[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 55 (Monday, May 6, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY

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                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 6, 2002

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, April 28th Workers 
Memorial Day, a day to remember the thousands of men and women who have 
been killed or injured on the job. A very important article which 
recently appeared in the San Francisco Examiner of April 25, 2002 
reminds us of the enormous financial and personal costs of workplace 
deaths and injuries, while also detailing the failure of the Bush 
Administration to place a priority on improving workplace safety. It is 
important for every Member of this House to read this article and 
remember these tragic stories the next time the Administration tries to 
weaken policies to protect America's working men and women.

            [From the San Francisco Examiner, Apr. 25, 2002]

              Lax Workplace-Injury Policies Are Killing Us

                           (By Dick Meister)

       Certainly we continue to mourn the Sept. 11 victims, most 
     of whom were workers. But neither should we ever forget the 
     millions of other workers who've been killed or seriously 
     harmed while doing their jobs.
       They'll be honored in candlelight vigils, rallies and other 
     public events across the country on Sunday--Workers Memorial 
     Day, observed yearly by organized labor to mourn the men and 
     women who've suffered and died because of workplace hazards 
     and to demand action to lessen the hazards.
       The number of those victims is appalling. More than 6,000 
     are killed on the job every year. More than 5 million are 
     injured, at least half seriously. Another 60,000 die from 
     cancer, lung and heart ailments and other occupational 
     diseases caused by exposure to toxic substances.
       The financial toll also is high--as much as $230 billion a 
     year in healthcare costs and $88 billion in other costs to 
     employers, as well as workers, such as lost wages and 
     production.
       Trying to reduce workplace dangers, always a very difficult 
     task, has become even more difficult since the Bush 
     administration took office.
       Although President Bush claims to put a ``high priority'' 
     on helping working families, he has waged what the United 
     Auto Workers cites as ``a harsh, vindictive attack on health 
     and safety standards.''
       The surest evidence of that has come in Bush's approach to 
     attempts to combat the repetitive stress injuries that hurt 
     and cripple at least 5,000 workers in a wide variety of 
     occupations each and every day. For many, it can mean long-
     term or permanent affliction--chronic pain in the neck, back, 
     shoulders, arms or wrists and other suffering resulting from 
     the endlessly repetitive movements required in many jobs 
     today, such as bending, reaching and typing, and the heavy 
     lifting required in others.
       It is by far the nation's No. 1 health and safety problem. 
     Yet the president successfully urged Congress to repeal the 
     regulations, developed by the Clinton administration with the 
     guidance of safety experts, that had required employers to 
     protect workers from repetitive stress injury. The rules were 
     based on the science of ergonomics, which calls for fitting 
     the job to the worker--redesigning it if necessary--to avoid 
     as much harmful strain as possible.
       Now, fully 13 months after the rules were repealed, Bush 
     has come up with an intentionally toothless substitute for 
     the mandatory regulations.
       He's merely asking employers to voluntarily follow Labor 
     Department guidelines, still to be drafted, that might 
     protect workers. Employers with particularly high injury 
     levels who fail to do anything about it might face fines, but 
     even that is not certain.
       Bush and Congressional Republicans obviously are paying off 
     the corporate management interests who oppose the very idea 
     of job safety laws because of the compliance costs. They 
     poured millions into the election campaigns of GOP candidates 
     who were certain to do their bidding.
       Less than a month after the ergonomics regulations were 
     repealed, the president revoked 19 previously approved grants 
     that were to go to unions, universities and labor-management 
     groups to finance safety and health training programs for 
     immigrant workers, small business employers and employers and 
     workers in such high-risk industries as construction.
       He's also cut millions of dollars from the Labor 
     Department's overall budget and from that of the Occupational 
     Safety and Health Administration, already so underfunded it 
     is unable to effectively enforce the job safety laws. Also 
     getting much less funding have been the Mine Safety and 
     Health Administration and the National Institute of Safety 
     and Health, the only federal research agency dealing with 
     safety.
       The Bush administration is moving in a direction exactly 
     the opposite to that which must be taken if we are to truly 
     protect America's working families and truly honor the 
     millions of workers who have needlessly suffered injury and 
     death.

     

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