Accurate injury, illness records save workers’ lives

Letters to the Editor

Accurate injury, illness records save workers’ lives

Not one more person should have to die because of a preventable tragedy at work. The recent op-ed by by Robert Weiss of Home Builders Association of Kentucky grossly misrepresents a lifesaving workplace protection issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Maintaining accurate injury and illness records is more than just “red tape” for employers. These records are vital for protecting workers from dangerous conditions in the workplace. By inspecting employer records, OSHA can use its limited resources to identify and target the hazards putting workers at the greatest risk. If employers do not keep accurate injury logs, working people will suffer preventable fatalities and injuries on the job. Make no mistake — repealing this commonsense protection would be a direct attack on working families in Kentucky and nationwide.

Weiss characterizes the rule as OSHA’s attempt to “unilaterally change the law” and impose “excessive red tape” on businesses. In reality, the rule simply clarifies an employer’s ongoing duty to maintain worker injury logs for five years. OSHA has been holding employers accountable to this standard for the past four decades.

Instead of using the Congressional Review Act to repeal basic safeguards on behalf of big corporate donors, Congress and the White House should protect working people.

Emily A. Gardner

Public Citizen’s Congress Watch

Washington, D.C.

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Letters to the Editor

Schaeffer column on tribalism draws responses. Also, thoughts on respectful firefighters, McConnell, border wall

By Herald-Leader readers

February 22, 2019 11:51 AM

Expansive identity

Because of our experience as Peace Corps volunteers and staff living and working in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Fiji, and our experience since of knowing immigrants as good friends and family, we have a much broader idea of identity than what Cameron S. Schaeffer described in his recent Herald-Leader commentary (“Tribalism and media prejudice ruining America”, Feb. 16).

We know it’s possible for immigrant citizens to feel connected to and contribute to both the United States and their countries of origin. It is even possible for those who are American-born to be connected to and contribute to the United States and another country. We know an immigrant from Libya who has lived in Lexington for 35 years and says, “I value this country in a different way than people who were born here because I have seen both sides. There is nothing wrong with loving two countries.” Another says, “I am from South Sudan but I am also American. It’s both of me. I have to stand in the middle.”