Dorry's blog

Howard Shelanski, the man tapped to be Obama's next regulatory czar -- or more formally, the head of the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) -- appeared before the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

The agency is tasked with reviewing many regulations that would protect public health and safety. To our dismay, many of these critical rules, including a proposed rule that would protect workers from exposure to dangerous levels of silica dust on the job, have faced cumbersome delays.

Shelanski's views on regulations are largely unknown, and the Senate committee -- not to mention several advocacy groups -- wanted to find out where he stands. National COSH helped to live-tweet the Senate hearing (check out our Twitter feed for the latest). Below, check out blog posts recapping the events from our partners at the Center for Effective Government, Public Citizen, and the Center for Progressive Reform.

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards today released a new report, “Down the Regulatory Rabbit Hole: How Corporate Influence, Judicial Review and a Lack of Transparency Delay Crucial Rules and Harm the Public,” which details how the failure to finalize rules harms the American people by compromising the safety of food, automobiles, workplaces and protections for investors.

As part of his ongoing “Victims of Government” series, which spotlights ways that the big bad government spends money to keep its citizens safe, Sen. Ron Johnson last week introduced us to Catherine Engelbrecht, a wife, mother, community volunteer, and small business owner.

Another Asian factory made headlines this week as a fire at a Chinese poultry plant on Monday killed at least 119 people. Of course, this comes on the heels of the collapse of the garment factory in Rana Plaza, which killed 1,127 workers, as well as a fire at another Bangladeshi garment factory a week later, which took the lives of at least another eight workers. 

As some retailers in the U.S. are calling for better working conditions in Bangladesh garment factories (and others opting out of aligned factory safety plans), government officials in the U.S. and Bangladesh alike are weighing their options.

Officials in the Bangladeshi Parliament have stated that they will work to improve safety in the country’s garment factories. But as U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) noted today on a telephone press conference, so far, no concrete actions have been taken to step up safety procedures. Instead, we have heard only lofty statements.

A 22-year-old man -- Christopher Michael Cantu -- was killed on the job yesterday in Corpus Christi, Texas, when a 2,600-pound metal tank fell on him. It was only his third day on the job.

Though the incident is still under investigation, we know that OSHA has fined Cantu’s employer, Coastal Plating Company, in the past few years.

Another fire has ravaged yet another Bangladesh garment factory last night, this one taking the lives of at least eight workers.

Public attention has remained on the Bangladesh garment industry in the wake of a catastrophic factory collapse two weeks ago, whose death toll is as high as 900 workers.

To say this is a travesty is an understatement.

The AFL-CIO today released its 2013 “Death on the Job” report, just two weeks after National COSH released its report, “Preventable Deaths: The Tragedy of Workplace Fatalities.”

Well, by all accounts, Workers’ Memorial Week of Action was a huge success.

Workplace safety advocates, unions, worker centers, faith-based organizations, family members, and other advocates joined together to honor workers who have been injured or killed on the job and to push for safer workplaces.