OSHA At The Dawn of the Obama Administration
Jordan Barab
OSHA: An agency that is ripe for an overhaul
With a new administration about to take office and a renewed public concern about safety, the Democratic-controlled Congress stands on the cusp of a true overhaul of OSHA.
But to make needed changes, Democrats will have to have the spine for it. The path to overhaul OSHA has been littered with ill-fated legislation drawn up by lawmakers who failed to understand the perilous politics surrounding the agency that go back to its beginning.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/30/osha-agency-ripe-overhaul/
WASHINGTON — The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job. The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says that in assessing the risk from a particular substance, federal agencies should gather and analyze "industry-by-industry evidence" of employees' exposure to it during their working lives. The proposal would, in many cases, add a step to the lengthy process of developing standards to protect workers' health.
Public health officials and labor unions said the rule would delay needed protections for workers, resulting in additional deaths and illnesses. With the economy tumbling and American troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush has promised to cooperate with Mr. Obama to make the transition "as smooth as possible." But that has not stopped his administration from trying, in its final days, to cement in place a diverse array of new regulations.
The administration cut several proposals that would have increased safety in the construction industry, which is a concern in Las Vegas. During boom times, more than 10 percent of the Las Vegas workforce has been employed in construction. After Bush took office, OSHA ended work on plans that would have increased protection for workers on scaffolding, as well as a requirement that would have added protection for workers on residential construction projects. The agency also shelved a mandate to make construction companies participate in safety programs designed "to reduce the incidence of occupational deaths, injuries, and illnesses."
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/dec/02/worker-safety-eroded-during-bush-years/
Obama needs to bail out workers
By Derrick Z. Jackson
HAVING rolled out Warren Buffett and the economic wizards and Hillary Clinton and the security squad, President-elect Obama needs a press conference to roll out Joe the Plumber. No, not that Joe! That was bipartisanship over the edge when we discovered he was unlicensed, owed back taxes, had no business plan, would have done better under Obama's tax plan than John McCain's, and then campaigned with McCain to call Obama a socialist.
I'm talking about the Joes in chemical plants, the Janes in food plants, the Jamilas on service-center keyboards, and the Josés on construction sites.
One of the Bush administration's final gifts to American workers is a rule to make it even more difficult to prove the dangers of workplace chemicals. Instead of regulating a chemical based on basic human risk to its exposure, the administration would add a requirement that risk data must first be compiled industry-by-industry. The New York Times reported this week that "Administration officials acknowledge that such data did not always exist."
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/12/02/obama_needs_to_bail_out_workers?mode=PF--
Jordan Barab