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The Public Welfare Foundation released a poll this week on Americans’ attitudes on paid sick days and other workplace regulations. In the poll was something interesting as we consider the need to protect cleanup workers hired by BP to clean up the oil disaster in the Gulf. (We just launched a petition for BP to pay for respirators and training for any worker who wants one.)
The poll showed that when asked which government workplace regulations were “very important,” a full 85% said that “workplace safety” was very important. The right to join a union came in last, at 43%, shockingly not too far behind maximum hour limits at 46%.
The government sets various standards to protect workers’ rights. How important do you consider the following measures. Would you say they are very important, somewhat important, somewhat unimportant, or very unimportant for workers?% Very ImportantWorkplace safety regulations 85Family and maternity leave 78Minimum wage 70Paid sick days 69Time and a half pay for overtime work 69Maximum hour limits 46Right to join an union 43
It’s great to see that so many people think it’s important to protect people at work. Unfortunately, the budget doesn’t reflect this priority: OSHA’s budget for FY 2010 is only $563 million, with 35 staff. For protecting the workplaces across America, that isn’t too much. Here’s the full survey results.
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I may be wrong, but isn’t everything above “Right to join a union” the RESULT of unions?
As far as I am aware, that answer is a resounding Yes!
Woah. I’ve never seen that ScribD thing before. That’s pretty cool. Embedded documents. Me likey.
And WTF?!?
35 employees and a $563 million budget? Where is the fucking money going? MSDS sheets that no one uses anymore?
Nobody in D.C. cares what 85% of anybody thinks. They only care what campaign contributors think, who never constitute 85% of any group other than their own.
Something is very odd with that “35 staff”
http://safety.blr.com/workplace-safety-news/safety-administration/OSHA-Occupational-Safety-and-Health-Administration/Changing-Face-of-OSHA-Budget/
If OSHA’s budget #s are accurate, and staff were really 35, that would be an average salary of $16 million. Now I realize OSHA has expenses other than salaries, but still…
….they’re not Goldman, Sachs.
Using your figure of 2092 workers, would make an average salary $269,000, which would be closer to reasonable if you thought that salaries were half or less of total expenditures.
On your point that OSHA is not GS, I wouldn’t be so quick to draw that conclusion. After all, if you want to get regulators to cave to every whim of biz, you need to pay them competitively with biz. So perhaps we should hold off on our tentative conclusion that there are more than 35 employees.
liked that a lot and I’m gonna hold off!
Eli is upstairs!
BP Looks On The Bright Side
35 staff for all the millions of firms in this country, freaking unbelievable. Anyone who has ever filed a workman’s comp claim will tell you that the employer and its insurance company (Pinnacol Assurance is the big one) will threaten you and throw everything they have, especially lawyers, at the most minor claim. Look at this whistle blower complaint OSHA just addressed:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9GBSUGO1.htm
Railroads are dangerous, someone is killed at work there almost every week, and if they are pushing you to work unsafely it just makes it worse. So why hasn’t Orahma spent any money on the problem? Oh sorry, I can answer this one: because the companies who elected him don’t want him to.
well, once again, the fascists have done such a GREAT job convincing the droolers that they should be worked into the ground that the people asking the questions can’t even ask the questions right – for example:
IF you are NOT paid a cut of the profits every 3 months, AND your boss can FORCE to work any amount of hours at any time, AND you inevitably wreck your health AND lose your job cuz your health is wrecked AND lose your crap health “insurance” cuz you ain’t got a job, AND you lose your house or apartment ucz your prick boss was allowed to wreck your health then fire you, ARE you stupid enough to think that there shouldn’t be enforced rules about how many hours people can work in a week and how often their shifts can change?
A. I’m a drooling idiot, abuse me.
B. People who want to run a company like ancient Sparta should be fed to the lions.
C. I prefer NASCAR NFL Dancing With The Surviving American.
rmm.
Workplace safety is ESSENTIAL not important.
Well this is one of the areas that becomes very gray and opaque when it comes to the effectiveness of government. I usually side with the non government intervention arguments.
I submit that in most business, hazards in the workplace are self regulating. I mean that the government does not need to get involved. There are some places though that take advantage of workers and the all mighty buck is priority over safety. OSHA serves as a hedge here.
OSHA is not the be all for workplace safety. It takes you, the willful worker, to bring safety to the workplace. If you are willing to put up with an unsafe work environment, then is your problem not the governments responsibility. I think that the anonymous tip system works well. If you depend on the government to protect you from everything you will be sorry.
I would say OSHA has been helpful all together. I think back to the industrial revolution in the US and some of the workers tragedies like the The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. These women were locked in a building so they would not take unauthorized breaks. Well a fire broke out and over 100 burned. Was it there responsibility to quit their job and not work in those conditions? Yes is the true answer. They have free will. If you dig little deeper though you would probably find out that there was little employment and they depended on those jobs. They were willing to put up with indignities.
The truth of the matter though is that the government was not needed here and it was private organization, the unions, that solved these problems. I think that today the pill that people think they need is always more government. This is usually not the most effective method. OSHA was not even mandated until 1970. What did people do before then? They organized!
“…hazards in the workplace are self-regulating…the government does not need to get involved”.
Self-regulating my ass! By what, the fucking “invisible hand?”
The Triangle Shirtwaist workers had a “responsibility to quit their job. They have free will”. But instead, they “were willing to put up with indignities”. Yeah, little indignities like BEING BURNED ALIVE!
You talk like a fucking neo-con, then make an appeal to organizing trade unions to solve these problems. I belong to a real trade union, the CWA, and I can guarantee that you’re a fake, a union-busting plant. Why else would you be talking out your ass like some management-indoctrinated scab?
What’s your industry experience? Triangle is a terrible example because those conditions don’t exist in the united states in ‘many’ workerplaces, tho they do exist. The reality is that alot of industrial union workers do organize around safety but you can’t get anything done without management ACTUALLY DOING IT. That’s where OSHA comes in. You could have a safety strike, and probably lose because the NLRB regs give the benefit of the doubt to the employer, or you could call OSHA and get results fast. Which would you do?
Yes, absolutely, OSHA works well for this. Is it not totally reasonable for the worker to take responsibility for his workplace though? Saying no or just suggesting a fix IS the responsible thing to do. If nothing is done about the broken ladder after that then I do think that the anonymous tip is a great thing.
I just simply say the in the end it is the responsibility of the worker for their environment. Past that OSHA has been a great tool. I just hate to see all responsibility put into governments hands. Then safety takes a dive because they cannot be everywhere.
Damn just read what I say and go smoke a joint and chill. Then again, I hope your not the paranoid type. This is not constructive I should delete this.
You do have to be careful with the anonymous tip though. My college job was working as a mechanic. One of my co-workers got pissed at my boss so he called the state run OSHA office. They came and inspected. Pointed out all the deficiencies and they were corrected eventually. My co-workers name was revealed through the documentation. Watch out for that.
I don’t smoke pot. Delete your own libertarian-ass.
And you know, that deficit thingy. /s
I’ve seen remarkable changes in workplace safety practices take place on the day that the inspector for the insurance company (insuring the contractor’s company) who helps to inform the setting of the rates the contractor will pay. Next day same old, same old.