Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
August 4, 1999, Wednesday, THREE STAR EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 698 words
HEADLINE:
CONGRESS DEBATES DELAYING REPETITIVE STRESS RULES;
BUSINESSES SAY RESEARCH
IS INADEQUATE; LABOR CALLS FOR RELIEF FOR WORKERS;
CLINTON VOWS TO VETO
MEASURE
BYLINE: Stephanie Hanes; Post-Dispatch
Washington Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
A key labor-business battle began
Tuesday in the House, as members debated whether to prohibit new federal
regulations on repetitive stress injuries until a federal study
on the issue is completed.
The House legislation is sponsored by Rep.
Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; a similar bill by Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., is
pending in the Senate.
The debate has been simmering, both in and out of
the Capitol, for months.
On one side are business groups and their
supporters who say that employers could be forced to spend millions of dollars
to meet sketchy regulations of dubious value.
Opposing this stance are
labor groups and most congressional Democrats who say the hundreds of thousands
of workers suffering from repetitive motion injuries should have relief as soon
as possible.
"It is the safety and health vote of this session of
Congress," said Peg Seminario of the AFL-CIO. "It is really a vote as to whether
members support protection for workers or they don't."
Many business and
labor groups said members' votes Tuesday would significantly affect future
campaign endorsements.
Blunt's bill would prevent the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration from moving
forward with its plan to require employers to limit repetitive stress
injuries. The bill would freeze action on the new rules until the
National Academy of Science completes its two-year study of the issue.
Supporters of the legislation said it wouldn't make sense to require expensive
controls before there was adequate scientific information on the issue.
"There is tremendous lack of clarity and agreement on these issues,"
Blunt said. "We need to be sure when we talk about people's jobs, we're talking
about certain and specific facts."
Labor groups and their congressional
supporters countered that significant research on the study has already been
completed, and that congressional support of the new ergonomics study was never
intended to derail regulation. The opposition to OSHA's
efforts, they said, was simply a way of postponing any regulations indefinitely
- or at least until the next administration takes office.
"This really
isn't about the science," said Peg Seminario, the safety and health director for
the AFL-CIO. "It's a tactic for further delay."
The legislation would
push off any stress injury regulations until 2001 - the projected finishing date
of the million-dollar study, when a new administration will be in the White
House.
"How odd, how unfortunate, that the first significant labor bill
to come to the floor of this Congress attempts to strip working people of their
rights instead of enhancing them," said Rep. Bill Clay, D-St. Louis, who, as the
ranking member of the House Education and Workplace Committee, led the fight
against the legislation. "This bill says a good deal about the misguided
priorities of the majority."
The Bureau of Labor statistics reported in
1997 that more than 600,000 employees lose work days because of the stress
injuries resulting from repetitive motion, such as typing, straining over an
assembly line or lifting files or boxes. More than 20,000 of these cases - which
can affect workers in almost any occupation - are in Missouri.
"It's
just amazing," said James August, the director of the health and safety programs
for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. "Every time
I talk to another occupational group in our union, I learn of another group that
has serious problems."
But while some business groups and lawmakers
acknowledge the prominence of the stress injuries, they say that at this point
there is no sure way to prevent them.
"If we decide the instincts of
some bureaucrat at OSHA - who hasn't lifted anything that day
heavier than a pencil - should decide what's hard to do at the workplace and
somebody's job ends up eliminated because of that, I think that's a serious
concern," Blunt said on the House floor.
President Bill Clinton said
Tuesday he would veto the legislation should it move through Senate.
Bond's Senate legislation is pending in committee. Bond's office said
his bill has garnered 44 co-sponsors - nearly enough to ensure passage.
LOAD-DATE: August 4, 1999