New OSHA Liaison Hears Union Safety Concerns

Over 30 representatives of area unions attended a listening session in Madison on July 17 with Lisa Sciolaro, Region 5 Labor Liaison for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Union reps gave her an earfull.

The overall concern was with a general weak penalties, lack of enforcement and inadequate resources devoted to protecting workers on the job. Some specific concerns raised by the union reps included:

• low and reduced fines against violators, so that employers may be money ahead by just paying a fine than correcting health and safety problems;

• failure to protect health and safety whistleblowers, and especially those who do not have union protection; unequal training and enforcement between union and non-union workers;

• difficulty accessing OSHA rules;

• lack of privacy with makeshift porta-toilets;

• need for more and more timely, on-site field compliance checks;

• inability of unions to provide photographic evidence of employer violations;

• lack of ergonomic standards in some industries, including the growing problem if “triggerfinger” disabilities from “mousing”;

• growing hazards on “wind farms” and

• accidents being blamed on victims.

Leslie Ptak, Compliance Assistance Specialist with the Madison OSHA office, expressed frustration with their ability to prove some violations. “Sometimes we see something and we’re sure there’s a violation, but we just can’t prove it,” she told the union reps. “Like you, sometimes we are not happy with OSHA.”

Some attendees expressed hope that the Obama Administration would be more responsive to workers’ health and safety concerns than the previous administration.