Senators Kennedy, Murray, Brown and Obama Call for Stronger OSHA Enforcement

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-01-2008/0004784478&EDATE=

www.unitehere.org.

WASHINGTON, DC UNITED STATES

Senators Kennedy, Murray, Brown and Obama Call for Stronger OSHA
Enforcement

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Cintas Corp.
was criticized today in a U.S. Senate hearing for having a dangerous
pattern of disregarding worker safety. The hearing, held by the Employment
and Workplace Protections Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions (HELP) Committee, sought to hold leading corporations like Cintas
accountable for repeated safety violations.

"What is most disturbing to me is that these tragedies are happening
over and over again in the same industries. And they are happening far too
often at the same companies -- where workers are doing jobs that their
employers know are dangerous and unsafe," stated Subcommittee Chairwoman
Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

Not even multiple citations and record breaking proposed penalties have
persuaded Cintas to eliminate the kinds of violations that led to the March
2007 death of Tulsa, Oklahoma, worker Eleazar Torres Gomez. More than one
year after this fatality, Cintas workers report they continue to face the
same kinds of potentially lethal dangers in their plants. The Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is currently investigating these
hazards in an Illinois Cintas laundry.

In addition to Cintas, Senators heard testimony about pork producer
Smithfield Farms, garbage collector Waste Management, and residential
construction developer Avalon Bay. While these employers are from vastly
different industries, like Cintas, they have made choices that increased
the risk of injury or illness to their workers.

The hearing also addressed OSHA's failures to investigate and remedy
corporate-wide health and safety violations as a result of ineffective
enforcement tools and inadequate resources.


FULL story at link.