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Bush Administration Deals a Double Blow to Ergonomics
Worker safety has fallen lower than ever on the list of concerns in the Bush White House, as the president used the congressional recess to stealthily appoint an outspoken anti-union attorney as the Labor Department’s solicitor and is expected to pull the plug on any hope of an ergonomics standard.
Bush appointed Eugene Scalia, who has ridiculed ergonomics, to be the labor department’s top lawyer, in charge of enforcing more than 180 laws relating to workers’ rights and safety.
Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has called the science underlying ergonomics “junk science” and “quackery.” He wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the proposed rule was “a major concession to union leaders, who know that ergonomic regulation will force companies to give more rest periods, slow the pace of work and then hire more workers (read: dues-paying members).”
During 2000 hearings on the proposal, Scalia represented clients seeking to block the rule. He has also represented companies charged with violating equal employment opportunity laws, minimum wage statutes and other legal protections.
To appoint Scalia, Bush used his authority during a congressional recess to put nominees in federal jobs without Senate approval. Scalia’s nomination was pending before the Senate but hadn’t come up for a vote by the time lawmakers left for their holiday break in late December. With the recess appointment, he can serve until the congressional session expires at the end of 2002.
As the CWA News went to press unions were bracing for more bad news. Nearly a year after killing the long-awaited ergonomics standard, claiming it needed to be re-worked, the administration was expected to announce that it won’t pursue any rule to compel businesses to take steps to prevent injuries caused by repetitive strain and poorly designed equipment and work areas.
CWA President Morton Bahr said he and the labor community are “outraged but not surprised by the administration’s failure on behalf of the 1.8 million workers every year who suffer ergonomic injuries.”
“For more than a decade CWA fought for the standard that became law under President Clinton, a rule initiated by Republican Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole and developed with bipartisan support,” Bahr said. “The final rule wasn’t ideal, it was a compromise forged with enormous input from business. But it would have gone a long way toward protecting workers whose ability to lead fully mobile lives is at risk.”
More than 600,000 workers every year are under doctors’ orders to take time off from work to heal from ergonomic injuries. Thousands suffer permanent nerve damage, making it impossible to do even simple household tasks without pain.
Regarding Scalia, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said it was clear he was unlikely to be confirmed by the Senate and called the appointment “a slap in the face of American workers.”
“Ten months ago, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao promised a comprehensive plan on ergonomics. Today we see the first action of substance in that plan — the appointment as solicitor of labor an individual who for ten years has fought ergonomics protections whenever and wherever possible,” Sweeney said.
The double blow to workplace ergonomics angers CWA members who have suffered injuries due to repetitive strain, awkward lifting, poorly designed computer workstations and other ergonomic problems.
“I always think that people who are way up in high office don’t realize that there really is a problem because they don’t do the kind of work we do,” said Vicki Thomas, a Local 2222 vice president and Verizon cable splicer who had surgery last fall on her right arm after suffering years of pain related to her work. “They don’t realize that people are experiencing a lot of pain just doing the things they have to do over and over again.”
Thomas said her managers at Verizon have been extremely understanding and put her back on light duty recently when she overdid it at work, causing the pain to flare up again. But she said she knows that many companies are failing their employees badly, and that’s why the government needs to step in.
In Fort Worth, Texas, for example, SBC service representative Diana Bradish has suffered pain in her left arm and numb fingers for about two years. She’s had extensive therapy and last fall a doctor gave her a prescription for an ergonomic keyboard and mouse. But ordering it has been a bureaucratic nightmare. The company has stalled, misplaced forms, demanded medical files and recently told her she’d have to sign a sweeping medical release that would give SBC — and anyone they chose to share it with — access to any and all information about her medical history, including any psychiatric treatment.
“The company could have saved themselves a whole lot of money, because it’s all in vain, all the money they spent on getting me better,” Bradish said. “Now I’m back where I was before and if I have to go out again, it’s going to cost them more. It makes me mad because I feel they don’t care about my health. I love where I work. I have a great job, but I want to be able to do it and stay well.”
Instead of an ergonomics rule, sources said the administration will support voluntary programs to address musculoskeletal disorders. Bahr said that’s not nearly enough.
“Let’s be clear,” he said. “No regulations mean no enforcement, no rule with any teeth to require businesses to do the right thing. So it’s up to us in the labor community to continue to force the issue, and we will.”
Bush appointed Eugene Scalia, who has ridiculed ergonomics, to be the labor department’s top lawyer, in charge of enforcing more than 180 laws relating to workers’ rights and safety.
Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has called the science underlying ergonomics “junk science” and “quackery.” He wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the proposed rule was “a major concession to union leaders, who know that ergonomic regulation will force companies to give more rest periods, slow the pace of work and then hire more workers (read: dues-paying members).”
During 2000 hearings on the proposal, Scalia represented clients seeking to block the rule. He has also represented companies charged with violating equal employment opportunity laws, minimum wage statutes and other legal protections.
To appoint Scalia, Bush used his authority during a congressional recess to put nominees in federal jobs without Senate approval. Scalia’s nomination was pending before the Senate but hadn’t come up for a vote by the time lawmakers left for their holiday break in late December. With the recess appointment, he can serve until the congressional session expires at the end of 2002.
As the CWA News went to press unions were bracing for more bad news. Nearly a year after killing the long-awaited ergonomics standard, claiming it needed to be re-worked, the administration was expected to announce that it won’t pursue any rule to compel businesses to take steps to prevent injuries caused by repetitive strain and poorly designed equipment and work areas.
CWA President Morton Bahr said he and the labor community are “outraged but not surprised by the administration’s failure on behalf of the 1.8 million workers every year who suffer ergonomic injuries.”
“For more than a decade CWA fought for the standard that became law under President Clinton, a rule initiated by Republican Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole and developed with bipartisan support,” Bahr said. “The final rule wasn’t ideal, it was a compromise forged with enormous input from business. But it would have gone a long way toward protecting workers whose ability to lead fully mobile lives is at risk.”
More than 600,000 workers every year are under doctors’ orders to take time off from work to heal from ergonomic injuries. Thousands suffer permanent nerve damage, making it impossible to do even simple household tasks without pain.
Regarding Scalia, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said it was clear he was unlikely to be confirmed by the Senate and called the appointment “a slap in the face of American workers.”
“Ten months ago, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao promised a comprehensive plan on ergonomics. Today we see the first action of substance in that plan — the appointment as solicitor of labor an individual who for ten years has fought ergonomics protections whenever and wherever possible,” Sweeney said.
The double blow to workplace ergonomics angers CWA members who have suffered injuries due to repetitive strain, awkward lifting, poorly designed computer workstations and other ergonomic problems.
“I always think that people who are way up in high office don’t realize that there really is a problem because they don’t do the kind of work we do,” said Vicki Thomas, a Local 2222 vice president and Verizon cable splicer who had surgery last fall on her right arm after suffering years of pain related to her work. “They don’t realize that people are experiencing a lot of pain just doing the things they have to do over and over again.”
Thomas said her managers at Verizon have been extremely understanding and put her back on light duty recently when she overdid it at work, causing the pain to flare up again. But she said she knows that many companies are failing their employees badly, and that’s why the government needs to step in.
In Fort Worth, Texas, for example, SBC service representative Diana Bradish has suffered pain in her left arm and numb fingers for about two years. She’s had extensive therapy and last fall a doctor gave her a prescription for an ergonomic keyboard and mouse. But ordering it has been a bureaucratic nightmare. The company has stalled, misplaced forms, demanded medical files and recently told her she’d have to sign a sweeping medical release that would give SBC — and anyone they chose to share it with — access to any and all information about her medical history, including any psychiatric treatment.
“The company could have saved themselves a whole lot of money, because it’s all in vain, all the money they spent on getting me better,” Bradish said. “Now I’m back where I was before and if I have to go out again, it’s going to cost them more. It makes me mad because I feel they don’t care about my health. I love where I work. I have a great job, but I want to be able to do it and stay well.”
Instead of an ergonomics rule, sources said the administration will support voluntary programs to address musculoskeletal disorders. Bahr said that’s not nearly enough.
“Let’s be clear,” he said. “No regulations mean no enforcement, no rule with any teeth to require businesses to do the right thing. So it’s up to us in the labor community to continue to force the issue, and we will.”