General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChemical Workers Have No Say On Their Own Safety
By Jordan Barab, Confined Space
In a 3-1 vote, the Chemical Safety Board voted Tuesday to withdraw recommendations calling for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to strengthen worker participation requirements and to take measures to prohibit retaliation against workers who use their rights. Chair Vanessa Sutherland, joined by members Manny Ehrlich and Kristen Kulinowski voted to rescind the recommendations despite a spirited defense by board member Rick Engler, who voted to keep the recommendations.
In April 2016, the board unanimously approved a 4-volume Macondo Investigation Report in response to the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon blowout that killed 11 workers, injured 17 and spilled 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The report contained a number of recommendations, including four recommendations calling for the bureau to significantly strengthen its regulations requiring worker participation in the employers safety program, and enhanced whistleblower protections for workers participating in safety activities. Last month, however, the boards recommendations staff recommended that these recommendations be withdrawn in the face of opposition from the bureau, which claimed that it has no jurisdiction to adopt the board recommendations.
The boards discussion focused on whether the bureau has authority to forbid retaliation, or whether it would better be placed at OSHA (or the Coast Guard) and whether Congress would be more appropriate to effect change than the board. This was progress from the Oct. 16 meeting when the discussion revolved mostly around whether there was enough evidence in the report to justify the recommendations. Apparently, the board members satisfied themselves that there was actually enough evidence of causation.
https://www.dcreport.org/2017/11/16/chemical-workers-have-no-say-on-their-own-safety/
bluecollar2
(3,622 posts)KT2000
(20,544 posts)those who work with and around chemicals develop illnesses that are not documented in "acceptable" publications therefore those illnesses do not exist. It has been this was for decades and with trump, it will now be written in stone. To silence the voices of the workers is the end of that pesky problem for corporations.