CORPORATIONS TO HILL: WEAKEN OR KILL PRO-WORKER RULES
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Corporations are starting to call in their chips in the new, Republican-run U.S. House by marching up to Capitol Hill to demand lawmakers weaken or kill up to 200 federal regulations, including pro-worker rules.
From opposing posting the text of federal labor law in workplaces to campaigning against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s plan – which hasn’t even been rolled out yet – to get businesses to implement programs to prevent job injuries, the firms are demanding lawmakers act against such regulations.
Corporate requests are supposed to be unveiled at a Feb. 11 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Its chairman, Darrell Issa, R-Calif. – who made his millions of dollars before coming to Congress by making car alarms – wrote in December to firms and trade associations, inviting them to list rules that allegedly “negatively impact job growth.” Issa did not send letters to anyone else.
Labor’s response was summed up recently by AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, even before knowledge of Issa’s letter and the response surfaced: “To the extent that pruning” of federal regulations “drives you away from health and safety rules, that’s a disappointment,” Trumka said in response to a question after a recent speech
The business response has been far different: A flood tide of “wish lists” sent to the committee. Issa promises to release them at the hearing, along with a GOP staff analysis. Meanwhile, some proposals already surfaced:
* “The Department of Labor (DOL) is working from organized labor's wish list,” the Chamber of Commerce charges. “The most recent regulatory agendas are packed with proposals, submitted by organized labor to the Obama administration, to reduce employers' ability to respond to organizing campaigns, weaken financial disclosure requirements, and increase the use of enforcement over compliance assistance.”
* It also wants to ban shareholder activism, which unions have used to spotlight company wrongdoing and fat pay, pensions and “golden parachutes” for executives.
* Among the pro-worker rules the Chamber complains about: DOL efforts to curb employer misclassification of workers as “independent contractors.” Misclassification lets companies get away with not paying Social Security, Medicare or even workers comp for their employees. It’s particularly rife in trucking and construction, with the Teamsters and Laborers leading campaigns against it.
* One unnamed lobby, according to news reports, wants to eliminate the recent National Labor Relations Board proposal – the first rule NLRB’s proposed in years – requiring companies to post permanent notices in workplaces telling workers they have the right to band together for self-protection i.e. join a union.
* NAM’s letter to Issa, which the group provided to PAI, also opposed several Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposals, notably the one that would require businesses to draft and implement on-the-job illness and injury prevention plans.
“Injury and Illness Prevention Program…would have sweeping ramifications on all aspects of both workplace safety enforcement and the promulgation of new regulations,” wrote executive vice president Jay Timmons. “This new proposal may not take into account the efforts by employers who already have effective safety and health programs in place or how this new mandate would disrupt safety programs that have measurable successes.
“Based on preliminary information from the agency, this proposal may allow OSHA investigators to substitute their judgment of the employer’s plan on how to achieve compliance and whether some ‘injury’ in the workplace should have been addressed in some way even if it was not regulated under a specific standard, or did not amount to a ‘significant risk’ as required under the OSH Act,” Timmons wrote.
* NAM also stated OSHA is shifting away from “voluntary compliance” by business through “on-site consultation” – the tactic pushed by the GOP Bush administration, though Timmons did not say so – to more enforcement.
“Employers, particularly small businesses, should be able to consult with OSHA and receive its assistance to better understand and comply with existing workplace safety standards to enhance the safety of their workplaces without fear of citations and fines. Recently, OSHA proposed a rule that would subject small businesses to enforcement based on their voluntary participation in these programs. As a result, businesses will be more reticent to reach out to OSHA for help and less likely to participate,” Timmons said.
* NAM also objected to OSHA’s plans to further regulate workplace noise – a proposal the agency yanked just after Democratic President Barack Obama promised, in the por-business Wall Street Journal, to create a more business-friendly climate.
Timmons told Issa federal rules put U.S. manufacturers at “a 17.6% cost disadvantage” compared to those in nine other major industrialized countries.
* The Business Roundtable wants to scotch planned limits on executive pay and
compensation – part of last year’s financial sector overhaul law – even before it starts. The Obama administration proposed on Feb. 7 that large shares of executive bonuses be deferred for at least three years, since the prospect of such bonuses spurred the speculation and financial finagling that produced the crash and the Great Recession.
* The roundtable, an organization of top CEOs, also opposes all regulations of derivatives, the unregulated securities and pieces of paper that bundled – among other things – sub-prime mortgages together and sold them to investors. When the mortgages crashed, the derivatives did, too, and produced the financial collapse.
* The Air Transport Association doesn’t want the Federal Aviation Administration to order longer rest periods between flights for pilots, as a way of combating pilot fatigue. The rest periods are a top issue for airline unions – especially after pilot fatigue was a contributing factor to a fatal plane crash outside Buffalo several years ago.
* NAM added its voice to truckers’ groups complaining about the Transportation Department’s court-ordered review of rules governing how many consecutive hours truckers can drive and how long they must rest between trips. NAM’s Timmons said trucker fatalities have fallen so greatly that a rewrite is unneeded. Getting shorter trip times and more rest in between is a key Teamsters cause.
* The American Chemistry Council opposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules curbing emissions of hazardous fumes from industrial boilers. EPA says the fumes harm children. The council and its allies say the rule costs money, and jobs.
* The National Multi-Housing Council – the apartment owners lobby – dislikes rules to protect workers renovating older buildings from exposure to lead-based paint.
Business also complained about other regulations, especially EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions plans. The emissions lead to global warming. NAM’s vice president for government affairs Aric Newhouse calls those rules, and the industrial boiler rules, “a real threat to America’s job creators.”
And the so-called National Federation of Independent Business complained about just about everything, and particularly the cost. It said small businesses already spend 36% more than their larger counterparts to comply with federal rules.
“For a brief moment, the hopes of small-business owners rose when President Obama recently issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to review regulations and report if any should be changed or repealed. But on closer reading, his order appeared to be written by those zealous bureaucrats who are masters at saying one thing and meaning another,” stated NFIB President Dan Danner. ###
