Occupational Safety and Health

UAW members, like all American workers, continue to suffer injury, illness and death from workplace health and safety problems. Ergonomic risks still cause the majority of disabling workplace injuries. Chemical exposures permitted by weak OSHA standards make workers sick and cause the majority of known work-related deaths. Violations of poorly enforced OSHA standards result in deaths. Occupational transmission of infectious disease to health care workers threatens not only those workers, but also patients and the public health.

Since the Bush administration took office, there has been a steady erosion of worker health and safety protections. The new rules for employers reporting injuries have permitted companies to cover up ergonomic problems. Meanwhile, OSHA has steadfastly refused to issue any meaningful new ergonomic standards to require employers to address this enormous problem.

Under the Bush administration, voluntary efforts and partnerships with employers have been favored over mandatory standards and industrywide enforcement initiatives. This approach has led to OSHA abandoning its leadership role in safety and health rather than taking action to bring about positive changes in work conditions nationally.

The United States has seen several mine disasters over the past two years. These mine disasters serve to remind the public that little is being done to protect American workers from death and injury on the job. It is clear that worker safety continues to be compromised due to the lack of OSHA enforcement. Increasingly, many employers are moving to shift responsibility for job injuries to workers by focusing on worker behavior instead of hazardous conditions. It has become common practice to replace OSHA enforcement with an increasing number of employer-dominated health and safety programs using behavior-based safety techniques in place of sound safety principles based on hazard identification and control.

The Bush administration has continued their refusal to move forward with new chemical exposure standards, despite overwhelming evidence that the current standards do not go far enough in protecting America’s workers. For example, when air sampling was done around the World Trade Center site, the levels of toxic pollutants in the air met the current standards, most of which are based on standards developed in the late 1960s. But there are now reports of numerous people involved in the rescue and recovery efforts who have developed debilitating illnesses associated with those activities and some have even died as a result. At a minimum, there clearly is a pressing need for legislation to provide medical screening, monitoring, treatment and compensation for WTC responders.

President Bush has appointed only individuals who are committed to protecting corporations to OSHA, the Labor Department, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). These individuals are hostile to workplace safety and health standards and have little to no regard for the health and well-being of America’s workers. The Bush Labor Department has stopped considering new standards to protect workers, including chemical standards. We also have seen a continual decline in enforcement of OSHA protections under the Bush administration.

In 2007 the Bush administration again proposed zeroing out funding for union-based safety and health training, and drastically cutting funding for the safety and health of workers generally. Fortunately, with the Democrat-controlled Congress we were able to save these vital training programs. But we still need to remain vigilant against more assaults by the administration against worker protections and health and safety issues.

Now that the Democrats control Congress, we will be working with our progressive allies to support legislation to increase workforce health and safety protections. We will urge our allies to hold oversight hearings and investigations that will address standards setting, whistleblower protections for workers who raise job safety concerns, OSHA enforcement and stronger worker protections overall.

Action

Chemical Security

It has been more than five years since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. During that time, Congress had debated how to secure the nation’s chemical facilities from terrorists. In the 110th Congress, the UAW and our progressive allies have renewed the fight for stronger chemical security legislation to help secure chemical plants against terrorist attacks. Unlike previous watered-down chemical security proposals, we have been able to get legislation introduced that would require high-risk facilities to consider safer chemicals or processes to protect surrounding communities.

We also have fought to have water and wastewater facilities that had previously been exempt from regulations included in this chemical security regulation. Additionally, this legislation emphasizes the use of safer technologies and includes worker involvement in the planning and development of chemical security plans.

Action

Pandemic Flu

As a nation, we continue to face the risk of a potentially deadly influenza pandemic. Although attention has been focused on the deadly avian flu virus (H5N1) that is spreading in Asia, Europe and Africa through migratory and domestic birds, experts believe the world is overdue for an influenza pandemic of some sort – and we need to be prepared.

In the event of an outbreak, UAW members who are first responders and emergency service workers will be on the front lines of responding to this emergency. If and when an outbreak occurs, it is imperative that the necessary resources and equipment are immediately available to protect front-line workers from the deadly viruses.

The most recent planning and preparation by the Bush administration related to pandemic flu fails to address the occupational threat faced by health care workers and others who will play a critical role in the public health response to an outbreak. This most recent plan recommends that health care workers and emergency responders wear a surgical mask for protection. The UAW and our progressive allies believe that this reliance on surgical masks violates the OSHA respiratory protection standard.

Instead of this approach, we believe that OSHA should adopt a comprehensive emergency temporary standard that would, at a minimum, require a comprehensive exposure control plan. The exposure control plan should include: 1) control methods, including appropriate respiratory protection; 2) medical surveillance and vaccinations; 3) housekeeping; 4) communication of hazards and training; and 5) recordkeeping. The exposure control plan should be designed to determine in advance of an outbreak which workers are at risk and the activities and operations that put them at risk. The exposure control plan should also include an exposure assessment and a schedule for implementing requirements for compliance. Control methods should include engineering and administrative controls, and personal protective equipment.

Action