Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995 TAG: 9506290059
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The legislation offered by North Carolina Rep. Cass Ballenger would weaken OSHA's workplace standards and deprive miners of the special protections offered by MSHA, U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said Wednesday in a telephone interview. His comments followed testimony before the House subcommittee on workplace protections, of which Ballenger is chairman.
"It would be the first federal law ever to weaken job safety and health protections for miners and workers in general," Reich said. "This is not reform; this is a wrecking ball."
Ballenger's legislation would make changes in the way OSHA - which is responsible for enforcing health and safety laws in industries other than mining - does business, merge MSHA and OSHA, and abolish the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety.
Ballenger's position is that the legislation would streamline the government and make better use of taxpayer dollars.
Patrick Murphy, Ballenger's spokesman, said the proposal would save money by eliminating duplicate administrative costs. Ballenger, he said, hopes the legislation would lead to more money being spent on worker safety and less on bureaucrats.
Ballenger also was motivated by the "overwhelming" disparity between funding for the two agencies, Murphy said. The mine agency's 1995 budget is $200.6 million, which provides one inspector for every 14.2 work sites and 360 employees, while OSHA has a budget of $312.5 million, providing only one inspector for every 5,267 businesses and 89,141 workers, he said.
Davitt McAteer, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said Ballenger's bill doesn't take into account the unique set of dangers in mining, which are re-created on a daily basis as a mine changes and grows. "A small error can have large and tragic consequences," he said.
Ballenger's bill doesn't provide the right balance between enforcement and education and training, sacrificing enforcement to the latter, he said.
Not surprisingly, labor leaders oppose the Ballenger proposal.
Walter Wise, president of the Roanoke Valley Central Labor Council, urged union affiliates to try to turn their lawmakers against the bill.
"We hate to see any erosion of OSHA, because OSHA is the one program the working man has out there to try to ensure safety in the work place," Wise said.
"This bill would roll back more than two decades of progress," said Richard Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers. In the 25 years before Congress passed the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, more than 12,000 U.S. coal miners died in accidents. Since then, 2,800 have died, a 77 percent reduction, Trumka said.
Murphy pointed out the bill would keep current operating standards for mines and retain MSHA's trained mine inspectors within OSHA.
Trumka, on the other hand, noted that the proposal would take away important enforcement tools. Among the changes, it would reduce the number of required mine inspections from four a year to one; eliminate the authority for inspectors to make surprise inspections and allow employers to insist on a warrant before giving inspectors access to mines; and take away inspectors' ability to remove untrained workers from a mine.
Although Ballenger's bill has 97 co-sponsors, that's not a significant number on an important piece of legislation, said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, who represents Virginia's coalfield counties. Boucher said he doubts the measure will pass and is working against it, but because Ballenger is chairman of the subcommittee, his effort must be taken seriously.
Boucher said, though, that it might be time to consider changes in the system of dual inspections by state and federal agencies and suggested that the state might shift its emphasis to safety training.
Murphy said Ballenger had not introduced the legislation at the urging of any particular group. He said that, in general, labor unions opposed it and industry supported it.
However, officials of two companies with ties to Western Virginia, American Electric Power Co. and Westmoreland Coal Co., have written letters to Congress opposing the merger of MSHA and OSHA.
Ronald W. Stucki, senior vice president for Westmoreland, which mines in Wise County, wrote Virginia congressmen he was worried that responsible, safety conscious companies like his would be forced out of business by price competition from irresponsible operators if MSHA were no longer around to police them, and that OSHA couldn't provide the same level of protection for miners.
A.S. Bumbico, safety director for AEP's fuel supply department, said he, too, objected to the merger in a letter to Ballenger. And like Stucki, Bumbico said he would like to see MSHA remain independent with some reforms aimed at making enforcement more flexible and cooperative.
The Washington, D.C.-based National Mining Association, which represents coal and other mineral mining companies, has not yet taken a position on the bill, said spokesman John Grasser. The association is polling its membership on the issue and may take a position within two or three weeks, he said.
by CNB