Can OSHA Recover from the Bush Years?

Despite the continuing toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths, Workers Memorial Day has always been a time to look back on progress made as well as a rededicating ourselves to making life on the job safer. When the first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989, April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites remember workers who have been killed or injured on the job. Trade unionists around the world now mark April 28 as an International Day of Mourning.

This year, some in the health and safety community are wondering what it will take OSHA to recover from the neglect and hostility of the two Bush administrations. During the last eight years, tens of thousands of workers died or were injured on the job—a direct result of the failure of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promulgate new standards and stringently enforce the law.

A special edition of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NYCOSH’s) newsletter “Safety Rep” recently asked nearly three dozen safety and health experts from the union, scientific and academic worlds this question: “After eight years of Bush, can OSHA be fixed?”

Writing in the special edition’s introduction, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka says the first major step must be bringing in new leaders, including the administrators of OSHA and MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) who are actually committed to a strong federal role in worker safety and health and who see their roles as advocates for worker protection.

The U.S. Senate took a first step toward that goal in February when it finally confirmed President Obama’s nominee for labor secretary, Hilda Solis.

Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, says growing worker power through unions is a key factor in the health and safety fight. “The first and foremost thing workers can do to protect their safety and health is to join a union,” Hughes said. Without a union to protect them, rights to safe and healthful working conditions are a legal abstraction. With the election of Obama, Hughes said workers have the best opportunity in years to fight for stronger enforcement of workplace safety laws and tougher penalties for safety and health violations. But he adds: “Our demands for safer workplaces will be met with stiff resistance from the business community. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and increasing our numbers is a necessary first step in the fight for safe and healthful workplaces.”

Public employees are not covered by federal OSHA’s standards, although some states have extended coverage to public employees. A number of the writers call for bringing public-sector workers under OSHA’s umbrella.