The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other environmental organizations are suing the Trump administration for violating the Clean Air Act by suspending protections against methane leaks and other air pollution emitted by oil and gas industry operations.
A digital and print ad campaign by the nation’s largest manufacturing trade association is aimed at thanking President Donald Trump for his commitment to manufacturers “by addressing our nation’s regulatory burden head-on” during his first months in office.
In their first 100 days in power, the Trump administration and the Republican Congress have repealed and blocked worker safety regulations that were years, sometimes decades, in the making. Through legislative action, executive orders and the use of the Congressional Review Act, the executive and legislative branches jointly and repeatedly shifted the cost and responsibility of keeping workers safe from corporations to workers and the public.
Silicosis is a lung disease common among construction workers, including lifelong bricklayers. The disease is caused by inhaling crystalline silica dust, created when drills and saws buzz into bricks, concrete, and mortar.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is extending the effective date of the agency’s final rule on Examinations of Working Places in Metal and Nonmetal Mines until Oct. 2, 2017.
While regulations on the federal level are being repealed or delayed, the rulemaking process is still going strong at the state level – as demonstrated by California’s approval last week of a tough new oil refinery safety regulation.
Representatives of the construction industry, as well as general industry have petitioned Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to reopen the silica standard, workplace safeguards that would save over 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis each year.
A once-cozy relationship between unions and OSHA under the Obama administration has cooled –at least for now. Continuing its promise to roll back OSHA rules influenced by the Obama administration, the Trump administration has leveraged OSHA to withdraw one of its so-called pro-union rules.
In 2017 the construction industry is one of the most dynamic sectors of the U.S. economy. Residential construction, bridge erection, roadway paving, excavations, demolitions, and large scale painting jobs are all booming.
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