Hightower Lowdown
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The all-star, all-corporate corporate cabinet
December's Lowdown
The many REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL after Election Day 2008
After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
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Is your job a pain?
Ever had back pain? How about tendonitis, carpal- tunnel syndrome, or some other chronic ailment that stabs you like an icepick and can be crippling? It's more than a pain—it's debilitating and can force you out of your job.
A hundred million American workers perform repetitive functions that cause these injuries, and 600,000 a year have to miss work because of the heavy lifting, assembly-line repetition, constant typing, and other tasks that they do. Day by day, year by year, these tasks tear at their backs, wrists, elbows, muscles, and tendons, leading to chronic, debilitating pain. They pay the price financially, too, in massive medical bills and lost income.
Late last year, though, after studying the matter for ten years, the federal government issued standards to protect working families from some of these job- related injuries. The new rules range from merely providing information to employees about these injuries to requiring companies to provide better-designed tools and workstations to prevent the injuries in the first place.
But, oh, the squealing from corporate executives and their puppets in Congress! "We can't bear the cost," they wailed—never mind that industry would actually save some $9 billion a year because of reduced worker's comp costs and increased productivity.
The cost of workplace injuries shouldn't be put on the broken backs of injured workers. Instead of making them pay with pain and medical bills, let's do all we can to stop hurting people on the job.
after studying the matter for ten years, the federal government issued standards to protect working families from some of these job-related injuries. The new rules range from merely providing information to employees about these injuries to requiring companies to provide better-designed tools and workstations to prevent the injuries in the first place.
But, oh, the squealing from corporate executives and their puppets in Congress! "We can't bear the cost," they wailed—never mind that industry would actually save some $9 billion a year because of reduced worker's comp costs and increased productivity.
The cost of workplace injuries shouldn't be put on the broken backs of injured workers. Instead of making them pay with pain and medical bills, let's do all we can to stop hurting people on the job.