Hightower Lowdown

Cheerleader-in-Chief Bush and the Republican leadership recently delivered a nasty piece of special-interest legislation for their Big Business benefactors.

At issue was protecting workers from the physical and financial pain suffered from on-the-job injuries. People whose jobs require them to bend, lift or make other repetitive motions often come down with back injuries, tendonitis, and other chronic ailments that can leave them disabled.

Such injuries can often be avoided simply by redesigning equipment or workspaces, so the Occupational Safety and Health Admin-istration developed new rules over 10 years, shaping them with the input of health professionals, unions, and corporate officials.

The new rules usually required little more than informing employees of the dangers of repetitive strains and allowed simple remedies where crippling injuries were occurring.

But even this gesture of workplace civility was too much for Big Business. With George W. ensconced in the White House, corporate lobbyists seized the opportunity to stick a knife in OSHA's safety rules—and into the backs of workers.

The Republican leadership in Congress passed a bill that revokes the rules, and a smirking Bush, who took hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from these business interests, called it his first legislative "accomplishment."