Video: Elaine Chao, Bush's Sec. Of Labor get's her nails done for McCain fundraiser, Bill Moyers on OSHA unreported injuries

Elaine Chao’s Labor Department doesn’t see a problem, though. Elaine’s OSHA claims poultry plants are “safer than ever,” pointing to supposedly lower rates of reported injuries. The devil’s in the details, though.- American Rights at Work on Elaine Chao's stance on the poultry industry

2 SUV's and 6 security personal, just a few blocks from her home, wow Elaine must have gotten really gussied up for John McCain and her husband Senator Mitch McConnell.


Kentucky protesters get booted away from across the street of Senator McConnell's, John McCain fund raiser.

According to Shame on Elaine (6/29/08):

Matt Gunterman sums up the problem with this scene:

So, by my rough calculation, it probably cost on the order $450 to get Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s nails done.

Workers in Kentucky struggle to fill up their gas tanks because gas is $4/gallon and inflation is rising.

Workers in Kentucky worry that they won’t have a job tomorrow because the second Bush recession promised to be even worse than the first.

Workers in Kentucky wonder if they’ll meet next month’s mortgage, while Wall Street fat cats get bailed out by Washington.

But does any of this worry Elaine Chao, wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) and George W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor?

Go read the rest of Matt’s post.

The Bush Legacy Bus - with some great music
"you took our jobs and sent em overseas, now we owe billions to the red Chinese"- Takin My Country Back by The Honky Tonkers For Truth


Elaine Chao

Heres a little about Elaine Chao, from a previous story on Feb.19th. 2008: Carhartt, Red Wing Shoes and more union news you may have missed, ideas, blurbs and dumbed down Americans

Now American Rights at Work has launched a web-based campaign exposing Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s dismal record through www.ShameOnElaine.org which according to Talking Union:

Unlike her cohorts in the Bush Administration, Elaine Chao has escaped much-needed public scrutiny of her time on the job. From littering the Labor Department with corporate insiders to dismantling worker safety protections and collaborating with her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell, on a blatant anti-union political agenda, Elaine has disgraced her role as Secretary of Labor.

Like most union activists we knew Elaine was a stinker – but until ARAW pulled all the information together at one spot, we had no idea just how bad her record is. We’re sure you’ll share our outrage over what we found out she was up to instead of serving in the interest of workers:

• Hired a former colleague from the Heritage Foundation who actually wrote a report titled “How to close down the Department of Labor.”
• Cut over 100 inspectors at the MSHA and, as a result, hundreds of mines weren’t inspected and tragedies such as Sago and Crandall Canyon might have been prevented.
• Had Chao-themed coins, lanyards, and fleece blankets printed at taxpayers’ expense.
• Failed to issue a rule requiring employers pay for their workers’ safety gear—contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
• Had an auditorium named in her honor – thanks to her husband’s $14.2 million earmark to enhance the Mitch McConnell Center at his alma mater, the University of Louisville. Of course, Elaine never attended the university.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg, my buddy Richie at UnionReview.com has been following her views on the American worker for a while and I pointed out in a comment:

Lets not forget

We are angry and smelly workers, according to the US Secretary of Labor
… In her infinite wisdom, Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao lectures workers on how we can stop losing our jobs to foreign workers: …
…and…
Secretary of Labor on Employee Free Choice Act
… will veto if it gets to his desk. The president and Elaine Chao say that private ballot elections should be preserved because “it is …

At the Shame on Elaine site theres also, among other atrocious misdeeds, an article about the North Carolina poultry industry, which as you may have read about first right here on JoesUnionReview, the newspaper in the local area, the Charlotte Observer has been doing what has become a rarity in todays Main Stream Media, an expose. Shame On Elaine notes:

Elaine Chao’s Labor Department doesn’t see a problem, though. Elaine’s OSHA claims poultry plants are “safer than ever,” pointing to supposedly lower rates of reported injuries. The devil’s in the details, though.

The poultry story has created quite a stir, the AFL-CIO Web Blog is currently engaged in a debate in it's comments section pertaining to a story about the newest employer exploitation here on American soil. Slaves, Sharecroppers, Now Immigrants.

OSHA under the umbrella of Elaine Chao's DOL

BILL MOYERS: Businesses, on the other hand, say the requirements are cumbersome, and have long pressured the agency for weaker standards of regulation.

The pressure's paid off. THE NEW YORK TIMES' Stephen Labaton reported last year that since George W. Bush became president, the agency has left worker safety largely in the hands of industry, and has issued the fewest significant standards in its history.

Video on the production of The Charlotte Observers investigative report "The Cruelest Cuts" and the under reporting of workplace injuries, which has been covered here at Joe's with:U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry

From the narrator in the video:

In North Carolina, the number of OSHA poultry plant inspections fell from 25 in 1997 to nine in 2006. South Carolina poultry plant inspections dropped from 36 in 1999 to 1 in 2006.

Nationwide, OSHA workplace safety inspections at U.S. poultry plants have dropped to their lowest point in 15 years. In fact the government rewards companies that report low injury rates by inspecting them less often. And Washington's regulators rarely check whether companies are reporting accurately.

Please also note that the video features testimony by Bob Whitmore, a long time OSHA employee , who has been placed on Administrative leave to testify in the hearing, Mr.Whitmore was also the 200th. person to sign the petition against OSHA's lack of a standard in combustible dust

"As an OSHA employee, I was ashamed and deeply offended by my Agencies response at Rep Miller's Hearings. Like Rep. Miller said "I again see no sense of urgency from OSHA". The OSHA Watchdog has acted like a Lapdog again." - Bob Whitmore , Maryland

Read More about combustible dust
Read More about MeatPacking industry

OSHA News at Unbossed

• Under-Reporting Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (6/23/08)
• Constructing Unsafe Workplaces (6/26/08)
• More on Construction Industry Injuries (6/26/08)

Government, Industry Play the Numbers Game on Worker Safety in Meatpacking Plants-Labor Notes

Shirah from Unbossed at DailyKOS
More James Pence Video's at Hillbilly Report

Hillbilly chimed in on the comments with this gem, thanks brother

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Doctors come forward to Congress explaining how they are coerced to mistreat and under treat injured workers

Wow, it's about time, while there are some who screw the system, the majority of workplace injuries are sincere

A group representing 5,000 doctors, some who treat workers referred by employers and others working directly for companies, has come forward to speak out. According to Dr. Robert McLellan, president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine "Our members feel they are being methodically pressured ... to under-treat and mistreat," and adds "...This is a grave ethical concern for our members. It's a grave medical concern.".

I couldn't agree more, when I worked in a warehouse, the "company' got a new doctor for workplace injuries, the first red flag was that he had a Doberman pinscher in his office, the second was when he sent a fella back to work with a broken leg. It's about time.

From The Charlotte Observer (4/19/08) :

Doctors feel push to downplay injuries
by Ames Alexander aalexander@charlotteobserver.com

Group tells OSHA of pressure by companies
NEW YORK -A leading group of occupational doctors is taking the unusual step of speaking out publicly against pressure from companies to downplay workplace injuries.

To outline their concerns, the physicians have sent a letter to federal workplace safety regulators and held a conference session in New York City on Monday. They're also planning to testify before Congress.

If successful, their campaign could affect the treatment of injured workers and might help change how the government assesses workplace safety.

"Our members feel they are being methodically pressured ... to under-treat and mistreat," said Dr. Robert McLellan, president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "...This is a grave ethical concern for our members. It's a grave medical concern."

His group represents 5,000 doctors; some treat workers referred to them by employers, while others work directly for companies.

Employers are supposed to record all injuries requiring time off work or medical treatment beyond first aid. It's an honor system, and the injury logs are used by regulators and others to gauge plant safety. Low injury rates allow companies to avoid scrutiny from workplace safety regulators and may help managers earn four-figure bonuses.

In a hotel meeting room in New York, doctors said this helps explain why some employers urge them not to treat injuries in a way that would make them reportable. A cut, for instance, must be recorded if the worker gets stitches, one doctor told the room of more than 60 colleagues. But if the doctor simply covers the cut with a bandage, it doesn't have to be reported.

Workplace injury and illness rates -- a key factor in determining whether regulators inspect a company -- have been declining nationwide in recent years. But some experts suspect that's partly because employers aren't reporting all on-the-job injuries.

McLellan, an associate professor at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire, says he thinks employers are "vastly underreporting" the extent of workplace injuries.

"Players in the system may willfully produce records that don't reflect reality," he said in an interview.

He said he grew more concerned about corporate pressures on doctors in September, during a conference in the Carolinas. Since then, he said, he has heard from dozens of doctors.

That led him to contact the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and he expects to discuss his concerns with top agency officials next month. His group will likely propose that OSHA more vigorously investigate the accuracy of company injury logs. It may also ask regulators to rely on a broader array of workplace safety measures -- and to rewrite rules so that companies have fewer incentives to underreport.

McLellan also wants occupational doctors to testify before congressional committees examining workplace safety.

Ethical physicians sometimes lose business to those who bend to the wishes of employers, some doctors and workers' compensation lawyers say.

In the Carolinas and some other states, injured workers generally must visit doctors approved by their employers if they want workers' compensation to pay for the treatment. Companies incur higher costs for compensating workers for medical care and lost wages when they're injured on the job.

Employers tend to send workers to doctors who can help them keep costs low and productivity high, according to attorneys who represent injured workers. Doctors become popular with companies if they rarely order time off work for injured employees, or if they seldom recommend costly treatments or conclude injuries are work-related, those lawyers say.

"If you get past the infirmary and sent to a doctor, you're getting sent to a doctor that lives on the plant," said lawyer David Davila, who until recently worked in Columbia, S.C.

Atlanta lawyer Bruce Carraway has represented more than 400 injured poultry workers and says that in more than half of those cases, independent physicians gave different assessments than the company doctors.

Dr. Josephus Bloem, an orthopedic surgeon from Rocky Mount, said he used to get referrals from Perdue Farms. But in the 1990s, the company became unhappy that he usually recommended surgery for workers with carpal tunnel syndrome.

"Their top doctor once visited me and complained that I was too expensive, which I took as pressure to review my approach," Bloem said. Not long afterward, the referrals stopped.

Dr. Roger Merrill, Perdue's chief medical officer, said the company had discovered that many workers who got less invasive treatment -- such as splinting, exercise and ibuprofen -- fared better than those who got surgery. "We had a better way to treat folks," he said.

But Bloem wondered whether health concerns were the only factor. "In the end," he said, "the money wins."

In their quest to keep injuries off logs, company officials without medical training sometimes provide inappropriate treatment, doctors at the New York conference said.

Dr. Peggy Geimer, corporate medical director for a chemical company in Connecticut, spoke of the "tremendous amount of pressure" on company staff to provide treatment beyond their level of expertise.

She recalled how one supervisor dealt with an injured worker who spilled an acidic chemical on his arm: He applied potash, which is sometimes used to clean up chemical spills -- unaware that it would only make the burn worse.

McLellan said he doesn't recall his group ever before taking such a strong stance on the issue. As one doctor at Monday's conference put it: "We need to treat the patient. Not the log." -- Staff Writers Karen Garloch and Franco Ordonez contributed.

The Charlotte Observer also adds at the bottom of the story a piece in which they speak about the poultry industry, in which they had an in depth investigation and report on about 2 months back, you can see more news on that in the related links below.

Many injuries unreported in poultry industry

In a recent investigation of working conditions in the poultry industry, the Observer found that many on-the-job injuries aren't being reported.

One N.C. poultry company, House of Raeford Farms, has repeatedly failed to record injuries on government safety logs. The newspaper also found that some company first-aid attendants have prevented poultry workers from receiving care that would cost the company money.

House of Raeford says it follows the law, provides good care and strives to protect workers.

A record-keeping expert for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration told the Observer that his agency is allowing employers nationwide to vastly underreport the number of workplace injuries. The true rate for some industries, including poultry processors, is likely two to three times higher than government numbers suggest, Bob Whitmore said.

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North Carolina who was recently sued by Mexico for labor rights violations is at it again, coercing county employee out of Worker Compensation.

Not a labor friendly state by a long shot

North Carolina already has a law which prevents any government agency—state, county, or local—from negotiating with an organized group representing its employees. This prevents these agencies from engaging in business practices as they see fit, and it prevents workers from joining forces to protect their rights.

From my article at UnionReview (11-10-07): North Carolina Violates NAFTA ?? - Right to Freely Associate/Organize/Bargain Collectively

The ILO (International Labor Organisation) had filed a complaint in Oct.06 - and now (11-07) Mexico's government has called for immediate answers to questions on the progress in gaining collective bargaining rights for public sector workers in the US state of North Carolina.

The US, Mexico, and Canada share the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in which a side accord, the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC), is being used to challenge the lack of labor rights in North Carolina.

Now comes even more news from WVEC.Com(ABC local news in NC) on how bad being a civil servant in North Carolina can be:

Injured man fighting for workman's comp
Reported by: Lindsey Roberts
Television Link

HERTFORD CO., NC – An employee for the county is fighting over worker's compensation. He's asked to remain anonymous.

"When I had the accident I could tell then I was hurt," he said. "They x-rayed and said everything was going to be fine -- it was just probably going to be sore a right good little while."

He says he followed county policy and filled out an accident report, but the next day, he says he received a call from the county saying if he wanted to get paid, he’d have to file the claim on his personal insurance.

He says Hertford County never filed a worker's compensation claim."No, I have not seen one,” he said. “No, nothing but the little county form."He added, “It's just kind of frustrating knowing we are probably going to have to come out of pocket with the deductible after we were hurt on county property."

Everett Thompson practices law in Elizabeth City, NC and handles personal injury and worker's compensation cases. He says the laws are designed to protect the employee. That means if claims are filed, the employee pays no medical expenses.

"Worker's compensation insurance rates are determined by the number of claims they have, so the more claims, the higher the rate, so it would be more expensive for the employer if they have more claims so they might want to encourage their employees not to file."

That practice is illegal. (Read More)

Makes me glad I live in one of those bad old "forced-unionism state's", this comes on the heels of another story that the Charlotte Observer has been covering about a poultry meat packing plant in North Carolina that appears on paper to be safer than a toy store. Hey look below where NC stands on workers rights.

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NC: The Human Cost of the poultry Industry by The Charlotte observer

NOTE: UPDATE can be found at U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry 3-08-07

From: The Charlotte Observer

*Click within the Flash below to view the entire project

The Charlotte Observer has produced an unreal look into the dark side of todays meatpacking industry, with a investigative story entitled The Cruelest Cuts: The human cost of bringing poultry to your table. I urge all of my readers to check it out, according to their plants records they are safer than a toy store, can you imagine that?

Safer than a toy store?

Workplace safety experts also question a reported drop in musculoskeletal disorders. In 2006, 20.8 of every 10,000 poultry workers missed work because of MSDs, down from 88.3 in 1996, according to the Labor Department.

That 2006 rate would make poultry plants safer than toy stores. "It's intuitively implausible," said Dr. Michael Silverstein, a former OSHA policy chief. "Something is clearly wrong."

Here are the rates of MSDs resulting in lost time, per 10,000 workers:

47.4 Hobby, toy and game stores

38.6 Average for all industries

27.5 New car dealers

25.9 Pharmacies

20.8 Poultry processing

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Seems to me they probably have an tremendous illegal alien workforce, injuries occur, but don't get reported for fear of employer retaliation. God forbid they try to unionize, ICE will storm in and raid the place. Big props to the investigative writers at the Charlotte Observer, I can wait to read the entire work.

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