occupational fatalities and OSHA

[Guest guest]

More bad news from 2004...

ptember 21, 2005

/thehill/opencms/TheHill/Comment/OpEd/index.html

To make American workers safer,

strengthen OSHA

By Rep. Major Owens (D-N.Y.)

The overall fatality rate for U.S.

workers shot up last year for the first time since 1994. This reversal of

a decade-long decline in worker death rates hit certain groups harder

than others.

The fatality rate for Latino workers, for example, climbed from 4.5 to

4.9 percent in 2004, and the total number killed surged even higher, by

an alarming 11 percent. Fatal falls soared by 17 percent last year, the

highest number on record for this category. Worker deaths in

manufacturing jumped up by 9 percent and those in construction by 8

percent.

The total number of Americans killed on the job in 2004 increased for the

second year in a row, reaching 5,703. Bear in mind that every year the

number of U.S. workers killed on the job is twice or three times higher

than the tragic total of U.S. casualties during the first three years of

this war in Iraq.

Actions taken by the Bush White House and House Republican leadership

ignore these dramatic facts about American workplace fatalities. In the

first session of the 109th Congress, House Republicans sponsored and

secured passage of four bills aimed at gutting the Occupational Safety

and Health Act and its implementing agency, the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration (OSHA).

Contrary to what the Republican political leadership and corporate

lobbyists assert, the best way to improve safety on the job in the United

States is to strengthen OSHA, not to weaken it.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree that, under current staffing

levels, it would take the OSHA staff 108 years to inspect every workplace

in America. Yet a Government Accountability Office study released in 2004

documented that the Bush-appointed political chiefs at OSHA continue to

slash resources dedicated to inspection and enforcement but increase

those for voluntary employer “compliance” programs.

Moreover, one Republican bill, H.R. 742, that recently passed the House

would tie OSHA inspectors’ hands further. Whenever citations are

downgraded on a technicality during administrative or court proceedings,

this bill mandates that OSHA, out of its own budget, reimburse the

employer for attorney fees, even when OSHA’s initial actions were

entirely reasonable.

All this amounts to a concerted, Republican-led effort to hinder OSHA’s

work so that it becomes a toothless and irrelevant agency. Although such

Republican efforts may please well-heeled corporate lobbyists, they are

not supported by hardworking Americans and their families.

By passing bills that undermine OSHA, the House Republican leadership is

ignoring the wishes of the constituents who voted them into office. The

American people are serious about seeing tougher laws enacted to improve

safety on- the-job. As revealed in an April 2005 poll sponsored by The

Wall Street Journal, hardly a “liberal” publication, 84 percent of those

surveyed want lawmakers to pass legislation ensuring safer workplaces in

America.

The American public understands that the most dangerous jobs here at home

are not those focused on fighting terrorism or combating violent

criminals. Rather, they are the everyday jobs held by construction

workers, loggers, truck drivers, farmers and others. Workers are killed

in New York City scaffolding cave-ins as well as Wyoming logging

collapses. As recent newspaper headlines about worker deaths in Texas,

New York and Ohio have revealed, American workers are too often killed or

severely injured by employers with lengthy histories of similar offenses.

As opposed to random accidents, these worker deaths are tragic

certainties.

America lags behind the rest of the Western industrialized world in

curbing workplace fatalities and injuries. An American construction

worker is twice as likely to be killed on the job as one in Britain and

four times as likely as one in Belgium. Likewise, safety records for the

same international corporation vary in accordance with the toughness of

workplace safety laws in different countries.

British Petroleum operations in the United States and Britain provide an

apt example. In March 2005, 15 workers were killed and more than 150

injured in a massive BP refinery blast in Texas City, Texas. A

preliminary investigation indicates that faulty equipment was a key

factor in this terrible explosion.

In September 2004, OSHA had already fined the same BP plant $100,000 for

safety violations that killed two workers. Clearly, the plant in Texas is

a repeat offender whose safety violations kill and maim workers. Contrast

this to the BP operations in Britain, where staff work on hazardous

offshore oil rigs and not one was killed on the job in 2004.

Democrats understand that to make Americans safer on the job you must

support and not undermine OSHA. I have been joined by other Democrats in

sponsoring the Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2004), a bill to

restore and reinforce critical workplace safety policies and

programs.

The bill breaks new ground by extending OSHA coverage to millions of

unprotected state and federal workers and stiffening criminal penalties

for corporate manslaughter. The bill improves whistleblower protection

and gives surviving family members of any worker killed on the job the

right to participate in OSHA investigations and penalty determinations.

It also requires employers to supply all workers with personal protective

equipment. In short, this Democratic bill would strengthen OSHA, not

weaken it.

The American people have expressed overwhelming support for strengthening

health and safety in the workplace. They understand that the unholy deal

to weaken OSHA launched by corporate special interests and the

Republican-controlled Congress will come literally at the expense of

workers’ lives. Hard-working Americans and their families deserve far,

far better. They deserve workforce protections of the highest, 21st

century calibre.

Owens is the senior Democrat on

the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.

Adrienne DerVartanian

Staff Attorney/Policy Analyst

Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc.

1010 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 915

Washington, DC 20005

Tel. (202) 783-2628, ext. 204

Fax (202) 783-2561

www.fwjustice.org

Deputy Director

Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc.

1010 Vermont Avenue N.W.

Suite 915

Washington, DC 20005

202-783-2628 Voice

202-783-2561 Fax

www.fwjustice.org

sdavis@...