Usually I'm against talking about these kinds of things on this site, but I'm so stunned I can't help it. I have to speak my mind when I feel there is injustice. It's just unbelievable...unfathomable even. I'm not sure there is anyone out there who could have predicted things to go down yesterday like they did and I'm flabbergasted...
...that's right, Britney Spears and Kevin Federline are getting divorced. Really? Whodathunk it? They seemed perfect for each other. What? You thought I was talking about the elections? You know I don't like to talk politics here.
OK, enough stupidity. Here's an example I found this morning of bargaining partially solving a workplace environmental exposure dispute.
An industry association, a labor union and a public health group recently settled a court case over a new standard for worker exposure to a cancer-causing chemical, hexavalent chromium. It was a rare example of agreement in worker-safety regulation.
Under the Oct. 25 settlement, the Surface Finishing Industry Council , whose members use the chemical to coat metals, agreed to move faster to improve ventilation and make other engineering changes to reduce workers' exposure levels. In return, the United Steelworkers union and an ally agreed that workers would have to wear a respirator only for certain jobs, unless they requested one.
"It's a good trade-off," said Scott Nelson , a lawyer with Public Citizen Litigation Group , which worked with the union in getting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to revise the standard.
"How often, when you have zealously guarded positions, do you achieve common ground?" agreed Baruch Fellner , an attorney for the industry group.
You see, when small groups are involved, there are opportunities for mutually beneficial gains from bargaining. The problem? Usually these problems aren't restricted to small groups...and neither is this one.
Unfortunately, it's not a harbinger this election day of a real breakthrough in one of Washington's most contentious issues.
The problem is that the hex chromium rule covers hundreds of thousands of other workers not part of the settlement, and several other court challenges remain. They involve Nelson's clients and other unions, as well as the specialty steel and electric utility industries and the National Association of Manufacturers .
More significantly, there is no sign that the single agreement will cure the paralysis that for years has crippled the process for setting "permissible exposure limits" for chemicals in the workplace.
But hey, it's a start.
