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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 18, 2002

Workers to Congress: Stop the Pain and Pass the Standard
Food and Commercial Workers Call for Immediate Action on Ergonomics

In the year since George W. Bush signed legislation repealing the OSHA ergonomics standard, more than 1.8 million workers have suffered a preventable repetitive motion injury. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union called on Congress to stop the pain by passing an enforceable ergonomics standard.

In testimony before the United States Senate, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, UFCW Safety and Health Director Jackie Nowell said that OSHA's proposal for voluntary ergonomic guidelines is a step backward.

  • The White House plan offers more delay and no effective action.
  • Voluntary guidelines developed by specific industries would leave workers without the protection of effective and enforceable ergonomics measures and would serve to protect employers, not workers.
  • Litigating ergonomic complaints through the General Duty Clause will cost more and result in fewer protections for workers.
  • The Administration's plan replaces a successful grant program that provided hands-on ergonomics training to thousands of workers in high risk industries, including immigrant workers with website safety notices.

"Workers now look to you, their elected representatives, to swiftly pass the legislation sponsored by Senator John Breaux that will force the Bush Administration to issue a new ergonomics standard that will at long last provide the protections that they need and deserve," said Nowell.

(The 1.4 million member UFCW represents workers in retail food, meatpacking, food processing, health care and chemicals. The UFCW is one of the largest single organizations of workers directly impacted by an ergonomic standard.)
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