PUTTING WORKERS FIRST?

Who are the Trump Administration & Congress (really) fighting for?
"Every decision . . . will be made to benefit American workers."
- President Trump, Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 2017
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Week 160
Feb 10, 2020

Trump’s FY 2021 budget proposal jeopardizes workers health and safety by slashing funding at OSHA.

  • The FY 2021 budget proposes cutting funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) by eliminating the Harwood grants training program, as well as ending training programs for medical staff at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The budget also aims to eliminate the Chemical Safety Board - an independent agency tasked with investigating industrial chemical dangers like explosions in the workplace.
  • By cutting funding to these agencies, programs, and other resources that focus on worker safety, workers will be exposed to more dangerous work conditions, and have fewer protections in place to report violations. For example, the Harwood training grants are distributed to organizations that provide services to communities that are often underserved and low income. Through these grants, community organizations provide education and training on preventing workplace hazards and provide education on worker rights under OSHA law. The reduction of these pro-worker initiatives will put the safety and even the lives of workers at greater risk.
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Budget, DOL, Health and Safety
Week 148
Nov 20, 2019

DOL withdraws the proposal that would have increased injury to teens working in nursing homes.

  • DOL had proposed to roll back regulations that would have prevented 16- and 17-year-olds working in nursing homes and hospitals from operating power-driven patient lifts without supervision. The DOL provided little evidence or risk analysis to justify the new rule—and what it did provide turned out to be based on an inaccurate reading of what advocates discovered was a seven-year-old, 22-respondent Survey Monkey poll of vocational programs in Massachusetts.
  • Allowing 16- and 17-year-old nursing assistants to operate mechanical lifts without adult assistance would have led to more instances of painful and potentially debilitating injuries to young nursing home workers, who lack sufficient experience and training to handle the challenging task of lifting and moving residents with complex physical and mental disabilities.  
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DOL, Health and Safety, Youth Workers
Week 139
Sep 17, 2019

USDA finalizes swine inspection rule that jeopardizes worker and consumer safety.

  • Trump's USDA claims to be "modernizing" swine slaughter plants with the implementation of a new rule that increases line speeds, but in reality, the agency is endangering consumers, workers and the animals being slaughtered.
  • This rule will lead to an increase in packinghouse worker injuries. It is the first time in history that factory line speed limits have been removed from slaughterhouses. The rule also reduces the number of government plant inspectors by 40% and allows companies to create their own food safety testing programs.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 124
Jun 09, 2019

Court overturns the rollback of the Obama examination of working conditions rule.

  • The Court upheld the unions challenge to the rollbacks of the Obama examinations of working places rule, holding it violated the MSH Acts prohibition of weakening miners safety.
  • The reinstatement of the Obama rule will lessen miners risk of inmjury from unsafe working conditions.
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DOL, Health and Safety
Week 110
Feb 28, 2019

USDA allowing poultry plants with injury records to circumvent rules and speed up lines.

  • USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has been approving requests to waive line speed restrictions at poultry plants that have a history of severe worker injuries.
  • Allowing plants that have documented instances of severe worker injuries to increase line speeds will lead to more injuries, and allows plants to sacrifice worker safety for production.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 105
Jan 25, 2019

OSHA repeals part of a 2016 rule designed to collect data on serious worker injuries.

  • This rule requires large employers in high hazard occupations to electronically submit to OSHA detailed injury data on serious worker injuries.
  • This roll back will allow employers with dangerous work sites to essentially hide workplace injuries, undermining OSHA' own efforts to promote public health and prevent injuries on the job.
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DOL, Health and Safety, OSHA
Week 103
Jan 09, 2019

The number of OSHA inspectors has fallen to the lowest number in the 48 year history of the agency.

  • Over 5,000 workers were killed on the job last year, and over 2 million suffered a serious injury.
  • With such low staffing, it will take over 150 years for OSHA to visit every workplace just once, which jeopardizes worker safety and health, especially in low wage, high-hazard jobs.
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DOL, Enforcement, Health and Safety, OSHA
Week 97
Nov 30, 2018

DOJ informs the Supreme Court it plans to dismiss drug contamination cases against Gilead despite siding with whistleblowers.

  • DOJ tells the Supreme Court that a whistleblower's FCA suit filed against Gilead for concealing an illegal drug supplier and contamination won't go forward if the Supreme Court remands it because it is too burdensome on the FDA to fulfill discovery requests and not in the public interest.
  • This dismissal would be a blow to whistleblowers, and pose a huge risk to consumers of drugs involved in the case, such as Atripla, Truvada and Emtriva and it could set a dangerous precedent of government interference in the name of the "public interest".
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DOJ, Health and Safety
Week 88
Sep 27, 2018

Trump Administration violates their own rules and the Administrative Procedures Act by implementing policy that allows poultry plants to increase line speeds.

  • This policy provides an exemption to poultry plants seeking to circumvent the law by applying individually to be exempt from the 2014 rule that limited line speeds for worker safety.
  • Increased line speeds are threat to the health and safety of workers and consumers.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 87
Sep 17, 2018

DOL releases a proposal that will increase injury to teens working in nursing homes.  

  • DOL proposes to roll back regulations that prevent 16- and 17-year-olds working in nursing homes and hospitals from operating power-driven patient lifts without supervision.
  • Teens who use the lifts are in danger of musculoskeletal injuries, according to a 2011 report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the federal agency charged with conducting research and making recommendations to prevent work-related injuries. Moreover, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that “nursing homes have the highest injury and illness rate of any industry.”
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DOL, Health and Safety, Youth Workers
Week 79
Jul 27, 2018

Trump Administration moves to roll back Obama-era worker-safety rule.

  • The Trump Administration wants to scrap a requirement that large employers submit detailed information on workplace injuries and illnesses to the federal government.
  • With this safety rule gone, employers will be able to hide dangerous workplaces and job hazards, which will decrease worker safety
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DOL, Health and Safety, OSHA
Week 78
Jul 16, 2018

MSHA issues RFI on retrospective review of the dust rule.

  • MSHA issued an RFI asking questions to inform its retrospective review of the dust rule.
  • While retrospective review is required by the rule, this RFI could be used to weaken the rule. 
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DOL, Health and Safety
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