{"id":2229,"date":"2017-11-02T13:05:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T17:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=2229"},"modified":"2017-11-02T13:05:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T17:05:26","slug":"dispatches-frontlines-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2017\/11\/02\/dispatches-frontlines-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Battle for Workplace Safety: Short Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"dispatches
Photo by Earl Dotter. www.earldotter.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Scott Mugno Show:<\/strong> Reviews continue to dribble in about Trump’s nomination of Scott Mugno<\/a> to head OSHA.\u00a0 Katie Tracy at the Center for Progressive Reform lays out a number of\u00a0 questions that Mugno needs to answer<\/a> when he goes before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for his confirmation hearing. Questions like what new or updated standards he thinks are most urgently needed and his timetable for issuance, what he will do to strengthen workers’ whistleblower protections and whether he thinks OSHA has enough inspectors?\u00a0 And for the management perspective, check out Eric Conn’s article<\/a> predicting that Mugno will be\u00a0“a dynamic and successful leader at OSHA.”\u00a0 The National Association of Tower Erectors congratulated Mugno on his nomination\u00a0and encouraged the Senate to quickly confirm him. They may also be interested in how he moves forward on OSHA’s cell tower standard, which they have promoted.\u00a0 The American Trucking Association<\/a>, the very anti-union Associated Builders and Contractor<\/a>s, and the National Association of Home Builders,<\/a> which opposed many of OSHA’s fall protection initiatives in the last administration, also announced support for Mugno’s nomination.\u00a0 And the Chamber of Commerce<\/a> has called Mugno “an outstanding nominee.”\u00a0 With friends like that, what could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

From Science to Science Fiction:<\/strong> Just to ensure that actual science, perpetrated by real scientific experts doesn’t muck up the government policy making process, EPA’s Scott Pruitt has forbidden any researchers receiving EPA funding<\/a> from sitting on any of EPA’s science boards.\u00a0 Receiving money from EPA to study environmental issues is apparently a conflict of interest, but receiving support from chemical industry sponsors, of course, is not.\u00a0 A little good news on the science front, however.\u00a0 Sam Clovis, a former conservative talk-show host who Trump nominated to be the Agriculture Department\u2019s chief scientist — even though he has no background in science or agriculture — has withdrawn his nomination<\/a>. Not because he’s completely unqualified, but because he’s managed to get himself wrapped up in the growing Russia scandal.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s all for the best. As William Ruckelshaus<\/a>, Nixon and Reagan’s EPA chief warns:\u00a0A strong, credible and fair regulatory regime is essential to the smooth functioning of our economy.”\u00a0 Trump and Pruitt should take heed. But they won’t. They cite a higher source than Ruckelshaus: The bible. According to\u00a0BuzzFeed News<\/a>, Pruitt pointed out that “Joshua says to the people of Israel: choose this day whom you are going to serve,” Pruitt “This is sort of like the Joshua principle \u2014 that as it relates to grants from this agency, you are going to have to choose either service on the committee to provide counsel to us in an independent fashion or chose the grant. But you can\u2019t do both. That\u2019s the fair and great thing to do.” But not to worry, Trump can always rely on experts at the White House Science Adviser<\/a>, except that more than 9 months into\u00a0his first term, Trump has not nominated anyone to the position.<\/p>\n

Faster Chickens, Hurt Workers, Sick Consumers<\/strong>: A number of workers rights and food safety advocacy groups are fighting a renewed effort by the poultry industry (the National Chicken Council) and the Department of Agriculture to\u00a0allow an even faster rate of work in parts of some processing facilities. According to an excellent NPR story<\/a>, the groups are warning that “higher line speeds increase the risks for foodborne illness and worker injuries in an industry that has an already spotty safety record.”\u00a0 Workers are hurting.\u00a0“Federal statistics<\/a>\u00a0show that animal slaughtering and processing facilities are the 6th most dangerous workplaces for severe injuries. According to a\u00a0Government Accountability Office report<\/a>, most\u00a0musculoskeletal injuries<\/a>\u00a0caused by repetitive movement, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, are not reported by workers.”\u00a0 And it’s not good for people who eat chicken either.\u00a0 \u00a0Under a pilot project, according to a former USDA inspector,\u00a0 only one federal inspector is responsible for viewing birds that come through the chicken evisceration line. “‘You had less than 30 seconds to inspect the chicken. How can you look at the front, back, up and down and inside a chicken in 30 seconds? [retired USDA inspector Phyllis] McKelvey asks before answering her own question: ‘There’s no way.'” Thirteen non-profit organizations and unions, including\u00a01worker rights, civil rights, consumer safety, public health, and animal welfare groups\u2014met with top officials last month<\/a> to “to urge them to reject a poultry industry petition to allow faster and unrestricted line speeds in poultry plants.”\u00a0 And last August, the groups sent a letter<\/a> to Agriculture Secretary Sunny Purdue ” oppose any proposed rule that would increase line speeds in poultry plants within the United States above the current 140 birds per minute (bpm).”\u00a0 But none of that’s important, according to the Chicken Council: “Spokesperson Tom Super says the motivation behind the higher line speeds is to keep up with international competitors.”\u00a0 And the race to the bottom continues.<\/p>\n

Panic in Hotel Rooms: <\/strong>On the workplace violence front, in order to protect certain hotel workers from sexual assault, the Chicago City Council has approved an ordinance<\/a> requiring hotels to provide panic buttons to hotel housekeepers, as well as developing\u00a0\u00a0anti-sexual harassment policies. “By July 1, 2018, Chicago hotels must equip employees who work alone in guest rooms or restrooms with a \u201cpanic button\u201d or notification device that can be used to summon help if the employee reasonably believes that an ongoing crime, sexual harassment, sexual assault or other emergency is occurring. These devices must be provided at no cost to the employee.”\u00a0 The ordinance also prohibits hotels from retaliating against employees for actually using the device.\u00a0 Not a bad idea. Maybe we need a similar law requiring panic buttons for women in the entertainment and media industry.<\/p>\n

Prison Warzone<\/strong>:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a warzone every time you step in there,\u201d says a North Carolina corrections officer about working conditions in North Carolina prison<\/a>s. ” Veronica Darden, Justin Smith and Wendy Shannon died after inmates set a fire in a portion of the Pasquotank Correctional Institution in northeastern North Carolina in early October. Darden and Smith died in the immediate after math of the fire. Shannon died several weeks later of injuries sustained in the attempted prison escape. Nine other prison employees were injured in the incident. In April, Sergeant Meggan Callahan, a corrections officer at the Bertie Correctional Institution, was killed by an inmate who, an autopsy says, scalded her with boiling water and beat her to death with a fire hydrant.”<\/p>\n

Protecting Cell Tower Workers — One State at a Time:<\/strong> OSHA may be moving forward very slowly (or not at all) on a new standard to protect cell tower workers, but that hasn’t stopped Washington State<\/a> OSHA from issuing new protections.\u00a0 “The rules contain requirements covering expected hazards of tower work, host employer\/contractor responsibilities, microwave\/laser technology, control of hazardous energy, working during darkness, fall protection, remote cell tower sites, and emergency response and rescue.”\u00a0North Carolina and Michigan also have telecommunication safety rules. The agency’s press release<\/a> notes that “Communication-tower worker deaths in the U.S. are increasing exponentially; for tower climbers the death rate is 10 times the average for construction workers. Since the original telecommunication rules were adopted in 1973, the industry has grown rapidly, and safety and health hazards have emerged that didn’t exist 40 years ago.”\u00a0 In September,\u00a0\u00a0three Miami men died<\/a>\u00a0while working on a TV transmission tower. There is a cell tower standard on federal OSHA’s regulatory agenda, but it may fall victim to Trumps “One-in-Two-out” Executive Order which would require two worker protections to be removed for every one that’s added.<\/p>\n

And Elsewhere….:<\/strong> Forty-seven workers were killed in a fireworks factory explosion<\/a> in Indonesia. One of the victims was only 14 years old.\u00a0 And in India, a crackdown on slavery conditions on farms<\/a> rescued “25 workers, including children, who worked 15 hour days for seven years.”\u00a0 Rescued workers said while they worked in the fields, their children worked at the employer\u2019s house for no money.\u00a0\u201cThe employers did not give them wages, but only packets of wheat. This too was to ensure they stayed alive to continue working on their fields,\u201d Gorana told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Scott Mugno Show: Reviews continue to dribble in about Trump’s nomination of Scott Mugno to head OSHA.\u00a0 Katie Tracy at the Center for Progressive Reform lays out a number of\u00a0 questions that Mugno needs to answer when he goes before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for his confirmation hearing. Questions like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,167,156,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epa","category-poultry-industry","category-short-stuff","category-workplace-violence"],"yoast_head":"\nDispatches from the Frontlines of the Battle for Workplace Safety<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lots happening in the workplace safety and environment world. 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