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letjusticeprevail

Jeff, no offense taken. I can get wound up over what's happening to our great country as well.
I would be glad to keep you informed and maybe you would even jump on board to help make a difference. The reason I am so passionate about all this?....my 26 yr old son was taken from me because of Boyd Gaming's intentional indifference to safety. And for those who will get up in arms that maybe it was his fault - he was NOT trained in confined spaces and his supervisors didn't feel the need to do so! Jeff, if you send me your email I will share further if you're interested. Thanks for your response.

Jeff, I'm sorry I didn't understand how the scandal etc had to do with this article. My point was to talk about safety and not drag all this other stuff into this particular commentary. No one can eat an elephant in one bite but we can tackle the issues that will help make a difference. The new Protecting America's Workers Act would, in part, allow for higher penalties to repeat offenders and also allow for criminal prosecutions to company officials who knowingly ignore safety procedures and cause death(s) among other things.No one is going after the good companies who are trying to do the right thing, in fact sometimes they need help in understanding what is expected of them. That isn't the issue, it's the repeat offenders who continually worry about the bottom line of their company and count the cost of an injury or death as just a part of doing business. Killing a deer in one state and transporting it to another state without a permit will get someone a huge penalty and jail time but a company who causes a death gets a slap on the wrist. One example of how things are so out of whack.
Supporting the new PAWA will help bring some changes. As far as what Titus is addressing is the fact that state plan states can thumb their noses at the feds and nothing happens. They must be held accountable for the decisions they make too. They are not above corruption and what she is proposing would help stop the back room deals. What's wrong with that?
ecm - you're right. It's not fair that a well trained employee can ignore their training, cause an injury and the employer is held accountable. That question was asked directly to someone in the DOL in DC and there isn't a way to get around it (at this point)except for the employer to take action and fire or discipline that employee. I understand(first hand)from the employers perspective why it isn't fair but the employer does have recourse by firing the offending employee. I wouldn't feel sorry for them if they did get fired. It's the rouge companies who need to be held accountable, and if they had to face huge fines and possible jail time I'm sure most of them would think again before putting their workers at risk. Does it not bother anyone that on average 16 people lose their lives daily in this country? At least I am willing to try to make a difference.
www.weeklytoll.blogspot.com

Can we please leave the health care bill out of it or blaming the dems or republicans? At least in this issue. It's about keeping people alive! It's about stopping the corruption and power plays and holding companies accountable for giving their employees a safe place to work and making sure the agency that is responsible for making that happen does its job properly. Its obvious you haven't been touched by the death of someone close to you that was totally preventable and then had to deal with the power plays that reduced that death to insignificance. I for one hope that Nevada will become the "poster child" of how to it right and sets the example for the other states.

ecm: While most of the deaths did occur on commercial/union job sites, and I'm not addressing the clear problems there, it doesn't mean that they are the only workers in the state who were killed or injured and everyone deserves to learn how to keep themselves safe! You say that the only people who will benefit is the trainer because he will make money....IF MY SON HAD BEEN PROPERLY TRAINED BY HIS NON UNION EMPLOYERS HE WOULD NOT HAVE LISTENED TO HIS SUPERIORS AND GONE INTO AN UNSAFE ENVIRONMENT AND HE WOULD BE ALIVE TODAY!!!! He certainly would have benefited.
I understand some of the concerns but if something isn't done to bring about awareness then people are going to continue to die. On average, 16 people PER DAY die due to a workplace incident in this country and that is just unacceptable. It will be completely unacceptable to you should it be one of your family members, and I hope that never happens! Again, something has to be done.
www.usmwf.org
www.16deathsperday.com

To set the record straight, while NV inspectors may have been siphoned off to work for better pay etc at the construction projects - I asked the Assistant Sec. of Fed OSHA why the NV office couldn't have called for help from Region 9 Federal when they realized they were short staffed. He said they(Feds)called and offered inspectors to the NV office and was turned down. They finally had to accept the offer.
"Up the chain"-who's up that chain? Not hard to figure out.