DECEMBIR 1, 1995 Ken Silverstein & Alexander Cockburn VOL. 2, NO. 21

• IN THIS ISSUE The "Reinvention" Racket Anatomy of a Mantra Clio ton speak: What "Reinventing othing better evokes the flavor of lation now being debated, the agency Government" the Clinton era than one of its would suffer painful budget cuts . Work­ Really Means Nprime mantras, "Reinventing ers would henceforth have to check with government ". That neo-liberal war cry their employer before filing a safety com­ • How the Reinventors turns out in practice to mean removal of plaint with OSHA, and the federal any impediment to the smooth transition agency would be banned from collecting Took Workers' Safety of public money into corporate pockets data or enforcing rules on repetitive Laws and Gave and the kicking aside of every hindrance strain injuries . (In 1992, under Dorothy Them to The Bosses to corporate self-aggrandizement. Con­ Strunk, OSHA issued proposed guide- . sider the consequences - physically le­ lines to combat repetitive strain injuries. to Enforce thal or maiming for many workers - of Strunk now works at United Parcel Serv­ the attempted "reinvention" of OSHA, ice, where her job is to help kill those • The Quick and the the Occupational Safety and Health Ad­ same guidelines .) Dead: $7 an Hour, ministration. Last May, President Clinton gave a Since Nixon signed OSHA into law in speech in which he decried Republican Cutting 90 Gizzards 1970, enforcement has steadily declined . attacks on OSHA . He emotionally re­ a Minute Over 200,000 American workers have called the fire in North Carolina, and lost their lives through the quarter cen­ said that no one "should have to endan­ The Bell Tolls tury; nearly two million have been per­ ger their personal health or their very manently disabled and well over two lives to make a living for their families, to for Flipper: million workers died from diseases in­ live a life of dignity" . How the Mexican curred from workplace conditions. In the Government, same period only a handful of employers uch lofty sentiments are nowhere Mickey Kantor, Neo-Lib have been prosecuted and just one, a visible in OSHA's experiment in Greens and Teresa builder in South Dakota, sent to jail (for Sreinvention in Georgia, where we 45days). have secured details of an outrageous Heinz Have Ganged Up OSHA has but 2,000 inspectors to program in which OSHA signed a sweet­ on Dolphins monitor six million businesses nation­ heart deal with 21 poultry plants which wide . In 1991, 25 workers died during a were all hut exempted from inspections. • Is Star-kist Their fire at a poultry plant in Hamlet, North According to Richard Trottier of the Carolina - which although rife with vio­ North Carolina Committee on Occupa­ Only Friend? lations had been ignored by OSHA in­ tional Safety and Health, a watchdog spectors for eleven years. Imperial Food group for the south-east region, "The • John Kerry's Tuna Products, the plant's owner, got nicked partnership agreement cuts into any type $andwich with a $808,150 fine, or $32,326 per life. of effort to make the poultry industry Casualty graphs climbed sharply in more responsive to its workers." recent years. Repetitive motion injuries Some 25,000 of these workers, a ma­ Plus: are soaring, up from 22,600 cases in jority of them black women, toil in Geor­ 1982 to 302,000 for 1993. Some 6,000 gia's poultry factories. Nationwide, there • The Animal Passions Americans die on the job every year, a are almost as many poultry workers - of Rep. Bill Goodling rate approaching 20 a day. 222,000 - as steelworkers. According to Working hand in hand with business Labor Department records, poultry work groups, Republicans in Congress seek to is the twelfth most dangerous job in weaken OSHA even further. Under legis- America . A national injury rate of 23.2 2/COUNTERPUNCH DECEMBER 1, 1995 per cent - far worse than the rate in coal urinated on themselves because they behind the hacks of workers and unions, mining, construction or autowork - were not allowed to leave the line without which, led by the United Food and Com­ means that each year roughly one-quar­ permission from a supervisor. mercial Workers Union, represent about ter of all workers-55,000 people-suffer As through the whole south, where the 25 per cent of industry employees . The a serious joh-related injury. industry is centered, OSHA's efforts in reinventors set up monthly meetings be­ During the past two decades, govern­ Georgia have been marginal . The agency tween OSHA and the companies. Work­ ment regulators have allowed poultry has four inspectors to patrol the entire ers were not encouraged to attend, and companies to sped up their processing state, with only two firms receiving wall­ the contract does not call for addressing lines from 50 to 90 birds per minute. to-wall inspections during the past three problems relate 1d to carpal tunnel syn- Workers - whose job titles include liver years . In a rare case of enforcement, a drome. ; pullers, gizzard cutters, thigh bone pop­ Cargill plant in Buena Vista, Georgia, In another amiable gesture to chicken pers and lung gunners-do the same task was fined $242;000 in 1989 for "know­ magnates, OSHA sent employers a score­ over and over, up to 78 hand motions per ingly and willfully" inflicting injury on card to rank OSHA's own compliance minute for some jobs, leading to an enor­ half of its work force. officers on a scale of one ("very unsatis­ mous increase in carpal tunnel syndrome. Given this record, one might expect factory") to five ("very high" ) on "their On average, the workers get just $7 per OSHA to have adopted a rather tough willingness to be cooperative" . So inspec­ hour and receive few benefits, even stance towards Georgia poultry compa­ tor know that their bosse s will be re­ though they underpin a highly profitable nies . Instead, the agency's Atlanta East viewing "unsatisfactory" ratings if they industry . The companies that dominate office decided that the carrot, not the raise bothersome issues wi:th the com-_ the field, including the big three - Tyson stick, was called for. panies. Foods, ConAgra, and Gold Kist - a.re The result was a contract between the savagely anti-union . Tony Hurwitz of The Atlanta office and a "Poultry Steering mid harsh criticism from unions , Wall Street Journal wrote a chilling story Committee" representing 21 Georgia OSHA officials have promised to last January about life at the poultry plants . Among the firms taking part were A take another look at their poultry plant, saying that work was "subject to Tyson Foods, ConAgra, GoldKist, Sea­ program and have hinted that they will Orwellian control and electronic surveil ­ board Farms, Wayne Farms, and Colum ­ drop the clause exempting companies lance". He found cases of workers who bia Farms (which owns a plant in from inspections . But the October 31 is­ neighboring South Carolina where a sue of OSHA Update, an internal publi­ worker was killed recently ). cation, found Deputy Secretary of Labor Thomas Glynn praising the Atlanta East Editors e "Mission Statement" of the office for its "efforts in this successful KEN SILVERSTEIN Committee, printed at the top of program". ALEXANDER COCKBURN 1lthe contract, reads : "To foster a Even if the Georgia pr ogram is killed, partnership between OSHA and the other OSHA "reinvention" initiatives Co-Writer poultry industry and it's [sic] employees will have similarly bleak consequences JEFFREYST CLAIR where through trust, cooperntion, com­ for workers' safety. A number of experi­ mitment and process improvement we ments are already underway across the Production will reduce injuries and illnesses in the country . TERRY ALLEN workplace ." The better to approach this The Clinton team has called OSHA's worthy goal, OSHA agreed to "defer par­ "Maine 200 _" initiative, horn during the Counselor ticipating Employers from planned Bush years, its model for the nation . Like BEN SONNENBERG scheduled inspections" if they were able the Georgia poultry program, Maine 200 to show, using their own records, that grants broad exemptions to companies Design injury rates were dropping at their that agree to participate in safety pro­ DEBORAH THOMAS plants . Results, apparently not subject to grams and downplays enforcement. verification by OSHA, are to he simply Clinton claims that workers' comp Published twice monthly except phoned in to the agency. and injury rates have fallen in Maine August, 22 issues a year: Noteworthy in this deal is its remark­ since the initiative began, but the highly $40 individuals, able similarity to a Reagan-era OSHA suspect statistics cited by the administra­ $100 institutions, program which was halted because com­ tion were provided by companies and $25 student/low-income panies, free from fear of outside inspec­ have not been independently verified. CounterPunch. tion, systematically under-reported Furthermore, the glory days of Maine All rights reserved . injuries . Among the worst abusers was the 200 coincided with a period during CounterPunch welcomes all tips, poultry industry. While OSHA doctors which Main e was devastating its workers' information and suggestions . found 90 per cent of employees at risk of comp program and making it harder for Please call or write our offices. repetitive motion injuries at the Buena workers to qualify for benefits. Counter Punch Vista plant, records kept by Cargill at that Today we have the reinventors . Back P.O. B~x 18675, time showed only three cases. in the age of Bush the se reinvent~rs Washington, DC 20036 The Clinton-era deal between OSHA worked for Dan Quayl e in the Council on 202/98fr3665 (phone/fax) and the poultry plants was negotiated Competitiveness . • DECEMBER 1, 1995 COUNTERPUNCH/3

as Senator Larry Pressler by conversing A Widow's Billion vs. the in French . Teresa Heinz, the daughter of a Portu­ guese doctor, was brought up as a child World's Brainiest Matntnal of empire in Mozambique, went to uni­ versity in South Africa, and brought with at do Teresa Heinz, Senator Next came the task of selling dolphin her to the United States an ardent venera­ ohn Kerry, former Senator death on the Hill. In the forefront of the tion for the capitalist system . W:Tim Wirth, John Kennedy, Jr. lobbying was Tim Wirth, now Undersec­ Becoming a member of the Heinz and Delphinus de/phis - dolphins to you retary of State for global environmental family added cloutto Teresa's ideological - have in common? affairs . Wirth dispatched handwritten views, clout in the form of a fortune vari­ Start with free trade . For seven years notes to crucial senators, urging them to ously estimated as between $670 and Mexico has whined about its inability to sign on to the bill and promoting it as a $740 million. This brings us to the moral sell its canned tuna north of the border. "good package with a sound science/en­ crisis of Senator John Kerry. Teresa Her .The US mandates dolphin-free tuna, viro base with Breaux and Stevens as inz, an EDF board member, has been meaning methods of fishing that don't sponsors". lobbying £or the new death-to-dolphins snag dolphins as part of the tuna haul. bill. But her husband (they married in This was one of the great green victories July of this year) has long been a doughty of the 1980s, but no sooner was NAFTA Clinton assented to Flip­ dolphin ally, possibly because this splen­ ratified than Mexico denounced the US per's demise but insisted did mammal is not profuse on the St. tuna law as a restraint on free trade and George's Banks or other haunts of the demanded its repeal . that a few environmental Massachusetts fishing fleets. Prodded by Mickey Kantor, the chief groups be wheeled forth to If a last-ditch defense of the 1992 law US trade rep, the White House speedily was to be mounted, Kerry has been the assented but said that some national en­ provide political cover. man to lead it. But the Senator has new vironmental organizations would have to cares and burdens. When he gave up be wheeled forth to provide political cover Morgan Fairchild for Teresa Heinz and against assaults from the excitable dol­ Now when it comes to environmental joined with her in the refre shments of phin lobby. Enter the Environmental Der matters, Breaux of Louisiana and matrimony, Kerry was asked whether he fense Fund, a fanatical espouser of free Stevens of Alaska are four-square for would use his wife's fortune to stake his trade, vociferously pro-NAFTA in 1992 rape and pillage. But some were puzzled political races . No, said, Kerry, u·nless his and a long-time foe of the dolphin protec­ at Wirth's position on dolphin death . tion laws as "ideologically unsound" . Earlier this year Wirth leaked to The The crucial meeting to settle the dol­ Washington Post a memo he'd sent to the SUBSCRIPTION INFO phin's hash took place at the Mexican White House urging Clinton to stand embassy in Washington, last July. There firm against those around him counsel­ Enter/renew subscription here: US and Mexican government officials ing sell-out of the Goddess Demeter. hunkered down with executives from the But there is a dark side to Wirth's 0 One year individual, $40 Environmental Defense Fund, National environmentalism and it goes hack to his 0 One year institution, $100 Wildlife Federation, World Wtldlife Fund days in the Senate and his friendship D One~ studentflow-inrome, $25 and the Center for Marine Conservation . with Senator John Heinz, the ketchup 0 Please send back issue(s) Carefully excluded were pro-dolphin heir, who died in a plane crash in 1991. ______($.3/issue) groups such as Earth Island Institute, Together, Wirth and Heinz drafted Pro­ 0 I am enclosing a separate sheet and the Humane Society . Also shut out ject '88, a detailed manifesto of "free £or gift subscriptions were the congressional members and market environmentalism", encourag­ staffers who framed the 1992 lawprotect­ ing replacement of federal laws and regu­ Name .______ing the dolphin, some seven million of lations with cash inducements £or which perished in the eastern Pacific be,. corporate pillagers to behave themselves . Address ______tween 1970 and 1992 . Aher Senator Heinz's death, Wirth The secret session in the Mexican em­ developed a romantic intimacy with Ter­ City/State/Zip. ______bassy was not auspicious for Flipper. The esa Heinz. The affair did not remain conspirators agreed that the 1992 law secret for long and amid fears that it should be overturned and new statutory would he used against him in his im­ language devised which would allow pending 1992 re-election hid in Colo­ -Payment must accompany order. Mexico's dolphin-lethal tuna into US su­ rado, Wirth stood down. The widow Add $10 for foreign subscriptions. permarkets. Staffers from the Environ­ Heinz pressed forward into romance Makechocks payable to : CounterPunch. mental Defense Fund and World Wildlife with Senator John Kerry of Massachu­ Return to: CountcrPunch. Fund would write the bill, with help from setts. The tinder ignited at the Earth P.O. Box 18675 Bud Walsh, an attorney who has labored Summit in Rio in 1992, where they Washington, DC 20036 £or the Wise Use Movement. mightily impressed other junketeers such 4/COUNTERPUNCH DEC.EMBER 1, 1995 .

opponent also used his own or his fam­ ily's money. Goodling's Law: Goering Would Approve In the last days of November, Massa­ chusetts' Gingrich-loving libertarian gov­ ne of the leaders of the political to the 6,000 humans who die every year ernor, William Weld, announced he attack on the Occupational on the job. While he favors cutting "red would challenge Kerry. Weld will be a 0 Safety and Health Administra­ tape" when it comes to protecting work­ tough opponent. Weld has also prudently tion is Rep . Bill Goodling of Pennsylva­ ers, Goodling's bill calls for a series of called for Kerry to agree to limit spending nia, chairman of the Committee on stringent measures £or horses : "vehicles in the race to $5 million each . Economic Opportunities . Goodling would be required to be in sanitary But if the race gets close, Kerry will lashes unsparingly at OSHA and at condition and provide atleast6 feet, six have enormous temptation to turn to his "big government" in general . He wants inches of headroom ... be of appropri­ wife for help. His zeal £or the dolphin has to get lederal bureaucrats "off the hack" ate size £or the number of horses trans­ already markedly declined. Meanwhile, of business, and supports an OSHA ported ... [and] provide for veterinarians Teresa has been busying lobbying the "reform" bill which would cut back on to determine if horses are able to with­ Heinz Corporation whose subsidiary, work place inspections and reduce stand the stress of transportation ." Star-Kist, is the world's largest tuna proc­ fines when safety violations are found. A schizophrenic posture towards essor. Having invested millions in dol­ · But while insisting that government animals and _humans is scarcely new. In phin safe fishing fleets and having mined has no need to protect America's work­ late 1933, Herman Goering an­ excellent publicity £or its "dolphin-safe ing men and women, Goodling has a nounced an end to the "unbearable tuna," Star-Kist is loath to see the 1992 different approach when it comes to torture and suffering" in animal ex­ law changed. Nonetheless, Teresa, one of horses. After reading about the inhu­ periments and threatened to "commit the Heinz Corporation's largest stock­ mane treatment of horses transported to concentration camps those who still holder, is pressing hard for Star-Kist to for slaughter Goodling introduced a think they can continue to treat ani­ reverse its stance . bill designed to end abuses such as mals as inanimate property" . The Clinton administration · is trying horses traveling for days without food In 1936, a special Nazi law was to sneak the dolphin death bill through and water. "As a thoroughbred owner, passed regarding the correct way of dis­ as a rider to the Magnuson Act, due to be I find this appalling," Goodling wrote patching lobsters and crabs . They were voted on before the Christmas recess. As in a "Dear Colleague" letter mustering to_be thrown into rapidly boiling water, the battle enters its final stages, Califor­ support for his measure. "Many, in­ thus mitigating their terminal agonies. nia's Barbara Boxer is the dolphin's last cluding myself, consider horses to be a Bureaucrats at the Nazi Ministry of the best hope . part of their families like a dog or cat. Interior were producing learned re­ And John Kennedy, Jr? In the first Can you imagine this treatment of Fido search papers on the kindest ways of issue of George John-John printed an or Fluffy? I think not." killing crustaceans, even as their col­ adoring profile ol the Madam Delarge of Now, CounterPunch strongly la­ leagues were starting to pore over blue­ the dolphin. Shimmering just below the vors humane treatment of horses and prints for the gas chambers at surface of the article (entitled "Mother we hereby endorse the Goodling hill . Auschwitz , and corporate scientists at Teresa") was the thought that if Senator But it does seem odd that the congress­ I.G. Farben were eagerly assisting in the Kerry goes do"{", Teresa Heinz would be man's passion £or safety doesn't extend reinvention of genocide. • a worthy successor. •

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