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.

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