Category — Workplace Safety

If you are a resident of the 6th Congressional District and you work for a wage, it makes absolutely no sense for you to vote to re-elect Representative Peter Roskam this fall. Voting for Roskam means voting for unfair wages, against workplace safety, and in favor of relocating your job overseas.

Peter Roskam is not just neglecting the needs of Illinois workers. Rather Roskam is using his office to actively work against their best interests. He consistently backs the interests of capital over labor and indeed Roskam has voted the position of the National Association of Manufacturers 100 percent of the time during his first term.

Here’s the latest example.

Yesterday (4/30/2008), the House voted to pass the Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Act, H.R. 5522 by a vote of 247-165. The bill was prompted by the tragic explosion that occurred at the Imperial sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia in February. The blast, which killed 13 workers and severely injured many others, was caused by the ignition of sugar dust which had built up to hazardous levels.

But back in 2006, following a series of other similar explosions, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board had identified 281 previous incidents involving combustible dust that had killed 119 workers and injured over 700 since 19080. The board had urged the Occupational Health and Safety Administration to issue standards to protect workers from these hazards, but OSHA, which under the Bush administration that is so unfriendly to regulation of business, has failed to do so. If OSHA had acted, it is possible that the tragedy at Port Wentworth could have been avoided. This has been a pattern with OSHA under Bush.

The bill that was brought to a vote yesterday was necessary to force  OSHA to issue standards because the Bush administration has not compelled it to do so.  The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate where its future is uncertain.

The video that follows is Rep. George Miller speaking on the House floor in favor of the bill. He goes into quite a bit more detail on the history leading up to the legislation.

So the bill passed, but our own Representative Roskam voted against it. Roskam, as we have seen before with the Popcorn Worker’s standard shares Bush’s animosity toward workplace regulation. Bush and Roskam look with fondness back to the era before effective labor unions and progressive legislation when big business could do what ever it pleased and the workers be damned.

If you are an Illinois worker, don’t look to Roskam to stand up for your right to a safe workplace…or a fair day’s wage…or the right to organize. Roskam is not on your side.

One of the more disturbing aspects of the Bush presidency has been the administration’s ideological bent against regulation of industry. Given his way Bush, would return the country to the way it was before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) worked to protect the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink, before the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) existed to protect workers from workplace hazards, before the Consumer Products Safety (CPSC) was established to protect Americans from injuries associated with consumer products, and before the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) was in place to improve health and safety conditions in America’s mines. Bush and like-minded Republicans want to diminish the powers of agencies such as the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture to assure the quality and safety of the medicines we take and the food we give to our children.

The administration has taken concrete steps to begin the dismantling of this regulatory infrastructure including:

• Appointing industry lobbyists and lawyers to key positions in the agencies regulating the industries from which they came
• Disregarding scientific opinion in favor of political ideology
• Reducing enforcement of existing regulations
• Under-funding regulatory agencies
• Allowing industry representatives to draft legislation
• Blurring the boundaries between the regulators and the regulated

Peter Roskam is on board for this agenda of de-regulation of industry to the detriment of public welfare. The story of Peter and the Popcorn Worker is a case in point.

Bronchiolitis obliterans is an obstructive lung disease that results from inflammation and scarring of the bronchioles - the smallest airways in the lungs. This can happen as a result of a toxic exposure or a respiratory infection or sometimes as a complication of lung transplantation. The onset is relatively acute, within a few weeks of the causative event. It is irreversible and progressive, and, ultimately, fatal. It can be treated with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs, and sometimes by lung transplantation.

Diacetyl is a chemical ingredient used in the manufacture of artificial butter flavior commonly used in microwave popcorn. Beginning in 1992, previously healthy workers in plants manufacturing popcorn began to be diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans with unusual frequency. Studies have indicated a link between the workers exposure to diacetyl in the workplace and the development of the disease.

Despite validation of the risk to workers and recommendations for protective measures developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) the Bush administration chose to ignore the science and OSHA refused to implement standards to protect workers.

House Democrats grew impatient with the administration’s foot-dragging and introduced H.R. 2693: Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act which would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue a standard regulating worker exposure to diacetyl.

The White House reacted with a statement strongly opposing the bill, preferring its own evaluation of the hazard to that of scientists and insisting that the evidence be unequivocal” before it would be prudent to take steps to protect workers.

And Peter, remember this story is about Peter, what did he do to help the Popcorn Worker?

Well, actually, he did nothing.

H.R. 2693 came to a vote in the House on September 26th. Peter, and a bunch of other Republicans figured President Bush knew more than a bunch of damn scientists and voted against it.

The good news is that Peter and his corporatist pals didn’t win, at least not yet. The bill passed in the House, 260 to 154 and has been passed on to the Senate where it is on the calendar for consideration. But even if it passes there, there is the chance that the President will veto the bill and a lot more popcorn workers may die before the science is “unequivocal”.

There was an interesting post by Amanda at Think Progress yesterday. She noted Karl Rove bloviating about liberal bloggers in a speech at Yahoo’s Citizen 2.0. Karl said that “the Web has given angry and vitriolic people more of a voice in public discourse” and suggested that many bloggers are “angry kooks”. Angry, yes. Kooks, no. How can anyone with any sanity watch what this President and his party are doing to our country and not be angry. And I’m royally pissed that Peter Roskam is letting him do it. Every citizen in Peter’s district should be pissed too.