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Under Trump, Safety of American Workers Down the Drain; Lives Will Be Lost
Congressional Republicans are planning to go after more than a half dozen additional regulations in an attempt to significantly limit the ability of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to protect workers. Since 2015, federal contractors have had very significant violations of wage and hour laws and safety incidents over the past few years, and the regulations currently under attack were intended to curb these offenses and address health concerns causes by exposure to specific chemicals.
Trump, Ryan, and McConnell are directly responsible for longterm injuries and death resulting from stopping OSHA and other related agencies from doing the jobs they were created for - to protect the American people. History will judge them and we must too.
Nearly four decades in the making, a new rule under the Obama administration was set to lower workplace exposure to beryllium, an industrial mineral linked to a lung disease that is to estimated to kill 100 people annually. And the nation’s largest beryllium producer had agreed to back the new restrictions.
But several weeks ago, just as the rule was going into effect, the safety agency suddenly proposed changes that experts expect may exempt major industries from the tougher standard. It was one of several instances in which workplace safety decisions have been revisited in the early months of the Trump administration.
OSHA has also put off enforcement of an Obama-era standard for another respiratory hazard — silica, a mineral linked to a disabling lung disease as well as cancer — and it has delayed action on a rule that would require employers to electronically report workplace injuries so that they can be posted for the public.
The moves come as the Trump administration offers other hints of a significant relaxation in the government’s approach to occupational safety.
Trump’s proposed budget eliminates at least two other strategies designed to promote worker safety, including the Chemical Safety Board, which investigates chemical plant accidents, and an OSHA grant program that provides training in industries with high injury or fatality rates and workers who do not speak English well.
There will be many more votes rolling back important rules to protect Americans in many facets of our everyday lives. We need to stay vigilant to not get bogged down in scandals and corruption charges while Ryan and McConnell dismantle the government.