NetRootsMass » Labor

394. Transportation Department relaxes rules on truckdriving safety

Hugh — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:11:21 +0000

On November 20, 2008, the Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration finalized rules on truck driving, similar to ones thrown out last year by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The rules will allow truckdrivers to drive 77 hours in a 7 day cycle and mandates only 34 hours rest between cycles. The rule will go into effect on January 19, 2009, one day before the beginning of the next Administration. I am sure that the notion of sleep deprived truckdrivers barreling down the nation’s highways in large semis makes us all feel safer.

381. Labor Department pulls rug out from under corporate whistleblowers

Hugh — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:20:48 +0000

Using a skewed and highly restrictive interpretation of the whistleblower protection provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Elaine Chao’s Department of Labor (see item 63) has decided that it does not apply to the subsidiaries of publicly traded companies. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the Department has ruled in favor of whistleblowers in only 17 of 1,273 complaints since SOX was enacted. Many of another 841 complaints were dismissed using the subsidiary loophole. Sarbanes-Oxley was written to demand greater corporate accountability and prevent abusive practices involving shell companies, spinoffs, and subsidiaries which led to the collapse of Enron. The provision in question Chapter 18 of the US code, Section 1514A states that no publicly traded company “or any officer, employee, contractor, subcontractor, or agent of such company” can retaliate against an employee who reports fraudulent activity.

In response to the WSJ article, the authors of the whistleblower protection clause of SOX, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), wrote a letter dated September 9, 2008 to Secretary Chao pointing out that both the language of the statute and their intention were clearly for subsidiaries to be covered under the whistleblower protection and that “there is simply no basis” for the Labor Department’s interpretation. They demanded an explanation of the Department’s actions.

But it is clear what Bush’s Labor Department and its Secretary Elaine Chao were doing. They were running interference for corporate malefactors and hanging out to dry those who would expose their wrongdoing, in other words business as usual.

244. Steven Law (Mitch McConnell crony)

Hugh — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:46:15 +0000

A crony’s chronicle. Steven Law was Senator Mitch McConnell’s 1990 campaign manager and later became his chief of staff. When McConnell was named chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 1996, he chose Law as its executive director. In 2001, Elaine Chao (McConnell’s wife) and the new Secretary of Labor made him her chief of staff. In 2004, he became the Deputy Secretary of Labor. While in this position, he did his best to weaken unions and undermine overtime regulations. From the Labor Department he moved on to become chief legal officer and general counsel of the US Chamber of Commerce. Why am I not surprised?

235. Richard Stickler (opposed to mine safety regulation nominated to head Mine Safety)

Hugh — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:36:29 +0000

Despite his nomination being returned twice by the Senate to the White House and opposed by the United Mine Workers union, Richard Stickler was recess appointed Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor and head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.on October 16, 2006. His background was in engineering, not health. He worked for the mining industry for 30 years and managed some of the most dangerous and frequently cited mines in the country. He is an opponent of greater mine safety regulation.

232. Peter Kirsanow affirmative action opponent named to Civil Rights Commission

Hugh — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:32:02 +0000

And another. Peter Kirsanow an arch-conservative opponent of affirmative action was named on December 6, 2001 by direct appointment to a 6 year term on the Civil Rights Commission by President Bush. The appointment was contested but ultimately confirmed by the DC Court of Appeals in May 2002. On July 19, 2002, Kirsanow said that if there were another terrorist attack, "you can forget civil rights in this country" and that if it came from a certain ethnic community "I think we will have a return to Korematsu." (Korematsu was the Supreme Court decision validating the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II). As a Civil Rights Commissioner, he had a report critical of Bush’s civil rights record removed from the commission’s site and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Supreme Court nominations of both John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

On November 16, 2005 and again on February 10, 2006, he was nominated to the National Labor Relations Board. He was given a recess appointment by Bush on January 4, 2006. Kirsanow’s labor background is that of an anti-union attorney opposed to the minimum wage.