Employer to Worker: “Get in the Hole or Go Home.” OSHA to Employer: Oh, Hell No.

[freshwest]

16. They certainly were when I dealt with them, pre-Reagan days. They whipped the employers into line.

After he got in, within a year working conditions began going to hell, it was unsafe and the employers were extremely oppressive and disrespectful. The difference between the Carter years and Ronnie's club running thing was like day going into the long night.

Those who still had unions had a good measure of protection; the non-union work men were treated like dogs. I watched as OSHA and other regulatory agencies were slashed and villified.

This man did the right thing and it's great to see a turn around with the agency under a different administration. I've been reading and seeing so many of these trench cave-ins since those years that they don't even make the news much. Just something that happens to 'those lowly workers' has been the attitude for too long.

I've seen the reports of the crane accidents and other things that were rare and a decline in the way worksite are managed. I've been amazed to see workers on construction sites without what was standard protective gear when I worked in the high rises. Sure, there was usually at least one death before that evergreen tree was hoisted to the top of the building by the workers - but the changes I saw in safety was stark and even I got hurt along with others. A bitter time under RR.