Resources for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

http://www.pww.org/index.php/article/articleview/12193/1/402

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There is a tendency among U.S. trade union leaders, shop stewards and rank-and-file activists to strongly distrust federal and state agencies charged with protecting workers’ health and safety — and therefore not to utilize them.

While there are good grounds for suspecting government agencies of anti-worker bias and wrongdoing, there are also ample reasons for not allowing big employers and right-wing political officials to destroy the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and its counterparts on the state level.

The golden period of OSHA was in the late 1970s. During those years, the agency aggressively sought to enforce its rules and regulations. Around the same time, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), responding to mass pressure, recommended additional proposals to protect workers on the job.

Unions were very involved in the development of these proposals. And when OSHA was doing its work properly, labor unions had another tool to protect their members from the ravages of asbestos, lead, industrial solvents and many other hazards.

But starting with the election of Ronald Reagan, 12 years of Republican rule dealt OSHA and NIOSH punishing blows. The Reagan and first Bush administrations stripped OSHA of many of its powers and forced NIOSH to use corporate-paid researchers to write occupational safety and health rules. Labor was removed from any policy-making positions. State agencies were weakened, too.

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