URGENT ALERT: House Ergo Vote Wednesday, Tax Cut Vote Next

By a tally of 56-44 the Senate voted to kill the ergonomics standard on March 6, beginning the final battle over one of the most important workplace safety issues ever. A House vote on the measure is expected sometime on Wednesday. At the same time, the first shot in the fight over President George W. Bush's multitrillion dollar tax cut for the rich is expected at the end of this week.

In the U.S. Senate, anti-worker lawmakers passed a resolution under the never-before-used Congressional Review Act in an attempt to kill the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's ergonomics standard that could prevent some 600,000 repetitive stress and other ergonomically related injuries serious enough to cause workers to miss time from work each year.

"Senators hostile to the interests of working families rushed a naked political pay-off to big business contributors who have opposed every effort to enact a standard protecting workers," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

The CRA is known as the "nuclear bomb" of regulation because it is a fast-track measure with no hearings or committee votes, requires just a simple majority, prohibits a Senate filibuster and, if approved by both the House and Senate and signed by the president, it will ban OSHA from issuing any similar workplace ergonomics standard until Congress passes a new law allowing OSHA to issue a similar rule.

The move to kill the ergonomics standard is backed by groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other Big Business organizations. When Vice President Dick Cheney met with 1,700 NAM members in Washington, D.C., last week they were greeted by some 200 union members, injured workers and safety activists. In a sidewalk demonstration outside the meeting, the protestors marched and chanted "Hands off the ergo standard—don't Bushwhack workers."

You can send the same message to your representative now and see what else you can do to Stop the Pain.

Who gets richer?

Later in the week, the House will vote on Bush's tax rate proposal. It rewards the super-wealthy, gives little or no tax help to lower-income families, consumes the budget surplus and leaves almost nothing for investments in such key working family priorities as education, health care, Social Security and Medicare.

On March 1, the House Ways and Means Committee, in a straight party-line vote, approved the deal. Action on Bush's call for a repeal of inheritance taxes on large estates and other parts of his $2.6 trillion tax scheme will come later.

Labor, civil rights, women's and other working family groups formed the Fair Taxes for All Coalition to mobilize grassroots activities. At a March 1 press conference announcing the group's formation, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, "Members of Congress face an historic choice: They can stand with the wealthy special interests for a tax cut that robs us of the ability to meet the priorities of average citizens and recklessly jeopardizes our nation's economic footing for years to come, or they can stand with the working families who put them where they are."

Tell your representative that working families want education, health care, Social Security and Medicare—not tax cuts for the rich. Find out more.