SHAME ON ELAINE!
Web site details actions of (anti) labor secretary
You could be forgiven for assuming the U.S. Department of Labor might actually be about the taxpayers who perform the labor.
And you would be wrong.
Under anti-Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, the government agency has rolled back critical mine safety programs, diluted ergonomics safety laws, advised big business on how to avoid paying workers overtime, supported suspension of prevailing wage laws in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and myriad other actions against America’s workers.
In response, American Rights at Work launched ShameOnElaine.org, a Web site detailing the egregious anti-worker actions of President Bush’s longest-serving Cabinet member.
American Rights at Work, created in 2003 to advance democracy in the workplace, said it wants to give people the opportunity to weigh in on Chao's legacy.
"Americans deserve a secretary of labor who can provide a well-balanced approach to the interests of both business and labor," says executive director Mary Beth Maxwell, "not an ideologue with a blatant political agenda."
Chao is steeped in conservative ideology. She was a Distinguished Fellow with the Heritage Foundation, considered one of the world's most influential right-wing think tanks, and is married to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has voted against workers 89 percent of the time he's held office.
ShameOnElaine is a campaign that builds on American Rights at Work’s role in monitoring the National Labor Relations Board and exposing other anti-union forces.
In Chao's case, there's plenty to monitor. Take the Feb. 7 explosion at the Imperial Sugar Co. refinery in Savannah, Ga., which killed 13 and injured dozens of others. Investigators confirm the blast was caused by airborne sugar dust, a form of combustible dust which can ignite easily unless precautions are taken.
In the first two months of 2008 there were already 11 workplace fires or explosions that generate combustible dust.
Yet when Chao was petitioned two years ago to issue emergency standards regulating exposure to combustible dust, she failed to do so.
Go see for yourself: ShameOnElaine.org.