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Showing 15 results

Celeste Monforton | March 9, 2015

Congress squeezes Obama’s reg czar about lack of transparency

This blog is cross-posted from the Pump Handle.  It’s a rare thing on Capitol Hill when a member of the Administration is on the hot seat from both sides of the aisle. But that’s what happened on Tuesday when President Obama’s regulatory czar, Howard Shelanski, JD, PhD, testified at a joint hearing of two subcommittees of the House […]

Celeste Monforton | June 26, 2014

States and localities are where it’s at, opportunities to win safer workplaces

Cross-posted from The Pump Handle. Luis Castaneda Gomez, 34 and Jesus Martinez Benitez, 32 were asphyxiated in June 2011 when they were doing repairs inside a manhole. Their employer, Triangle Grading and Paving, was hired by the City of Durham, NC to make water line repairs. The firm had a history of violating worker safety […]

Celeste Monforton | December 19, 2013

Democratic Senators eager to screw African-American and Hispanic poultry workers

Many Senate Democrats try to paint themselves as defenders of working people. They rail against their colleagues who are “in the pockets of corporations and the rich.”  But what they say, and what they do are two different things. This time, seven Democratic Senators are ready to screw poultry workers to please the owners of […]

Celeste Monforton | October 21, 2013

USDA to poultry plant workers: no promise we’ll address line speed hazards

“Es ridículo,” was the reaction of a poultry plant worker when he heard of the USDA’s proposal to “modernize” poultry slaughter. The agency’s January 2012 proposal (77 Fed Reg 4408) would allow companies to increase assembly line speeds from about 90 to 175 birds per minute, and remove most USDA inspectors from the poultry processing line. The […]

Celeste Monforton | August 13, 2013

Do you want overworked inspectors in charge of your meat’s safety?

More than 400 inspectors with the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) worked, on average, more than 120 hours each two-week pay period.    Those were the findings of the agency’s Inspector General in an report issued late last month.  Their investigation covered FY 2012, and included field work conducted from November 2012 through February 2013. FSIS […]

Celeste Monforton | August 6, 2013

Pushing back against anti-regulatory forces, safety and environmental protections long overdue

Finally!  After far too much hullabaloo about the cost of regulations, there was a U.S. Senate hearing today on why public health regulations are important, and how delays by Congress and the Administration have serious negative consequences for people’s lives.  Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called the hearing entitled “Justice Delayed: The Human Cost of Regulatory Paralysis,” the […]

Celeste Monforton | August 12, 2011

Legs of Two 17-Year-Olds Severed in Grain Auger, White House Sits on Young Worker Safety Rule

Cross-posted from The Pump Handle. Tyler Zander, 17 and Bryce Gannon, 17 were working together on Thursday, August 4 at the Zaloudek Grain Co. in Kremlin, Oklahoma. They were operating a large floor grain aguer when something went terribly wrong. Oklahoma’s News9.com reports that Bryce Gannon’s legs became trapped in the auger, Tyler Zander went […]

Celeste Monforton | April 13, 2011

White House Transparency Doesn’t Apply to Industry Meetings on Worker Safety Rules

Cross-posted from The Pump Handle. President Obama received an award last week for his efforts to improve openness in federal agencies. Jon Stewart poked fun at it (see clip) and I actually thought it might have been an April Fool’s joke because of what I’d learned earlier in the week. The President’s own Office of […]

Celeste Monforton | February 8, 2011

With Friends Like These….. White House Throws OSHA Under the Bus

Cross-posted from The Pump Handle. I was already tired of President Obama repeating the Republican's rhetoric about big, bad regulations, how they stifle job creation, put an unnecessary burden on businesses, and make our economy less competitive. He did so last month in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and in his State of […]