Job Safety and Health Update April 2012

Abstract

[Excerpt] The Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Mine Safety and Health Act promise workers the right to a safe job. Unions and our allies have fought hard to make that promise a reality, winning protections that have made jobs safe, saved hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented millions of workplace injuries and illnesses. But there still is much work to be done. After eight years of neglect and inaction by the Bush administration, the Department of Labor under the Obama administration set an ambitious agenda to develop and issue much-needed standards to protect workers from serious and life-threatening safety and health hazards, to strengthen enforcement against serious violators and to protect workers’ rights.