| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 28, 2001 |
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The Crippling of America: The Problem and the Solution American workplaces are crippling workers, and the Republican leadership wants to keep it that way. Vice President Dick Cheney has taken up the fight to kill the new ergonomics standard, a cause initiated by the elder Bush's administration. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) launched the effort for a national ergonomics standard more than a decade ago, pressuring a Bush-appointed Labor Secretary to take action to protect millions of workers from repetitive motion injuries. The ergonomics standard that had its genesis during the George Bush Administration and under former Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole is now targeted by Republican congressional leaders and the current Bush Administration for elimination. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) have set their sights on killing the standard, and invited Vice President Cheney to address its legislative conference. The NAM and their friends on Capitol Hill would ignore the real, gut-wrenching facts about the risks of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) American workers face on the job every day.
These workplace safety problems are entirely preventable, through an ergonomics standard. Many UFCW employers have shown that ergonomics programs work in reducing MSDs.
Workers in other plants and industries, like poultry, have been left behind and are hurting from the repetitive motions they perform thousands of times a day. Walter Frazier, a poultry worker from Delmarva, suffered through several surgeries and had to continue his job in pain as a "live hanger" waiting more than a year for a hearing to get workers' compensation and a job that wouldn't further aggravate his injuries. "We will not let the new Administration or Congress betray the commitment made to workers during both Republican and Democratic Administrations. The ergonomic standard is a crucial test for the new Bush Administration?will the White House capitulate to corporate interests or protect working families? The UFCW will fight to protect the ergonomic standard," said Doug Dority, UFCW International President. A recent National Academies of Science report sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the association between work and musculoskeletal disorders and that ergonomic interventions in the workplace are effective in reducing these injuries. The report was commissioned two years ago by Congress, in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence and a previous NAS report confirming that job modifications can prevent worker injuries. It was one of many roadblocks that industry and their conservative Republican allies in Congress have attempted to use for nearly a decade to block OSHA from publishing an ergonomic standard. The UFCW represents 1.4 million members in the retail food, meatpacking, poultry, health care, textile, chemical and other industries. |
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