[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 2, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6002]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  SAFE WORKPLACES FOR AMERICAN WORKERS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, our Nation's history includes too many 
tragic and avoidable workplace accidents that have maimed and killed 
workers.
  The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire early in this century, in which 
women died because the owner had locked the fire doors to prevent them 
taking an unauthorized work break, remains one of the most horrifying 
examples.
  Twenty-five years ago last Friday, Congress passed the Occupational 
Safety and Health Act. With that legislation, we made a commitment to 
all American workers that the places where they earned their living 
would not themselves pose a hazard to life or health.
  Yet it has been just a couple of years since the Hamlet chicken 
processing plant fire had a result all too similar to the Triangle 
Shirtwaist Factory disaster, and for the same cause--a locked fire 
escape door. Twenty-five working people in North Carolina died in that 
fire.
  The Occupational Safety and Health Act was intended to prevent such 
tragedies, but despite the passage of a quarter century, its work is 
not yet done.
  Every year, more than 6,000 workers are killed by workplace injuries; 
more than 50,000 die each year from occupational diseases.
  We have made great strides in cleaning up the chemicals and other 
contaminants that pose a hazard to health in many workplaces. Most 
American employers are anxious to create workplaces that will not cause 
injury to their own employees.
  But the number of deaths each year, whether from immediate injury or 
from the long-range effects of exposure to hazardous substances, means 
we cannot say that the work of the Occupational Health and Safety 
Administration is finished. It is not.
  It is inconceivable that, with this heavy toll of premature worker 
death, there is today a concerted effort to roll back and eviscerate 
workplace safety provisions that protect workers today.
  This is a misguided and mistaken approach. We are seeing improvements 
in the rate of workplace safety, with reduced injuries and accidents. 
Clearly, the work done by Federal and State inspectors is having an 
effect. It is counterproductive to take an effective enforcement 
approach and seek to weaken it.
  American workers deserve better. American workers should not have to 
fear that the Congress, which promised to protect their health a 
quarter of a century ago, will today renege on that promise.
  There are undoubtedly improvements to be made in the enforcement 
field, but proposals to eliminate the tools of enforcement itself are 
not improvements. They will do nothing but undermine the ability of 
inspectors to do their job.
  There are fewer than 2,000 Federal workplace safety inspectors. They 
are already overwhelmed by the scope of their responsibilities. If they 
don't have the tools with which to enforce safety requirements, the 
promise of a safe workplace will become an empty one.
  A week after the ultimate workplace tragedy, the bombing in Oklahoma 
City that took the lives of so many Federal employees as they worked at 
their desks, it is worthwhile to remember the tragic and wasteful loss 
of life that goes unremarked in the workplace every day.
  I commend the AFL-CIO and its affiliates for the continued effort 
they make, through Workers Memorial Day, to recall to the national 
memory the lives needlessly lost to preventable injuries and hazards on 
the job.


                          ____________________