Dem Victory Will Flood All Workplaces With Ergonomics Inspectors
Washington Times:
A Democratic victory in the 2008 presidential election would reignite the fight between big labor and big business over a contentious workplace-safety issue.
The mere mention of ergonomics, the arcane science that has come to symbolize workplace injuries ranging from sore backs to carpal tunnel syndrome, can cause employers pain. But to the nation’s labor unions, ergonomics — leading to the No. 1 cause of workplace injuries in the United States — is an issue of the utmost importance.
Ergonomic injuries accounted for nearly 360,000 of the more than 1 million injuries that occurred in U.S. workplaces last year, according to the Bureau of Labor of Statistics. That number has been on the decline since 2000, when 578,000 such injuries occurred, but still accounts for 40 percent of all injuries on the job.
The return of the ergonomics debate to politics conjures up a historic lobbying campaign that resulted in the overturning of one of organized labor’s most significant triumphs. Two months after President Bush took office, a Republican Congress, making first use of its newly acquired power to review regulations, repealed the biggest worker-safety policy of the Clinton years, the now-defunct ergonomics regulation.
The repeal of the regulation, as well as the Bush administration’s decision not to issue other major workplace-safety rules, delighted the business community but embittered organized labor.
Now, and as presidential politics heats up, nearly every Democratic candidate vying for the 2008 nomination has stated that some form of ergonomics standard would benefit America’s workers, according to a recent survey conducted by the AFL-CIO.
“Today’s workers are particularly susceptible to debilitating musculoskeletal injuries,” said Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat. “Although [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] issued a standard based on successful business practices in reducing these costly injuries, President Bush and a Republican Congress negated this progress by repealing the standard. As president, I would reinstate the ergonomics rule and make sure that we create a policy that supports workers.”
The front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, supported an ergonomics regulation in her initial days in Congress and continues to back the idea during her run for the White House.
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She laid an egg.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:52 amWhy are people so fragile now? Is it George Bush’s fault?
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:20 amI think, ergo I am?
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:03 amBunch of pussies! they even make ergonomic hair brushes now, would be a shame to hurt your poor wrist while brushing your hair
I build houses and do landscaping, you think i worry about ergonomics. no i worry about not falling off a roof
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:43 amWell Kurt if you built ergonomic roofs it would not hurt when you fell off would it?!
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:29 pmHey aren’t cheap illegal Mexicans the ergonomic form of landscaping?
“Today’s workers are particularly susceptible to debilitating musculoskeletal injuries.”
Hate to tell Barack O’lama, but it’s called growing old. Some of us just do it more gracefully than others. I’m 55, but a couple 12 oz pain killers after a hard days work still does the trick!
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:24 pmThe problem with all those Ergonomics rules is that not everyone wants that crap.
I know about the time I’m made to use an Ergonomical Keyboard and Trackball mouse I’m bringing my own stuff from home to use. I can’t stand the stinking things.
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:46 pm