Unions Sue OSHA to Implement Safety Rule
    By Stephen Franklin
    The Chicago Tribune

    Thursday 04 January 2007

    The AFL-CIO and food workers union on Wednesday sued the federal agency in charge of workers' health and safety, saying it has failed to implement a rule that would require employers to buy protective equipment for their employees.

    Such a rule would apply to as many as 20 million people who work in a number of places, including restaurants, hospitals, factories and construction sites, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in 1999.

    That was the year the agency proposed that employers pick up the costs of their workers' protective equipment, saying 48,000 injuries and at least seven deaths could be avoided annually as a result of such action. The equipment would include goggles, face shields, gloves, helmets, ear plugs and respirators.

    The labor federation and the United Food and Commercial Workers asked a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. to require the agency to promptly complete its work on the rule. In their lawsuit, the two groups who filed the suit described the delay as lasting an "unreasonable amount of time."

    "What is so frustrating is that this is a straightforward issue. It is not controversial," said Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO's head of health and safety issues.

    "About 90 percent of the nation's employers are already doing this. The others need to do it too," said Jackie Nowell, health and safety director for the UFCW. The union's contracts with the nation's meatpacking plants already provide this benefit, she said.

    "This administration doesn't want to do any regulations. We've tried all other routes to getting this thing unstuck," Nowell said.

    The Des Plaines-based American Society of Safety Engineers on Wednesday also described the agency's action as "long overdue."

    But the group, which represents safety experts, said it was encouraged by OSHA officials' vows to act on such matters.

    OSHA officials in Washington would only say that they are reviewing the lawsuit and "will have more to say in the future."