| WASHINGTON
- June 7 - Responding to the Bush Administration’s announcement today
that it plans to hold additional public forums to determine whether or not the
federal government should regulate workplace safety conditions, U.S. Senator
Paul Wellstone (D-MN), imminent Chairman of the Employment, Safety, and Training
subcommittee, strongly criticized the decision as a blow to working men and
women across America. Wellstone said the announcement was a continuation of the
Bush Administration strategy to overturn ten years of work by the Department of
Labor on workplace injuries, and countless studies and broad consultation with
employers across the country, begun under Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole in the
early 1990s.
“This time-line and framework is just a continuation of the White House's effort
to delay and forestall effective action to address the hundreds of thousands of
needless ergonomics injuries that take place each year. This Administration and
the then-Republican Congress killed the regulation that represented the correct
approach. Ergonomics injuries are the biggest job safety and health problem in
our country today. We already have an exhaustive record , including a National
Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine report, which unambiguously shows
that exposure to hazards in the workplace causes ergonomic disorders, and that
these injuries can be prevented. We don't need more study -- we need action --
now,” Wellstone said.
The first substantive piece of legislation that President Bush signed was a bill
overturning OSHA's ergonomics standard; a rule that was ten years in the making
that the Republican-controlled House and Senate overturned after just 11 hours
of debate. Since President Bush and Congressional Republicans killed the
ergonomics rule, it is estimated that 376,000 workers have been injured in the
workplace. Every year 1.8 million workers incur ergonomics injuries -- 600,000
of these serious enough to require time off from work. Since 1990 six million
workers have suffered serious injuries from exposure to ergonomics hazards. The
ergonomics rule would net businesses an average of $4.6 billion in savings every
year over the next ten years. The standard was developed with extensive public
input, including five public hearings, 700 witnesses and 8000 written comments.
"I intend to make sure that the Senate's Employment, Safety and Training
Subcommittee is a forum where working people's health and safety, and working
families' standard of living, is put first. We're going to be looking closely at
the Administration's actions on ergonomic injuries very soon," Wellstone
said.
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