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.

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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:

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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…

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Ugh.

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.

In the wake of the recent explosion at the Imperial Sugar Co. refinery in Georgia, Tom Barton of the Savannah Morning News has done a great job pointing out how although the CEO of Imperial Sugar argues his company is committed to safety:

You can’t say the same thing about the Labor Department and OSHA. They’ve been asleep at the switch - perhaps fatally so.

The kind of explosion at the Imperial Sugar Co. refinery is preventable; but there have already been 11 fires or explosions so far this year at workplaces that generate combustible dust. (And in an unfortunate update, now 11 workers died in that explosion, up from 8 last week, with 14 still in the hospital.)

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We recently discussed the tragic deaths caused by the explosion at the Imperial Sugar Co. refinery in Georgia, where 8 workers perished due to the negligence of others. Tragedies like this and others are caused by combustible dust floating around that can easily ignite unless necessary precautions are taken. Elaine Chao neglected to issue rules regarding combustible dust in 2006 though asked to do so.

As this problem worsens, organizations representing workers who are adversely affected by combustible dust have petitioned Elaine to take action by issuing an emergency standard regulating exposure to combustible dust.

In their letter to Elaine, the unions explain the dire need for these regulations:

Workers who are employed in facilities where uncontrolled combustible dust emissions are present face “grave danger” of experiencing fatalities or serious injuries as a result of dust explosions and resultant fires.

An onset of explosions in recent weeks has spread investigators thin all around the country. It’s not just that there are more explosions; it’s that there aren’t enough inspections to prevent them.

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Elaine Chao’s OSHA - the agency that’s supposed to look out for workers’ safety and health - looks worse and worse every week. The latest lapses involve problems at poultry plants to which Elaine is seemingly turning a blind eye.

The Charlotte Observer ran a phenomenal exposé on poultry workers in the Carolinas. The investigation focused on House of Raeford, one of the largest poultry producers in the area, and found:

Its eight plants have been cited for more serious safety violations than all but two other poultry companies in recent years — and more than some companies several times their size.

Our journalists found evidence that House of Raeford has failed to report serious injuries, including broken bones and carpal tunnel syndrome. They discovered that plant officials often dismissed workers’ requests for medical care that would cost the company money.

Elaine Chao’s Labor Department doesn’t see a problem, though. Elaine’s OSHA claims poultry plants are “safer than ever,” pointing to supposedly lower rates of reported injuries. The devil’s in the details, though.

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The always awesome OSHA Underground blog points to a nice Google map of all the combustible dust explosions in 2008. Just 50 days into the year, there’s been 9 combustible dust explosions. Each marker on the map has information about each incident.

Dockman of the VesselTrax blog made this map. Thanks for the great work!

Sad news out of Georgia this morning.

A week after a deadly sugar refinery explosion, dozens of firefighters continued to battle the obstinate blaze Thursday and the death toll rose to at least eight.

Michael Kelly Fields, 40, died early Thursday at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, spokeswoman Beth Frits said. Sixteen other workers remained hospitalized there, 14 of them in critical condition, she said.

Seven other people have been found dead in the rubble at the at the Imperial Sugar Co. plant in Port Wentworth, and one worker remained missing.

At least 42 people were injured in the explosion; six workers were initially believed to have been killed, but a seventh body was found in the rubble yesterday, and the eighth died this morning.

Unfortunately, this was likely a preventable accident. Explosions like these are caused by combustible dust floating around that can ignite unless proper precautions are put in place.

But guess what? Elaine Chao failed to issue rules about combustible dust in 2006.

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Rep. George Miller’s staff at the House Committee on Education and Labor put together a striking map mashup that represents the thousands of Americans who died on the job in 2007. The markers on the image below represent just 10% of the work-related deaths last year - as the site notes, this mashup clearly “demonstrates the need to strengthen worker safety protections.”