Today marks Workers Memorial Day, observed annually to honor workers who have died on the job due to the negligence of others. As in years past, this holiday leaves us no cause for celebration - Workers Memorial Day serves as a grim reminder that our own government agencies responsible for protecting workers, particularly OSHA and MSHA, have been asleep at the wheel under Elaine’s watch.
In just the last several weeks, we’ve seen what Elaine’s malfeasance has wrought for workers. Sloppy safety, weak penalties, “negligent” security measures, “dangerously ineffective” agencies, and dozens of workers killed and injured - and that’s just this year.
We made a short video to summarize Elaine Chao’s failure to protect the health and safety of America’s workers. Check it out:
Share this video with your friends, too!
Each time the Labor Department’s Inspector General issues a report exposing the agency’s wrongdoings, Elaine’s legacy keeps getting worse.
So in light of recent news reporting MSHA’s negligence in preventing the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster that killed nine people, one question remains - how will Elaine Chao be held accountable?
According to the Inspector General’s report:
MSHA was negligent in carrying out its responsibility to protect the safety of miners. […]
MSHA’s actions and inactions, taken as a whole, lead us to conclude that [the administration] lacked care and attention in fulfilling its responsibilities to protect miners.
This report flat out says Elaine’s MSHA failed in its sole responsibility: protecting miners. What this report shows is the complete failure of Elaine Chao as Secretary of Labor to hold her agency to even the most minimal standards of safety.
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Thousands of our readers voted on Elaine’s “Worst of the Worst” actions during her time running the Department of Labor. With so many messed up priorities, it’s hard to determine which are the most egregious, but the people have spoken and the top three results are as follows:
5,615 votes - Against Workers’ Rights - Elaine actively campaigned against the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that restores the rights of workers to freely and fairly form unions.
5,435 votes - Safety - Elaine refused to enforce rules requiring employers to pay for safety gear, contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
3,901 votes - Corporate Cronies - Elaine fast-tracked coal mining executives, anti-union lawyers, and shady lobbyists to positions of power in her agency, including one who wrote a report titled “How to Close Down the Department of Labor.”
A random drawing will take place quickly for those who voted…stay tuned as we’ll announce the winner soon!
The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Labor, Education and Pensions, chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), recently issued a report calling for the prosecution of Robert Murray, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah where 9 people died in 2006 and one of Mitch McConnell’s political contributors.
You remember Murray - one of Mitch McConnell’s “five finest men in America.” Murray has a history of bullying MSHA so he can get his way. As the Salt Lake Tribune reported:
Most egregiously, the report alleged, Murray Energy was mining into what little was left of the south barrier pillar after being told directly by an MSHA inspector not to cut that coal. The company also violated its mining plan by taking several feet of coal out of the mine’s floor, elongating the pillars and making them extra vulnerable to failure.
Last week we discussed the tragic news that yet another burn victim from the Imperial Sugar Co.’s refinery explosion died, raising the fatality count to twelve. Elaine’s unwillingness to issue a temporary standard on combustible dust, which was responsible for igniting the explosion, has forced lawmakers on Capitol Hill to do her job.
U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, sent a letter to Elaine last week urging her to take immediate steps to prevent explosions like the one that killed the twelve workers at Imperial Sugar Co. The letter went unanswered.
As the nation’s combustible dust continues to pile up and with Elaine missing in action, Miller, along with Representative John Barrow (D-GA), who represents the district where the refinery explosion took place, introduced legislation forcing OSHA to issue rules regulating combustible dusts that can explode and kill workers.
“It’s unfortunate that it takes the Congress of the United States to tell OSHA how to do its job. The agency has known about these dangers for a long time and should have acted years ago to prevent explosions like this one. Workers cannot be asked to wait any longer for these basic protections,” said Miller.
We couldn’t agree more.
Since we started our campaign, a number of Elaine’s employees have come forward to tell us just how miserable worker morale is within the agency under the reign of Elaine. Some employees are even afraid to do their jobs out of fear of punishment - the following story makes it easy to see why.
Over a year ago, the Labor Department suspended an OSHA employee, Ira Wainless, because he issued a report cautioning auto mechanics on the dangers exposure to brake pads can cause. A November 20, 2006 article in the Baltimore Sun notes:
It took six years to get federal worker safety officials to issue warnings to auto mechanics that the brakes they’re working on could contain lethal asbestos fibers. But it took only three weeks after the warnings were posted before a former top federal official with ties to the auto industry reportedly pushed to have them removed.
Since we already know that Elaine wants to mess with working families’ health by gutting the Family and Medical Leave Act, we couldn’t help but wonder what she would do with just plain old, paid sick days. You know, the kind that everyone should have so they can stay home and get healthy without worrying about missing a paycheck—or infecting their coworkers. Healthy workers make for a healthy economy, after all.
But as it turns out, Elaine can’t actually mess anything up here, because Americans aren’t guaranteed any paid sick days. None. Nada. Zero. Workers have to depend on their employers to provide paid sick leave, but nearly half of private sector workers—and nearly 80 percent of low-income workers—don’t receive that benefit.
That’s why the National Partnership for Women & Families launched a rally today in support of the Healthy Families Act. Check it out and join in here: Everyone GetsSick.org.
As Ezra Klein points out, paid sick and vacation leave would not only guarantee all workers a chance to stay home and be healthy, but it would address what some are calling the “presenteeism” phenomenon:
As with most Bush Administration policies, there is no previous success too great that it can’t be undone. For the latest in this long, sad line, look no further than Elaine Chao’s latest assault on workers - proposing to gut the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Prior to FMLA’s passage in 1995, workers were legally fired for simply taking time off of work to care for a newborn baby or sick family member. The bipartisan legislation put a stop to that, allowing for employees to take unpaid leave to deal with personal and familial medical emergencies. In 2005 alone, nearly 7 million Americans used the law to take care of a newborn baby, family member or for a serious personal illness.
But Elaine has decided to make changes and so-called updates to the law that has benefited millions of Americans in the past. Elaine’s proposed changes to FMLA include…
A burn victim from the Imperial Sugar Co. refinery explosion and fire died Tuesday evening at in Augusta, raising the total number of fatalities to 12.
Eleven burn victims from the sugar refinery in Port Wentworth remained listed in critical condition Tuesday, and one was listed in serious condition.
Eight bodies initially were pulled from the refinery wreckage, and four burn victims subsequently have succumbed to their injuries in Augusta.
Hey Elaine, do you have any idea when you’ll get around to writing those combustible dust regulations you were supposed to do two years ago? People are dying in the mean time.
Under Elaine’s questionable 'leadership,' the Department of Labor has turned into an agency that screws America's workers and enables corporate giveaways.
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