at NFIB. Which is easy to do these days. Business. Government. Business. Government.

NFIB, the parent organization of the Legal Foundation, was one of the main forces behind repeal of the federal OSHA standard and behind the Washington State initiative repealing their ergonomics standard.

In fact, NFIB likes to boast that in the week before the vote against the federal standard, they

sent 70,000 fax alerts against the ergonomics regulation to its members outside of Washington, asking them to turn up the heat on undecided lawmakers.

"Our fax machines have been running almost nonstop, printing letters that small business owners sent to their elected representatives and then shared with us," Senior Vice President Dan Danner told The Washington Post the week before the vote.

The NFIB Legal Foundation's website boasts that the Foundation

was recently part of a full-court press that successfully challenged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) ergonomics rule. Responding to the NFIB Legal Foundation lawsuit against OSHA and an intense lobbying campaign by NFIB, Congress repealed this law that would have cost small business owners more than $40 billion.

Even before Bush, small business had a "special place" in government, although not quite this special. A bit of background might help explain.

The Gingrich Congress of the mid-1990's, responding to their deep concern about contributions from the fate of small business in this country and the risk that overburdensome regulations may hurt their profits drive them into wreck and ruin, thoughtfully passed the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) in 1996.

SBREFA gave small business, represented in government by the Small Business Administration, an early bite at the regulatory apple even before the regulatory proposals were issued, which is when the rest of the public gets to comment. ( Editorial Note: We here at Confined Space have always wondered why workers don't get a similar early bite at the apple, but the answer to that question is probably too obvious for us to figure out.)

Selected small businesses, as well as small business associations, chosen jointly by OSHA and the SBA, would participate on the SBREFA committee that would comment on the pre-proposal, or "SBREFA Draft" of OSHA regulations. And "frank and candid" discussions would continue throughout the process as SBA representatives played the role of "the loyal opposition."

Of course having the NFIB right inside the bureacracy makes things so much more efficient.

P.S. Sullivan's quote has been unanimously selected by the entire staff here at Confined Space as the

QUOTE OF THE WEEK,

entitling him to a Confined Space T-Shirt, if such a thing existed. Congratulations Tom

Green Labor

This is an article by Dave Foster, Director of United Steelworkers of American District 11, about his trip to the Artic National Wildlife Refuge:

I came to the conclusion, as have many others, that drilling in the Arctic Refuge is bad energy policy (all the oil in the refuge would supply the nation's oil needs for only six months), disastrous environmental policy to the land, and a serious human rights violation. I arrived at this conclusion, not apart from the concerns for jobs and workers' rights that fill my daily life, but as an outgrowth of them. Preserving and equitably distributing our planet's dwindling resources, honoring the diversity and history of our planet's many cultures, and working to create a society where waste is minimized, not pursued, are values that guide my work at the United Steelworkers.

And while you're at it, check out the latest edition of Green Labor, a newsletter dedicated to building coalitions between labor and environmentalists. The first edition, which also contains and article by Foster, can be found here.

Nurses: Long Hours = Danger for Patients

Bush, Nursing Home Industry: 'No Problem'

The National Academy of Sciences is picking up on something that those of us who work with (or as) nurses have known for a long time.

Many hospitals and nursing homes are endangering patients by allowing or requiring nurses to work more than 12 hours a day, the National Academy of Sciences said on Tuesday.

Such long hours cause fatigue, reduce productivity and increase the risk that the nurses will make mistakes that harm patients, the academy said in a new report commissioned by the federal government.

NAS recommended that nurses work no more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period or more than 60 hours a week, yet over one quarter of nurses work more than 13 consecutive hours at least once a week.

As usual, the Bush Administration has come down on the wrong side of this issue

The Bush administration said last year that it had no plans to set minimum staffing levels for nursing homes, in part because such requirements would generate billions of dollars in additional costs for Medicaid, Medicare and nursing homes.

But the National Academy of Sciences said the administration should do what it declined to do last year: set "minimum standards for registered and licensed nurse staffing in nursing homes."

The American Hospital Association and the American Health Care Association (which represents the nursing home industry) see now problem either.

Pamela Thompson, chief executive of the American Organization of Nurse Executives, a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association, said it was "an accepted practice" for nurses to work 12-hour shifts.

Alan E. DeFend, vice president of the American Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, said: "The shortage of nursing assistants has reached crisis proportions. Sometimes there's just no alternative to overtime."

To address the problem, the report came up with a radical solution, one that's also no surprise to those familiar with work in nursing homes (or any other workplace): "To reduce such errors, the panel said, nurses should be more involved in the day-to-day management of hospitals and nursing homes."

Washington Ergo Initiative Post-Mortem (1)

Jobs, Demagoguery and Cash

Why happened? Several observations.

From an SEIU Organizer:

in a statewide election, TV seems to be decisive. The industry really carpetbombed the airwaves the last week. I rarely watch television but in the few moments I did I saw their spots about four times. I never saw any of our spots.

And the Seattle Post Intelligencer agreed:

Washington state's sweeping workplace ergonomics rules - which survived lawsuits and a multiyear assault in the Legislature - succumbed to a million-dollar initiative campaign....After paying signature-gatherers to get the measure on the ballot, the BIAW spent heavily on a television campaign that portrayed the rules as job-killing regulation run amok.

The observations of John Gastil and Ned Crosby, Seattle Post Intelligencer columnists, bring back a whiff of Florida, November 2000:

Initiative 841 spurred more than $2 million in campaign spending, but after hearing the initiative's full ballot statement, 39 percent of voters surveyed had no idea what its effect would be and 8 percent had it backward ("enact ergonomics regulations"). Given its apparent margin of victory, if 8 percent made that error statewide, correcting that misunderstanding alone would have changed the fate of this initiative. Many of those who described its impact relied on messages they had heard from one side or the other ("It will reduce workplace safety" or "It will cost us jobs")....

The vast majority did not know the initiative's estimated fiscal impact, despite its prominent appearance in the official voters pamphlet. Only one in four voters knew that the federal government lacks similar rules, even though this is a key pro-841 argument. Forty-nine percent of voters believed that the regulations directly limited the hours spent at hazardous jobs, a misconception that the anti-841 campaign tried to address.

One pollster argued that the success of initiatives in Washington was a sign of frusted voters taking back the political process. But as one article pointed out:

But the initiatives aren't exactly coming from the voters these days.

Ergonomics was the only subject forced to the ballot by a statewide petition drive this year. The Building Industry Association of Washington spearheaded the drive, deriding as "job-killing regulation" the rules aimed at limiting injuries caused by heavy lifting, repetitive motion and awkward work positions. The campaign started with a paid signature drive and ended with an expensive flood of television commercials.

Initiative 841, which has drawn 53 percent of the vote so far, marked the second year in a row that the politically powerful homebuilders' association used its financial muscle to force a vote rolling back an action of state government that it disapproved of. Last year it forced a referendum vote on an unemployment tax overhaul imposed by the Legislature, which helped prompt lawmakers to craft a more business-friendly rewrite of the system this year.

More initiatives are likely in the works, said Tom McCabe, the association's executive vice president.

"We've got to keep fighting," McCabe said. "I don't think we're going to stop now."

Among the possible subjects: limiting lawsuits, or even a "dismantling of the Department of Labor and Industries," McCabe said.

Ultimately, what we have is a combination of legitimate concern over jobs, fueled by demagoguery and supported by lots of money. And as unfair and dishonest as that may be, that's the field we need to learn to play on:

"I think what's making the difference is you have small business owners who say, 'We can't take this; this is the ultimate regulatory nightmare.' Then they're telling their friends and neighbors ... who listened," said Carolyn Logue, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, which backed I-841 on grounds that it was too expensive for businesses.

The Building Industry Association of Washington led the I-841 coalition to raise $1.4 million. Randy Gold, a Wenatchee homebuilder and president of the BIAW, said the initiative was leading because "we had a better message and because I think our message was the truth. We can't afford this regulation."

But Rick Bender, president of the State Labor Council, blamed BIAW's television ads, which he said were rife with scare tactics about job losses.

"They probably did three or four times the TV we were able to afford to do," Bender said. "The economy is tough right now. People are scared about losing their jobs."

But this headline gives me an idea......

Initiatives batting 1,000 since 2000

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Every citizens' initiative that has reached the statewide ballot in the past three elections has passed, despite knotty, opaque subjects such as the repeal of workplace ergonomics standards that voters embraced on Tuesday.

Hmmm.... If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

The Wonders of Wal -i- World

Latest in a long string of recent articles about Wal-Mart. This one about the foreign workers imported into the country, working seven days a week without a day off, then kicked out of the country.

The "up"side

The use of illegal workers appeared to benefit Wal-Mart, its shareholders and managers by minimizing the company's costs, and it benefited consumers by helping hold down Wal-Mart's prices. Cleaning contractors profited, and thousands of foreign workers were able to earn more than they could back home.

And the downside:

But the system also had its costs — janitors said they were forced to work seven days a week, were not paid overtime and often endured harsh conditions. Foreigners got jobs that Americans might have wanted. And taxpayers sometimes ended up paying for the illegal workers' emergency health care or their children's education in American schools.

And of course, there's no workers comp:

One night, he recalled, a co-worker sliced his hand open on a floor-scraping blade and was rushed to a hospital in Red Bank. He had problems paying the $800 bill because his job did not provide health insurance and his employer shunned the workers' compensation system. The hospital swallowed the cost.

(Actually, we, the taxpayers, covered the cost that should have been borne by Wal-Mart.)

But then there's the bottom line

Robert, a Czech who runs a Web site to attract Eastern Europeans to janitorial work, said using foreign cleaners was good for Wal-Mart and for American consumers.

"No American wants to do this job," he said. "If they hired Americans, it would take 10 of them to do the work done by five Czechs. This helps Wal-Mart keep its prices low."

And low prices are what America's all about. Of course, we could always get rid of the minimum wage entirely. And while we're at it, maybe we should re-institute slavery. That would keep the prices really low.

Here's another good Wal-Mart web page: Wal-Mart Watch, sponsored by the UFCW.

Job Watch and Job Blackmail

The Washington State ergonomics standard was defeated largely because people believed the job blackmail arguments of the business associations -- that the ergonomics standard was a job killer.

Well, they were lying about ergonomics regs costing jobs, but peoples' fears about job loss are very real. Bush has succeeded in exploiting those fears by using the promise of job creation to justify his tax cuts for the rich.

I'm not one to criticize someone for creating jobs, but how do we know whether the Pres is telling the truth? Are his tax cuts really creating jobs? Enquring minds want to know.

To the rescue rides the Economic Policy Institute with its Job Watch web page.

JobWatch tracks job growth and measures it against the number of jobs the Bush Administration said would be created when their 2003 tax cut proposal was passed by Congress. Specifically, the Bush Administration has claimed that when the cuts went into effect the economy would create 5.5 million jobs from July 2003 through the end of 2004.

Oh, and to answer my question...I was shocked, SHOCKED to find out that Bush was lying wrong. From June through September instead of the 918,000 new jobs that were promised, 41,000 jobs were lost.

So that means, let's see...carry the one...that he's off by only 959,000 jobs.

And here's what the leader of the repeal of the Washington State ergonomics standard said yesterday:

"It absolutely means more jobs," said Tom McCabe, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington, repeating the theme the powerful homebuilders group used so often during the campaign. "Jobs was the message here, that message resonated with the voters."

Anyone want to volunteer to keep track?

Washington Ergo Initiative on Lehrer

For what it's worth, here is a segment on the Washington State ergonomics referendum from last night's Lehrer Newshour on PBS.

What Is To Be Done?

Any brilliant ideas for the future, silver linings, groundbreaking strategies re. ergonomics? E-Mail Me. Maybe I'll get out of my funk and be able to pull it all together and write something at some point.

The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing -- for the sheer fun and joy of it -- to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it.

-- I.F. Stone

Workplace ergonomics rules repealed

OLYMPIA -- Washington state's sweeping workplace ergonomics rules - which survived lawsuits and a multiyear assault in the Legislature - succumbed to a million-dollar initiative campaign.

Voters Tuesday approved Initiative 841, repealing rules aimed at protecting workers from injuries caused by heavy lifting, repetitive motion and awkward working positions in their jobs.

With more than half of the expected vote counted, I-841 was drawing 53 percent support.

Worker's Getting Screwed...So What Else is New? In Houston, Someone Seems to Care

A collegue recently pointed me toward a continuing series in the Houston Chronicle about the conditions workers face today. The author of these articles, including the workers compensation article posted below, is written by Houston Chronicle reporter L.M. Sixel.

One of the best deals with safety incentive programs:

True path to safety is likely not lined with big prizes

For the past few months, employees heading into work at the Lyondell-Citgo refinery would walk past a shiny new four-door Ford pickup and Chevrolet Silverado parked at the front gate.

The trucks, loaded with accessories, were a delicious reminder that if the plant hit 1 million man-hours without a recordable injury, one lucky employee would win either the Ford or the Chevy or another $30,000 vehicle of his choice in a drawing.

Plant officials hoped that by giving away an expensive vehicle, like the Ford F150 pickup it awarded last year, the company could reinforce the importance of workplace safety. It was a way of staying focused, a refinery spokesman said.

But to some employees, the display of the fancy trucks was a subtle reminder not to report any injuries. Otherwise they'd face the wrath of their peers, who'd like to park one of those trucks in their own driveway.

"Unless you're bleeding or a bone is sticking out," most employees preferred to keep quiet and see their personal physicians, said process operator David Taylor, who is also a member of the Paperworkers, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Local 4-227 workers committee.

Others include

Efficiency's up but morale's down at Lyondell-Citgo

From all appearances, life looks normal at the Lyondell-Citgo Refinery on the Houston Ship Channel.

The PACE union flag flies in front of the sprawling refinery off Texas 225, and union members sit alongside management representatives on key safety committees.

But union representatives and rank-and-file employees say the atmosphere between labor and management has turned poisonous.

The workers say many of their colleagues have been unfairly terminated, a sizable portion of the plant has been disciplined and an atmosphere of fear has pervaded the refinery.


Hispanics still face more deaths, injuries on the job

It's a story I have written year after year. But for Hispanics, the dangers at work don't seem to decline.

Hispanics are more likely to die or get hurt on the job than any other ethnic group, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. And while the fatality rates for blacks and non-Hispanic whites have fallen over the past 10 years, it's barely changed for Hispanics.

To make matters worse, Hispanics are also less likely to have health insurance, so many don't get screened for major health problems such as diabetes and hypertension, according to a new study by Circadian Technologies, a Boston-based consulting firm.


The price for working at night may be your health

ABOUT 20 percent of us toil outside the traditional 9-to-5 routine as more and more companies embrace the concept of working around the clock. And according to a new study, that's causing major health problems.

As more people work evening and overnight shifts at call centers, retailers and bank processing centers, they're suffering from higher rates of gastrointestinal troubles, cardiovascular diseases and sleep disorders than their counterparts who are home in time to watch the 6 p.m. news.


State safety mandate little-know and less enforced

TEXAS has had a law on the books since 1989 requiring cranes to have insulators that prevent deaths from contact with power lines.

But those who should know about the device, which could have prevented some of the state's 30 construction-related electrocutions in the past three years, don't.

Safety consultants, union officials and some operators of the machines contend that few of the cranes working in Texas have the protective device.

And government safety experts and agencies differ on which is responsible for the problem.

And this is one of my favorites:

Law firm sees niche in 'dead peasant' policy defense

A few months ago, only a handful of people had ever heard of "dead peasant" life insurance.

But word has gotten out now that Wal-Mart and a few other companies have been sued for taking out secret life insurance policies on their employees and keeping the proceeds when the workers die.

This is great stuff. Makes you wonder why more newspapers aren't encouraging reporters to do the same thing.

Stop Bleeding and Sign Here

When workers compensation was created early in the last century, the deal was that workers would give up the right to sue and employers would compensate workers for any injuries (or illnesses?) suffered on the job, no questions asked. It hasn't worked out to be quite that clean, but that's basically the deal today. And in 49 states, employers are required to provide workers compensation insurance for their employees.

In the 50th state, Texas, employers can go without workers comp, but workers then have the right to sue. Or do they?

Martha McJimsey was pulling brains out of cow carcasses coming down the line at IBP in Amarillo when she split one of her fingers wide open.

But before a nurse would stop the bleeding and stitch her up, McJimsey had to sign a waiver promising not to sue the company now called Tyson Fresh Meats.

It didn't matter that her right hand -- her writing hand -- was dripping blood. A company representative simply put a pen in her left hand and told her to sign.

"You have to sign a waiver every time you get hurt," said McJimsey, who consented to four post-injury waivers during her 25 years at the plant. "The only excuse is if you're completely unconscious."

McJimsey said her union representative assured her not to worry because she was signing the waiver under duress and that should she decide later to sue, it wouldn't stand up in court. To her surprise, the 59-year-old, who has since left the company, later discovered the waiver was valid and she had no legal right to sue.

"NAM Members Score Another Major Victory on Ergonomics;" Workers Take It In The Teeth Again

From the NAM (National Association of Manufacturers) webpage. Need we say more than we've already said...except that I was too nice last time.

WASHINGTON STATE ERGONOMICS REFERENDUM TODAY

Washington state voters will decide today whether or not to repeal the nation's only comprehensive, preventive ergonomics standard. As I've written before, the stakes are extemely high, not just for workering people in Washington state, but ultimately for workers throughtout the entire country.

This Olympian article describes the election as

A costly battle over Initiative 841 on Tuesday's general election ballot pits the state's grocers, home builders and other worried industries against the state's labor unions.

Actually, to be more precise, it pits industry associations and their misinformed members against hundreds of thousands of workers doing jobs every day that may lead to completely preventable disabilities, workers who have no one to speak for them except labor unions.

It's hard to know what will happen, or how big the turnout will be, but this column from The Olympian may describe how most voters are responding to today's election:

Initiative 841, which would repeal a Washington state ergonomics regulation and prevent the adoption of new regulations until a uniform federal standard is required, has some people scratching their heads.

"It's a confusing one for a lot of voters," said [said County Auditor Kim Wyman].

"People are asking simple questions, like what is ergonomics."

Despite the confusion of many voters, the referendum has shaped up into a titanic and expensive battle

I-841 has attracted a coalition of business groups led by the Building Industry Association of Washington, which has provided more than $800,000 of the coalition's $1.4 million campaign financing. The measure is on the ballot thanks to paid signature gatherers.

The Washington State Labor Council and other worker groups have lined up against I-841, raising more than $510,000 for their campaign.

Like the battle against the federal ergonomics compaign, the campaign to pass Initiative 841, as well as the process to encourage voters to sign petitions to put the referendum on the ballot have been supported by a back-breaking stack of lies by the business associations supporting I-841.

In the past week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has come out against the initiative ("Initiative 841 runs roughshod over the working public's right to safety, the normal processes of government and the state's power, ") and the U.S. Navy has adopted the Washington state standard.

For what it's worth, the small town, conservative Wenatchee World is favoring repeal of the standard. What's interesting about the Wenatchee World's editorial is how the paper has been totally captured by the industry's most effective (il)logic. For example:

You might think, with Washington state's unemployment among nation's worst and its economy barely qualified as stagnant, our government would not volunteer us to pioneer efforts to regulate when, how, and for how long employees may do a particular job.

Two things about this paragraph.

1. Note the traditional job blackmail that industry has used since the dawn of time to oppose workplace safety and environmental regulations: Get rid of this job killer or you'll be out on the street.

2. By killing the federal standard and scaring other states out of passing new ergonomic standards, they are able to argue that Washington is a "pioneer" in a dangerous, unique experiment. Which is exactly why it's so important to defeat this referendum -- to give courage to other states to follow Washington's example.

Whether such a system will do much to reduce worker injuries is debatable.

3. Not really. The National Academy of Sciences has done two major literature review at the request of Congress, and NIOSH has also done a review, all showing the connection between workplace stressors and musculoskeletal injuries, as well as the fact that ergonomics measures prevent these injures.

But there is little doubt that for business the rules and dictates will add to an already considerable regulatory burden, and add considerably to the expense of putting people to work.

4. Au contraire. In fact, there is little doubt that these rules will save businesses far more in workers comp and other savings than they will cost to implement. (See here as well.)

Washington state is not in a position to add to the expense of employing workers. It is not in a position to be the only state in the nation with such workplace rules. Our growing reputation as a poor place to do business will only be enhanced. We will be known as the only state that put in force ergonomic regulations even more strict than those already rejected by the federal government as onerous. Having lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, it is irresponsible to put more at risk unnecessarily.

See Nos. 1 and 2 above.

How great the risks may be is difficult to discern. The business opponents of the ergonomic regulations, the proponents of the initiative, are called liars by their labor union opponents, and the compliment is returned. Estimates of the expense of implementing the regulations vary widely - $80 million, says the Department of Labor and Industries; $700 million say studies for business. Whichever figure is closer to truth seems irrelevant to the question of whether such regulations are wise in the current circumstances.

5. Actually, the supporters of this initiative ARE liars. It's been documented, proven and admitted.

6. True, there is some "controversy" over the true costs of this regulations. But, again, they are liars. And if you don't believe what the Department of Labor and Industries says, check out how even Bush's regulatory Czar, John Graham now confirms the propensity of both industry and government to overestimate the cost of environmental and workplace safety regulations.

7. How can the truth be "irrelevant" when the right decision will not only save employers money, but save workers' backs. What's not "wise" for businesses is to believe the propaganda and ignore the facts.

In fact, the regulations may serve no useful purpose. Businesses have immense incentive to make their workplaces safer and see to it workers are less likely to be injured.

8. Immense incentives? What? Like workers comp? That's a laugh. When you have plenty of low-wage workers, many of whom need a job, any job, and others of whom may be illegal, you have an "immense incentive" to get rid of the ones who are injured or complaining and sign up the next desparate crowd.

It's true that individual employers are learning the value of ergonomics, especially those with more highly skilled workers, but there are still far too many who are either too cheap, or find their low-income employees expendable, or believe the industry line that there is no science behind ergonomics.

The fact is that the Washington Department of Labor and Industries has gone far beyond the call of duty to study and explain the reasoning behind this standard and how to make it work.

And if the Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation for Independent Businesses and Building Industry Association of Washington want to do their members a real service, they would hold up the Washington Department of Labor and Industries as a model of how regulations should be issued and supported.

But these associations make far more money and generate far more dependent members by exploiting the fears of their members than by working out ways to make their businesses profitable while protecting their employees at the same time.

Good jobs, safe jobs, and successful businesses are not incompatible, as many businesses know. But this country is not about protecting only those workers who are lucky enough to work for enlightened employers. The right to a safe workplace belongs to everyone* and it sometimes takes regulations to make it happen.

We should all be thanking the state of Washington for having the courage to make it happen. Other states should use them as a model. And businesses -- large and small -- should wake up and force their associations to honestly represent their interests instead of just stoking their fears.



*except public employees in most states.

One Year From Today...

The presidential election is only (only!) one year from today. But for those of you who are sticklers, only 444 days, 13 hours, 18 minutes, 22 seconds until Inauguration Day 2005, according to Smirking Chimp.

UAW Newsletter on Metalworking Fluids

In honor of their lawsuit against OSHA. Here.

Filbustering the Courts or Back to the Past

Nathan Newman has a good post on how the Bushniks want to use the courts to take us (even further) backwards in worker and labor rights and why keeping those right-wing nutcases out of the courts is important.

European Commission REACHES Compromise Agreement on Chemical Policy

As expected, the European Commission issued its proposal to overhaul the way Europe tests and approves potentially hazardous chemicals.

If adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, the REACH policy — Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals — will be the world's most comprehensive regulation governing the use of chemicals. It would have major effects on American industries that sell a variety of products in Europe, from computers to pesticides, and the Bush administration and U.S. chemical industry have joined forces to campaign against it

As I've written before (most recently here and here) this system would overturn the chemical approval system which currently considers chemicals innocent until proven guilty. As in the U.S., current policy requires new chemicals to undergo comprehensive testing, but existing hazardous chemicals are extremely difficult to restrict.

One in every five high-volume chemicals lacks even basic toxicity data, while only 14% have good data, said Finn Bro-Rasmussen, professor emeritus of Technical University of Denmark. He estimated that almost half should be classified as hazardous. The authorization process is the most worrisome part of the proposal for U.S. industries. European Union officials estimate that 300 to 600 compounds would be withdrawn from commerce.

The proposal, already a product of compromise, still has many hurdles to overcome before it is finalized. According to the NY Times,

In a sign of the hurdles still facing the proposed legislation - which now must wend its way through a lengthy approval process in the European Parliament - environmental advocates accused the commission of caving to industry, saying the proposal does not go far enough in eliminating health risks.

Some chemicals companies in the multibillion euro industry, meanwhile, said the proposal would heap red tape and hefty expenses on them without providing any benefit to consumers or the environment.

The plan also met with resistance from Britain, France and Germany, homes to some of union's biggest chemicals companies. These countries have already expressed concern about the proposed legislation on the industry, according to a European diplomat.

The American Chemical Council declared itself "unimpressed" with the compromises made in the final proposal and warned of a trade war:

“Kafka would have been proud of the EU process. The Commissioners have said they want to create an efficient, workable and cost-effective system, but the present proposal is none of these, and they asked stakeholders for their opinion, which they immediately ignored,” said ACC President and CEO Greg Lebedev. “A few tweaks do not change a fundamentally flawed proposal.”

In tones vaguely reminiscent of the 1990's when American industry and Republicans in Congress called for repeated studies in order to slow OSHA's ergonomics and tuberculosis standards, Lebedev as called for a "a legitimate study of the impact of this proposal before the EU plunges headlong into a complicated new regulatory scheme that will confound its global trading partners.”

Lebedev might want to consult his own webpage which links the European Commission's Impact Analysis of the Revised REACH Proposal.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, on the other hand "voted 10-1 on Oct. 28 to adopt a resolution supporting a proposed European Union law to control hazardous chemicals."

"San Francisco recently became the first city in the nation to adopt the Precautionary Principle as a guidepost for city policy," according to San Francisco Supervisor Jake McGoldrick. "Now by supporting REACH we can take another step forward in protecting our communities from toxics chemicals."