Bush Stalls Worker Safety

Any question about the Bush Administration's indifference to worker safety can be dispelled by examining its continuing delay in requiring employers to pay for personal protective equipment for workers.

The AFL-CIO earlier this month filed a lawsuit seeking to compel the U.S. Department of Labor to act on the matter, nearly eight years after the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration review commission cited the need.

The initial deadline for implementation came during the final six months of the Clinton Administration, and it was missed. Since then, the Bush Administration - which has overwhelmingly favored corporate interests at the expense of workers and their unions and has trimmed OSHA staff - has blown several self-imposed deadlines for compelling employers to make the purchases.

"The Bush Administration's failure to implement even this most basic safety rule spotlights how it has turned its back on workers in this country," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement that announced the lawsuit.

Given that this is an administration that for an extended period failed to supply adequate body armor to the troops in Iraq - and when one soldier raised the issue at a meeting with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he got a snippy response - we shouldn't be surprised.