Death and the Bush Administration (18 workers so far this year in cranes)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/08/03/death-and-the-bush-administration/

by Tula Connell, Aug 3, 2008

Last week, a confluence of events reminded the U.S. public that it’s not just the food we eat that’s increasingly dangerous in our daily lives—inadequate safety on the job still is killing America’s working people.

The week ended with two more deaths from construction cranes, this time in Illinois. These fatalities came within days of four deaths due to a crane collapse in Houston—and raises to 18 the number of workers who died from crane-related deaths so far this year, according to an estimate by The Wall Street Journal, which doesn’t include bystander deaths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ARkEuNux8&eurl=http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=817

Also last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued 120 citations for safety violations at the Imperial Sugar Co. plant in Port Wentworth, Ga., where high levels of sugar dust fueled an explosion Feb. 7 that killed 13 workers. OSHA fined the company $5 million—but refuses to set a dust safety standard to help prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

In addition, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) released a report on last year’s Crandall Canyon Mine disaster that killed six miners, placing the blame squarely on the coal mine operator, Murray Energy Co., and the engineering company hired to develop the mining plan. (Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray attributed the disaster to an earthquake and refused to go to Capitol Hill to testify before lawmakers.) The agency levied $1.6 million in fines against the mining company and $220,000 against the engineering firm. Three rescue workers later were killed trying to reach the site in Utah.

Juxtaposed to these events was a report by The Washington Post that revealed the Labor Department is fast-tracking a secretly written rule—long sought by the business community—that could increase workers’ exposure to dangerous chemicals and toxic substances on the job and tie the hands of future administrations trying to improve workplace safety.

Even as workers die on the job, the Bush-Elaine Chao Labor Department plots to ensure the administration’s legacy of failed safety enforcement, minimal penalties and wink-and-nod appointments of wolves to guard safety agencies like MSHA continues long after it’s gone. Rewarding their corporate cronies is the gift that keeps giving.

FULL story at link.