Oh OSHA

I read an article today regarding OSHA and the Bush Administration. What I read was very dismaying. It details some abuses and total capitulations by the agency responsible for protecting the well-being of workers in the workplace. Maybe I should not be so surprised anymore but the sheer brazen nature of their attitude and their actions is just mind boggling. It shows such a contempt for not only the people they were sworn to protect but a contempt behind the very ideals that are the foundation of the U.S. Government. It really does say “I don’t give a shit about anyone but those who give me cash.” The mercenary attitude is very, very frightening.

There are a few quotes from the article that really got me. My personal favorite is this one.

“The agency’s first director under Bush, John L. Henshaw, startled career officials by telling them in an early meeting that employers were OSHA’s real customers, not the nation’s workers. “Everybody was pretty amazed,” one of those present recalled. “Our purpose is to ensure employee safety and health. . . . He just looked at things differently.”

Let’s look at how wrong that is on so many levels. First, OSHA was created to protect worker’s rights regarding safety and health in the workplace. Their own mission statement says this. From their website - “To assure safe and healthful working conditions for men and women.” I don’t see anything in there about protecting employers. Maybe this is really Bizzaro OSHA, maybe Henshaw was having an “Opposites Day” at the office? I don’t know but really. It’s not even something that can be stretched to seem misconstrued or a misstatement. It’s pretty obvious there. It is also pretty ballsy to just say out loud. It shows how little regard he had for the worker.

Now let’s look at the new customer for OSHA – the employer. What we have here is a case of the police deciding their real customer was not the people but the criminals they were sworn to capture. Please note I am not saying that all employers are criminals. What I am saying is you would not expect the police department to put the needs of criminals over those they are sworn to serve and protect. I’d expect the same would be true of OSHA. They very nature of the relationship between OSHA and the employer is an adversarial one. You can’t get around the fact that OSHA is meant to police these companies to protect the employees. Might as well ask a dog to protect a pile of dog biscuits you just dumped on the floor. If you did that and the dog ate them all anyone would call you a fool for doing so.

The thing is I agree that you need to balance any regulation with the realities of enforceability and burden. You don’t want to regulate so heavily it strangulates you. You need to have some input from the employers in order to ensure fairness. But you also have to take anything they do and say with a grain of salt. After all regulation hits their bottom line. And most companies are extremely short sighted regarding that. This is why the priority needs to be the people you need to protect, not the ones you need to watch.

Now point two really makes my blood boil. My initial reaction was “What the hell?” when I read about the brazen nature of the attempts to influence reporting and regulations. Sadly it seems most of these attempts were successfully. Thankfully some did fail. There was a report about asbestos in car brake pad linings that the industry was trying to quash. It appears they were afraid of lawsuits against them. Well while Henshaw was there he worked hard to slow it down and kill it. After he left though it was published.

“Days after publication and seven months after Henshaw’s retirement from OSHA, he sent its science director an e-mail demanding that the warning be withdrawn and redone to express a “more balanced” view. Henshaw did not tell the career official that he had since been employed as a $350-an-hour courtroom witness on behalf of an asbestos-products firm and had testified for companies in two other asbestos lawsuits filed by auto mechanics.”

This man needs to go to jail. He basically used his time there to protect some people then when he was done tried to use lingering influence to earn himself a lot of money doing the same thing from the outside. What is even better is he pushed to have the writer of the report punished. He got his boss to recommend a 10 day suspension without pay. Luckily news of this was published by the Baltimore Sun. Sometimes the press does their job to good effect.

There are other troubling parts to the story but these two epitomize, in my mind, the real nature of what a Bush Presidency has meant. Namely the focus away from “For the People” and a move to “Greed above all else is the cause, the end, and the religion.” For the Bush Administration the People mattered only isofar as they could be used to maintain power. Our purpose became not to be a part of the government, to be served, protected and empowered. It became to be cajoled, manipulated and used to maintain their need for power and money. We existed to serve their needs and the needs of those they called “Master”.

Their lust for wealth, their craving for the trappings of power became that great. And it has nearly destroyed what this country was, is, and could be. It is also a great example of what happens when the Watchers refuse to watch. Our government was founded on the principle of Checks and Balances. It has never been more apparent that this system only works when at least two of the three branches actually agrees to do their job. It also shows the inherent wisdom of such a system. When the system functions properly it works great. I am hopeful though. The coming year brings with it a new president, a new congress, and a bit of light on the darkness we’ve seen the last eight years. I just hope in the next four years we can begin to undo the damage that has been done.

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