We already knew the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's extremism on issues such as financial reform, labor law, climate change and health care reform have left them out of touch with the mainstream. However, their recent opposition to a bill proposing paid sick leave for workers who contract flu-like symptoms in light of this year's H1N1 epidemic is simply unconscionable.

Chamber Vice President Randel K. Johnson recently stated that they oppose paid sick leave because "the vast majority of employers provide paid leave of some sort." The fact is, more than one-third of all workers don't get any paid sick leave. It's even worse for low-income workers like school food workers and in-home care aids: 76 percent don't have something many of us take granted--the right to a "sick day."

Despite widespread support for passing an emergency bill for employees to receive paid sick time if they contract flu-like symptoms, the U.S. Chamber is trying to kill it. "Anyone who thinks it's a good idea to force someone battling H1N1 to come to work either couldn't care less about the well-being of his employees, or couldn't know less about the way disease and infection spreads," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger.

For too long, the Chamber has preferred to overlook low-income workers and real economic benefits in order to advocate for the perceived interests of large employers. No worker who gets sick should have to choose between their health and their paycheck.

Tell the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to cease lobbying against a common sense solution to keep our workplaces safe and healthy while America is in the middle of a record-breaking flu pandemic: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/ChamberH1N1

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor formally made good on a promise to kill a proposal introduced by President Bush in his final days of administration that would have made it more difficult for the government to write new worker protection rules. OMB Watchreports that the controversial proposal was, essentially, "an attempt to regulate regulations" by creating an "additional mandatory step to an already complicated rulemaking process."

The so-called risk assessment proposal would have weakened and delayed the development of standards to protect workers from occupational hazards, including making it harder to prove the level of risk workers face when exposed to toxins on the job. The Labor Department issued a notice calling the proposed rule "unnecessary." Democratic lawmakers are applauding the move, saying it would have "dramatically weakened future workplace health and safety regulations and slow[ed] their enactment."

Rulings such as this one by the DOL and Secretary Solis make me grateful that we no longer have a Labor Secretary whose main agenda is not about workers and protecting their rights, but instead, making sure labor rights don't stand in the way of economic interests. Hopefully moving forward, we'll be seeing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) taking initiative and issuing new health-protective regulations to protect workers from toxic substances. More details on this dodged-bullet at The Pump Handle.

When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed early versions of the healthcare bill Tuesday, we weren't surprised. This is, after all, the same group that colorfully told the Associated Press it was "time to unload the powder and fill the musket" in their fight against health care reform. Call us cynical, but we didn't think they were planning on using that $100 million "campaign to defend the free market" on tea parties and Civil War reenactments.

The fact is, America's healthcare system is broken and all the right-wing continues to do is champion the status quo and purposely distort the reality of what fixing healthcare will mean to millions of American families. The Chamber's assault on the current bill is simply the latest in a string of attacks on common-sense healthcare reforms during the course of their existence. Here's our "Top 10."

Top 10 Historical Chamber Quotes Against Healthcare

10. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Denounced Patients' Bill of Rights As Special Interest Giveaway To Trial Lawyers. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said that 2001 of the Patients' Bill of Rights "should be called the Trial Lawyers' Right to Bill...adding new mandates and expanding liability will only serve to increase insurance costs and undermine employers' ability to offer this valuable benefit." [U.S. Chamber of Commerce Press Release, 6/12/01 ]

9. U.S. Chamber Spokesman Said OSHA Is a "Blatant Denial of Fundamental Fairness." When describing the structure of the Labor Department within the Executive Branch rather than the Judicial Branch of the government, Richard Berman, director of labor law for the United States Chamber of Commerce, said "This has a chilling effect on an employer's exercise of his right to appeal and is thus a blatant denial of fundamental fairness." [U.S. News & World Report, 11/24/75]

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vigorously Opposed Occupational Safety Regulations and "led the fight to defeat the 1968 bill." In an article written between the initial bill supported by President Johnson and the second bill, that passed, supported by President Nixon, the New York Times reported: "The first legislation providing for a comprehensive nationwide system of health and safety standards was proposed last year by President Johnson. Strongly supported by labor, the bill ran into immediate and vigorous opposition from industry, led by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States." [New York Times, 12/10/69; New York Times, 3/19/70]

8. U.S. Chamber President Called OSHA "An Abysmal Failure." In 1980, Richard L. Lesher, President of the U.S. Chamber of Congress, charged, "OSHA at best has been a major disappointment, at worst an abysmal failure." "To date, there has been no solid documentation that OSHA has yielded any gains in safety or health," said Lesher. [AP, 4/1/80]

7. U.S. Chamber Spokesman Compared Employer Mandates to Jumping on a "Runaway Train." In 1989, U.S. Chamber Spokesman Frederick J. Krebs was asked by the Washington Post about employer mandated coverage and said, "Health-care costs are out of control -- so being forced to provide these benefits is like being told to jump on a runaway train." [The Washington Post, 4/13/89]

6. Referring to Mental Health Parity Legislation, Chamber Officials Said Personal Tragedy is a "Poor Way to Make Legislation." Complaining that opposing Republicans on mental health parity legislation put them in an awkward position, Neil Trautwein, manager of health care policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said, "It's tremendous to have someone with the stature of Pete Domenici or Alan Simpson get up and describe these personal tragedies, but it's often a poor way to make legislation," says Trautwein. "An emotional argument late in the night is not the way to make policy." [The Washington Post, 6/19/96]

We thought we'd save the best for last, so: be sure to read the "top 5" quotes, after the break.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) role is to promote the safety and health of America's working men and women. One of the ways they do this is by holding an annual competition for grants; awarding funds to organizations to enable them to provide training and education programs on safety and health topics for workers and their employers.

OSHA is now soliciting applications for nearly $7 million in Susan Harwood Training Grants available to nonprofit organizations, including labor unions and community-based and faith-based organizations that are not an agency of a State or local government. For 2009, the program is offering 24 targeted topic areas for grants including emergency preparedness and response (including pandemic flu preparedness), ergonomics and workzone safety. Training grants will be awarded for a 24-month performance period, and applications must be submitted electronically using the http://www.grants.gov/ website no later than 4:30 pm on July 24, 2009.

« More information on the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program and how to apply is available on OSHA's website.

Can nursing home work be hazardous to your health?
SEIU's Education and Support Fund has been awarded renewable Harwood grant funds several times over the past couple of years. With this funding, SEIU produced training materials that have broad application in the workplace. A few years back, SEIU put together a training program to educate workers in healthcare facilities (specifically, nursing homes) about health and safety on the job, and learn how to prevent back injuries. View the plethora of materials created here.

SEIU.org also offers many more resources on workplace health and safety guides - check them out at www.seiu.org/a/members/safety-and-health.php

Last week, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) laid the first steps toward the Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act (H.R. 2381). Direct care nurses have a higher rate of injury than laborers, movers and truck drivers from repositioning, moving and lifting patients, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.This legislation will require that healthcare facilities provide safe patient handling using mechanical lifts and develop injury prevention plans for healthcare workers who move patients.

Nurses advanced on Capitol Hill last week for a National RN Day of Action the same day H.R. 2382 was introduced, lobbying members of Congress for passage of the legislation that would leave nurses better able to tend to the real heavy lifting of nursing - patient care. Read the core provisions of the legislation.

In 2008, one of SEIU Local 1021's members was killed on the job: James Strickland, a BART structures inspector, was hit by a train he didn't see coming because BART wasn't keeping brush and tree branches cleared away from the tracks.

Every April 28, the international labor movement stops to commemorate the lives and sacrifices of workers who never made it home, and to renew the struggle for safer and healthier workplaces. It's a day for speaking up as well as moments of silence. According to the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than four million workers were injured on the job and nearly 6,000 were killed by injuries due to job-site hazards in 2007 alone. Thousands more died of job-related diseases.

New Era of Workplace Safety Enforcement

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis spent part of Workers' Memorial Day helping to break ground for a new national workers' memorial at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland and to honor fallen workers who have been killed on the job. "When it comes to worker health and safety let me be clear, the Department of Labor is back in the enforcement business," said Solis, reiterating that the focus on the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well as its Wage and Hour Division is especially important now.

Many of our nation's health care facilities are not prepared to protect health care workers from exposures to pandemic influenza, according to a new report compiled by the SEIU and six other unions, "Healthcare Workers in Peril: Preparing to Protect Worker Health and Safety During Pandemic Influenza." To determine the level of worker safety and health preparedness on a facility basis, a "pandemic flu preparedness survey" was distributed to 104 healthcare facilities in 14 states over the course of 2008.

In the event of a widespread flu outbreak, health care workers would have increased vulnerability to the virus, both through their normal everyday activities and in the health care environment where sick patients come for care. The report results indicate that a number of health care facilities have made some progress in preparing for a pandemic flu epidemic - but "some" progress does not equal nearly "enough" preparedness, given the high risks of a potential pandemic influenza outbreak, which typically strikes three to four times a century.

Report Findings: Only 4 percent of surveyed union leaders representing health care workers reported that their workplaces were "very ready" to respond sufficiently to an influenza pandemic, while another 33 percent felt their facilities were "ready for most things." While reading over this report myself, I was surprised to discover that more than a third of the clinics surveyed have no pandemic flu plan in place at all. Forty-three percent of survey respondents said that, given the current level of preparedness at their facility to minimize personal exposure while caring for infected patients, "most or some members will stay home" in the event of a pandemic outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued guidelines for preventing the spread of a pandemic flu disease that that fall into this line of thinking, recommending that during emerging health threats people should stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

This advice clearly makes sense, as sick employees going to work contributes to the spread of diseases like swine flu.

Sometimes symbols appear unexpectedly.

Jdimytai Damour, a temporary Wal-Mart worker, became a symbol to millions of low-wage workers last Friday when he died a needless death because Wal-Mart failed to take the necessary precautions to protect him. He became a symbol of those workers quietly yielding to unsafe working conditions because they have no voice. Americans need Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act next year so that deaths like Mr. Damour's, and so many other deaths and injuries to low-wage workers on the job can be avoided in the future.

In 2007 a respected human rights watchdog group, Human Rights Watch, released a report critical of Wal-Mart's union-busting policies and practices in the United States. According to the report, "while many American companies use weak U.S. laws to stop workers from organizing, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus." Wal-Mart's opposition to its workers exercising their legal right to organize has even extended to terminating entire departments and closing entire stores.

For example, in February 2000, ten employees of the Wal-Mart meat department in a Jacksonville, Texas, store elected United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) as their union. Wal-Mart immediately scrapped their entire network of in-store butcher departments nationwide. And in Jonquière, Quebec, after the birth of a certified UFCW Local at a Wal-Mart store and a decision by the Minister of Labor for Quebec to grant the union's request for contract arbitration, Wal-Mart announced that it would close the Jonquière store.

The result of this behavior is that workers are denied a seat at the table to contribute to setting standards that protect them on the job. In the absence of such contributions, management is free to set whatever standards it deems appropriate and workers are obligated to go along if they wish to keep their jobs. To make matters worse, Wal-Mart store management's compensation is based on bonus systems that encourage cutting labor costs, resulting in more temporary workers. Temporary workers like Damour are particularly vulnerable in that environment because they have neither the context nor the influence to express reservations when asked to perform certain duties.

Without a union it is entirely up to Wal-Mart's management to determine whether or not they took legitimate precautions to prevent this incident. In the absence of union representation, let me suggest if it is not already obvious from the events that unfolded, that Wal-Mart failed on at least a few levels to protect its employees and its customers.

First, it appears there was a shortage of adequate security at the doors. Wal-Mart has still not released how many guards were present at the time to control the rushing crowd of 2000 people. Second, the company used at least some temporary workers including Mr. Damour who were not familiar with what to expect on Black Friday. Third, as some news reports have pointed out, unlike other retailers Wal-Mart did not provide tickets for store entry or offer rain-checks for any items that were sold out. All of these choices contributed to the tragic events of that day and the workers who were on the line that morning had no say in making any of them.

More low-wage workers need a voice in their workplace. The current system of certifying a union has failed because employers have found ways to thwart the process, and the federal government has failed to prevent that interference or to protect workers right to organize in any meaningful way. It is time for a change.

Next year, by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, Congress can provide that change. No one will force workers to organize a union, but they will be freer to do so if they choose. I believe that many of them will seek a union for all the reasons that people have wanted unions in the past including workplace safety. Sadly and unexpectedly, Jdimytai Damour will be a symbol for that fight and a powerful reminder of how workers are taken advantage of every day.

(Cross-posted by permission from Huffington Post)

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In case you missed it........Wal-Mart Watch announced in late Nov. that it would be joining efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act so that Wal-Mart's employees and other workers around the country will have the choice to form a union to advocate for better wages and benefits. To martial all available resources toward this effort, Wal-Mart Watch has merged its operations into SEIU to share knowledge and expertise and best serve the efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Read the joint statement here.

>> Learn more about Employee Free Choice