| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 3, 2000 |
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Republican Leaders Kill Safety and Health Measure Every year, more than 600,000 workers suffer painful and often crippling injuries on the job. These repetitive strain injuries result from such diverse tasks as typing on a computer keyboard, operating a cash register, or processing meat and poultry. Most, if not all, can be prevented through simple changes in the workplace. The Republican-led Congress, ignoring workers' plight, derailed an appropriations measure that would have established federal ergonomic workplace standards. In a late-night negotiation session, Appropriations Committee leaders in both parties had agreed to a compromise that would have allowed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to publish final ergonomic workplace safety standards but delay enforcement and compliance until June 2001. But the Republican majority refused to honor the agreement, virtually killing the most effective worker protection legislation in the past ten years. Then Congress adjourned, leaving its unfinished business for a post-election lame duck session. Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union gathered yesterday with other supporters of the bill at a White House press conference, where President Bill Clinton lambasted the Republican leaders for blowing up the deal. "We offered an honorable compromise," said Clinton. "We shook hands on it at 1:30 in the morning. The next day, [Republican leader Tom] DeLay refused to do it." "Their priorities were misplaced," he went on. "They said they had to go home, they said they had no time to finish their business. But they had time to stop the single most effective piece of worker protection legislation we have seen in our administration." Among those present at the press conference was UFCW member Walter Frazier, a poultry worker from Bridgeville, Del. Frazier has been on the front lines of poultry processing for 22 years. He works at the Allen Family Foods plant on the Delmarva peninsula, but pain from repeated stress injuries may force him to quit. Grabbing and lifting chickens has torn the muscles in his wrists; he has undergone surgery three times in the past four years. "I'm only 41 years old," said Frazier. "I'm not ready to retire on disability. But the pain is there all the time. This never would have happened to me if we had protection at work." Businesses claim that the financial cost of the OSHA measure would be prohibitive, but their calculations do not take into account the considerable savings in reduced worker injuries, $9 billion a year, according to Clinton. "This is not about money alone," he said. "It's about a mother who can no longer pick up her child, a father who can't toss a baseball with his son anymore." "This fight on ergonomics shows in spades why winning the election on November 7 is critical," said UFCW Occupational Safety and Health Director Jackie Nowell. "If Al Gore and the Democrats win, workers will have a standard to protect them against repetitive strain injuries. If George W. Bush wins, there will be an all-out assault on worker rights and safety protections." The UFCW, the nation's largest private sector union with 1.4 million members in the retail food, meatpacking, poultry, and other industries, is fighting to protect workers from preventable workplace injuries. For more information click here. |
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