Mine Safety Agency Mismanagement: No One Left to Write the Rules

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/11/mine-safety-agency-mismanagement-no-one-left-to-write-the-rules/

by Mike Hall, Jan 11, 2008

The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA’s) foot-dragging on developing new mine safety rules mandated by the 2006 MINER Act and other legislation has caught up with it. Now, the agency is begging for help.

Already under fire for missing a Dec. 15 deadline to issue new rules for better trained mine rescue teams, MSHA has turned to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to plead for volunteers to help them meet upcoming rule-making deadlines, according to BNA’s Daily Labor Report (subscription required).

Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO Health and Safety director, says MSHA’s call for help

shows gross mismanagement at the Department of Labor. MSHA has known about this since June 2006, well over 18 months. And the mandates in the appropriations bills were on the horizon for months. None of this is new.

OSHA Director Edwin Foulke Jr. sent a memo to the agency’s national staff seeking volunteers for temporary assignment to MSHA, Seminario points out. OSHA has several important safety standards it must develop this year, including rules covering work in confined spaces and several construction safety regulations. Those could be delayed if OSHA staff is assigned to MSHA.

FULL story at link.

[Joanne98]

1. Corporate America is eating the CORE of government.

Tell the labor unions to read The Shock Doctrine!