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TechnoratiIn a recent six-part series, the Charlotte Observer exposes the horrendous working conditions of Carolina poultry workers, suffering among other things from unreported injuries, exploitation and medical neglect.
Looking at the latest Labor Department blunder involving its failure to protect poultry workers, it is clear that OSHA, the federal agency in charge of enforcing safety and health protections, has abandoned its job. The blame for these failures falls at the feet of our Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao.
Elaine Chao's 'leadership' at the Department of Labor should not be emulated by anyone. She has undermined the agency and repeatedly failed to serve in the best interests of workers she is charged with protecting.
As the executive director of a nonprofit organization, I have to hold myself accountable to my staff, board of directors, and donors in order to get my job done. When any problem emerges affecting the ability of our organization to fulfill our mission, I'm ultimately responsible for the outcome.
However challenging carrying out those responsibilities can be, I am humbled and inspired by the women who paved the way for me to serve in a top post. Frances Perkins is a perfect example. As the Secretary of Labor during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency and the first woman to hold a cabinet post, Perkins defined a style of leadership to which all women can aspire. Her legacy of improving workers' lives during a challenging period in American history set a standard for how the Secretary of Labor - and all women in public service - should perform their responsibilities.
But Chao's tenure as Secretary of Labor is stained with dismantling critical mine safety protections, displaying open hostility toward workers and their unions, and collaborating with corporate interests, most notably through her husband, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Her embarrassing legacy shows a complete lack of accountability at the Department of Labor.
That's not all. Some of the most disturbing examples of where Elaine Chao's priorities lie include:
•Hiring a former colleague from the Heritage Foundation, D. Mark Wilson, who actually wrote a report titled "How to close down the Department of Labor."
•Cutting over 100 inspectors at the Mine Safety and Health Administration and, as a result, hundreds of mines weren't inspected and tragedies such as Sago and Crandall Canyon might have been prevented.
•Failing to issue a rule requiring employers pay for their workers' safety gear -- contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
•Having an auditorium at the University of Louisville named in her honor, compliments of her husband's $14.2 million earmark, at taxpayers' expense. Elaine never attended the university, although it is her husband's alma mater.
Yet there has been little outcry to date over Elaine Chao's numerous abuses of power and fundamental lack of oversight for workers. Unlike her cohorts in the Bush administration, Chao has escaped much-needed public scrutiny of her time on the job.
For the well-being of America's workers and for the sake of the Labor Department itself, this must change.
Americans deserve a Secretary of Labor who can provide a well-balanced approach to the interests of both business and labor, not an ideologue with a blatant political agenda. Frances Perkins kept that balance, and helped pull our nation out of its worst economic catastrophe in history.
As more and more people learn about the mess Elaine's made of the Department of Labor, the more people get outraged. That's why American Rights at Work is putting pressure on Elaine Chao to change course during her remaining year on the job. By demanding accountability and setting the standard for how our next Secretary of Labor should manage the Labor Department, we hope to end the dreadful experience America's workers have endured for the past seven years.
Visit ShameOnElaine.org to learn more about Elaine Chao's record, our campaign to hold her accountable, and ways you can become involved.
Mary Beth Maxwell is the Executive Director of American Rights at Work, a national advocacy organization launched in 2003 to advance workers' rights to freely and fairly form unions.
Copyright © 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
8 Comments so far
Show All...and the wonderful part is, you pay her to do that. Your tax dollars at work.
Kinda reminds me of the Inquisition, where the accused had to pay for all the instruments used to work her/him over.
LIMRIC - indeed, it's been a VRWC all along, but hose who said so were dismissed as paranoiacs.
The continuing dismantling of federal regulatory agencies is an outrage. I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton but she was correct in saying that there is a vast right wing conspiracy. Listen to the speech by Paul Krugman (link below).
http://wordforword.publicradio.org/programs/2007/11/09/
This article and Ms. Chao's conduct is very instructive of how neocons destroy government regulation without repealing laws. They simply defund enfordcement, push the idea of "bringing into compliance" (a nice way of saying "buy your way out of getting caught)instead of punitive remedy for lawbreakers.
It doesn't matter whether it's the DOL. the Bureau of Mines, the EPA, DOJ civil rights division, or (especially) the Pentagon, the regulations remain and the watch dogs are leashed and muzzled. And trusting people are hurt or die needlessly.
Chimp's appointed insurgents hastened more efficient kleptocracy at the DOL. The end result of graft and corruption, of course, is punishment thrown back and carried by the proletariat. Terrorism for the "middle class."
Bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement - sound like the mafia or the DOL under Cho?
Decreasing social rights; what other victory can this administration claim as it's greatest triumph?
GW BUSH's appointees are people he identifies with and they, he.
Birds of a feather in this administration are cold-hearted, inhumane, ruthless, self-serving people with a penchant for doing violence to others ... sort of like sticking little firecrackers in the mouths of frogs and blowing them up and enjoying it.
Hello, little boy George. Little brown people, black people, yellow people, poor people, people who have oil under their land, people who worship Allah, lots of different kinds of people, especially those who don't agree with you... are even more fun to do in than froggies. It makes being a DICTATOR a real trip. And now you have lots of the same kind of people all around you ... THE BLOWING UP FROGGIES GANG! Fun and Games!
Condi, Dick, Richard, Paul, Michael, Ken, Henry, Donald, Karl, Elaine, et al. and most of The Supremes ... Sha-BOOM ... Sha-BOOM Yaditty Yaditty Ding Dong ...
And how do they all sleep at night? Have a heart, ... theirs are out of commission, maybe in a box on their respective nightstands getting electrically charged.
SHA-BOOMMMMMMMMMMM!
Elaine Chao's brief when brought into the DOL was to cripple it. Mission Accomplished.
ditto...all there has been in the DOL are budget cuts over the last 7 years. No training, a shortage of equipment, low morale, and many new recruits are leaving for the private industry or other agencies.
As a retired Federal Wage-Hour investigator, Chao was ostensibly my last boss. As it goes with every Republican administration, the DOL takes a back seat - protecting workers is certainly not a high priority for them. They appoint a Secretary from the corporate world, often one whose job was battling unions and arguing against worker's rights (Bush's MSHA head is a great example), slash the DOL budget, cut penalties, and curtail enforcement in favor of corporate self-oversight; in other words, they put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Reagan came in and immediately called a halt to pending reforms left over from the Carter days; some of those improvements have yet to be implemented.
Dems, on the other hand, see the DOL as an easy an obvious agent for social change, so they appoint an activist Secretary and bring in a whole gang of movers and shakers who figure they know how to do our jobs better than we do; however, the budget boost is often minor. So the DOL goes from apathy to frenetic activity depending on who's party is in the White House. Chao, given seven years to stifle, stagnate, and stultify her department, has done an excellent job for the Republican party, the Bush administration, and their corporate overlords.