Job safety – another issue that concerns working Americans about President Bush's administration – was highlighted at a recent congressional hearing.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a part of the U.S. Department of Labor, is charged with enforcement of job safety standards – including investigating accidents and enforcing the law by charging employers who ignore the law and allow dangerous working conditions for their employees.

But Democratic legislators and job safety organization representatives charge that OSHA has been reined in by the Bush White House and the Republican Congress to please corporate friends.

The topic of death on the job and lack of enforcement of safety regulations won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for a New York Times journalist. David Barstow, a member of The Newspaper Guild/CWA, was honored for his work on a three-part series exposing safety violations that resulted in death or injury.

"Every one of their deaths was a potential crime . . . all of them killed, investigators concluded, because their employers willfully violated workplace safety laws," Barstow wrote. He also revealed that OSHA investigated 1,242 accidents over 20 years and did not prosecute in 93 percent of the cases.

During a May 12 hearing chaired by New York Rep. Major Owens (D), witnesses explored the many injuries and deaths that can be blamed on the lack of enforcement of existing job safety laws and the reluctance of OSHA and federal courts to mete out punishment to the employers who were at fault.

To show the magnitude of the problem, Owens noted that wrongful deaths on the job claim the lives of one worker every 90 minutes – about 6,000 deaths per year.

The Brooklyn congressman also referred to other bills being pushed by the Republican majority that "would generate a government protection program for employers who are repeat safety offenders."

The failure of OSHA was condemned by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who referred to the New York Times expose. He also cited the agency's failure to monitor and enforce asbestos regulations in auto repair shops, noting that about 750,000 Americans work in auto repair facilities and are at great risk of developing asbestos-related disease because of lax enforcement.

"Compared to previous administrations, the Bush administration OSHA is the most lax by far. With a high level of asbestos products on the market and high levels of contamination in auto repair facilities, OSHA's neglect of this obvious problem is inexcusable," Kucinich said. "OSHA is as guilty as the employers," he added.

A visitor to the hearing, New Jersey Democrat and chairman of that party's caucus in the House, Robert Menendez, congratulated Owens for taking the lead on what has become an issue that the GOP administration is trying to sweep under the rug.

Another visiting lawmaker, New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine (D), discussed the statistics revealing that OSHA did not prosecute the employer in 93 percent of these cases.

"This is flat-out wrong," Corzine said. "Because employees have a legal right to a safe environment on the job, there is no excuse for willful violations of job safety laws."

He said that he has introduced a bill in the Senate (S. 1272) to increase the penalties for employers who willfully neglect job safety. Under the current law, violations of job safety that result in injury or death are still punishable as misdemeanors. Willful and serious offenses should be raised to felonies, with increased penalties, to raise the awareness of employers who disregard safety in their workplaces, Corzine said.

California congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D) added: "We need to strengthen OSHA, not weaken it."

Among the witnesses at the hearing were Jeff Walters and Michelle Marts, whose son was killed when he fell off a barge while working for a company that did not even supply life jackets to its crews. "I think a law is needed to increase the punishment for putting workers at risk," said Walters.

"We no longer have our son, so we hope that strengthening the law will act to save other workers," Marts testified.

Several other witnesses told how they lost loved ones to lax enforcement of job safety laws that prevented them from doing what they were designed to do – protect workers on the job.

Others testified that immigrant workers are particularly vulnerable to injuries and death on the job. They cited statistics showing that employers often require foreign workers to do the most dangerous jobs without sufficient safety precautions.

Traditionally, immigrant workers gravitate to the jobs that most Americans do not want, testified Omar Henriquez, an Immigration Coordinator for the Service Employees International Union. This has been the case with the waves of immigrants to the U.S. throughout history.

Currently, immigrants are mostly Latino, and they are forced to take the most dangerous and dirty jobs to support themselves and their families.

Hispanics, who form 16 percent of the present day workforce, suffer 23 percent of workplace fatalities, said Henriquez.

An analysis of OSHA's inspection capabilities under the Bush administration shows that these statistics will not improve while he is president. It is estimated that under current staffing levels, OSHA will take 116 years to reach the 8.1 million workplaces in the United States, Henriquez added.

"As we see the mounting challenge of job injury and death, we turn to OSHA for help, but the mandate under the Bush administration leaves a lot to be desired," Henriquez noted.

One of the reasons the GCIU and the rest of organized labor are working so hard to defeat Bush in the Nov. 2 election is to end his administration's neglect of job safety, as well as threats to overtime pay, freedom to join a union and other anti-worker policies, according to GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez, who chairs the General Board Legislative Committee and is in charge of the Political Action Fund.

Worker rights representatives testify before the House Subcommittee of Workforce Protections on May 12 to cite ineffective enforcement of safety laws and failure to prosecute guilty employers. From left: Steve Smitson of CASA of Maryland; Teresa Niedda of the Farmworker Health and Safety Institute; Omar Henriques of the Service Employees International Union; and James W. Platner of the Center to Protect Workers' Rights.

Another panel of witnesses includes relatives of those killed in the workplace by accidents that could have been prevented by better enforcement of existing safety laws by OSHA and the Bush administration. Testifying from left are: Jeff Davis, who lost his father; Jaime Israel, whose twin brother was killed on the job; Holly Shaw, whose son was killed; and Michelle Marts and Jeff Walters, whose son died on the job.