News Archives

In our continueing goal to keep our site updated and user-friendly, we have archived the stories previously on the left side of the page on to this one.

USW Condemns EPA Cover-up

MSHA Diesel Rule a Partial Victory for Underground Miners
OSHA Citations Confirm Cognis Conditions Unsafe
USW Selects Glenn Erwin for BP Independent Panel
Bush Administration Gutting OSHA
MSHA Attempts to Weaken Diesel Health Standard
OSHA Needs Union Input, Not Political Manipulation

Bush Administration Gutting OSHA

Without fanfare and the glare of public review or scrutiny, the Bush administration has managed to eliminate or weaken many Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations during the last four years. In a series of lengthy front-page articles that began Aug. 15, The Washington Post analyzed how OSHA under President Bush has gutted and continues to weaken the nation's primary worker safety and health protections. The administration has locked-out unions and worker representatives from its deliberations and worked in league with business organizations to gut workplace regulations developed over the last 30 years to protect worker safety and health, the Post reported. Since taking office, the newspaper reported, the Bush administration "has eliminated nearly five times as many pending standards as it has completed. It has not started any major new health or safety rules, setting Bush apart from the previous three presidents, including Ronald Reagan." The well-publicized rejection of ergonmic standards in 2001 was just the beginning of the Bush and Republican attack on worker safety and health, the Post noted. The only reason that action received notice was because Congress took action to kill the standard that had been under review for several years. Since it was an act of Congress, though, President Bush could have vetoed the ergonomic bill. Instead, he signed it. Another proposed regulation that the Bush administration has killed is one that would have protected 5 million workers whose jobs put them in danger of contracting tuberculosis. The Department of Labor had predicted the new standard could prevent 25,000 infections and 135 deaths annually from the disease. It would have applied to workers in hospitals, homeless shelters, prisons and drug treatment centers. John L. Henshaw, an industrial hygienist who had worked for two major chemical companies, leads the agency. One of his first actions was to stop efforts to regulate chemicals used in making semiconductors and suspected of causing miscarriages in workers. A month later, the Post reported, OSHA killed a proposal "dating to the Reagan administration, that would have updated lists of the amounts of industrial chemicals to which workers could be exposed." The Bush administration began its assault on OSHA immediately after Bush took office, the newspaper said. In his first year in office, Bush wanted to eliminate 100 of the agency's 2,400 jobs and cut funding for the standards-setting part of OSHA by $1.2 million. The newspaper said the following year the Bush administration succeeded in eliminating 10 jobs out of 95 in the standards area.