This is a president who said, as a candidate, "Judge me by my record." The record is clear: the first substantive legislation signed by President George Bush is a rollback by Congress of a health and safety standard - the first in OSHA's 30-year history.
Because of this, workers in Michigan need an ergonomics standard to prevent crippling repetitive strain injuries – in fact, it’s the state’s biggest job safety problem. The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) estimates that 50% of all worker compensation claims are for strains, sprains and repetitive motion injuries.
That’s why MIOSHA established an Ergonomics Standard Advisory Committee that is made up of equal representation from business and labor to see if a state ergonomics standard could be drafted. The advisory committee has been meeting for a couple of years and is currently on draft # 10 of a proposed new standard.
In January 2006, Michigan Republicans passed and Governor Granholm vetoed, a bill to ban MIOSHA from promulgating a needed ergonomics rule. Republican leadership in both the Senate and the House have said it will continue to be a top priority for this legislative session.
Please contact your state representative and state senator today and ask that they vote "no" on any bill that would prevent MIOSHA from addressing the terrible problem of ergonomic injuries in the workplace. We must reduce the tremendous human and financial drain that ergonomic injuries are having on our economy.
We will continue to aggressively fight until every worker in every workplace is protected from crippling and disabling injuries. It's time to stop the pain.
