A View of the Midterm Elections from Labor
Included in the last GA Update was a view of the midterm elections from an OSH attorney written or business interests, which you can read at http://www.asse.org/professionalaffairs_new/gaupdate/index.php?issue=2010-11-05&article=1754a. Below is an analysis from labor’s perspective, written by Peg Seminario, Director of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health for the AFL-CIO, who provided this for ASSE.
“It is clear that the election of a Republican majority in the House will make it more difficult to address worker safety and health issues. The biggest immediate threat is to the budget and resources for OSHA, MSHA and NIOSH. The Republicans are sure to try to slash the budgets for these agencies (at least OSHA and NIOSH), limiting their ability to address major hazards or to launch new initiatives.
“If the past is any guide, the Republicans may try and over reach and push legislative roll backs or appropriations riders to restrict OSHA activities. But with a Democratic Senate, these kind of legislative changes will be difficult to enact. Even with a Republican House, Senate and Executive branch for 6 years (2001-2007), the Republicans weren’t able to weaken protections (except for repeal of the OSHA ergonomics standard).
“The Republicans may have gained the majority, but I do not believe there is broad public support for rolling back S&H protections, weakening government efforts to issue needed S&H rules and to enforce them, and to rely on voluntary efforts to protect workers. That Republican model failed under the Bush Administration and the Republicans lost control of the House, Senate and presidency for failing to address the issues of concern to the public.
“The American people want the government to address the issues of jobs and economic security, not to roll back basic protections.
“It is important to remember that most of the gains in safety and health laws and protections have come as a result of tragedies and catastrophes, and as we have seen during this past year, there are serious safety problems in many workplaces that put workers in danger that need to be addressed.