Roby demands OSHA explain its targeting of southern auto manufacturers

Fresh off of reports that The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is teaming up with labor unions during investigatory visits to non-unionized businesses, it now appears that OSHA may also be specifically targeting southern auto manufacturers for no apparent reason.

OSHA recently launched a “Regional Emphasis Program” (REP) to inspect automobile and auto parts manufactures in the Southeast, specifically Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. According to a trade publication, “This new Auto Supply Manufacturers enforcement program will target manufacturers in the southeast that supply engines, airbags, trim, or any other automotive products.”

REPs are a fairly common OSHA tool. However, they usually come with some justification for the special emphasis. For instance, an REP targeting “powered industrial trucks” cited a spike in forklift accidents and injuries. Although the data they used was fairly old, it at least provided some justification for their decision to pay special attention to industrial trucks. Other REPs that cited data as justification for special emphasis included REPs targeting noise hazards and landscaping and horticultural services.

But OSHA’s decision to target southern auto manufacturers does not appear to contain a data-driven explanation, leading to speculation that it’s another hat tip to the unions who have grown frustrated by their inability to gain a toehold in southern states.

In a letter to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Rep. Martha Roby, R-AL02, is asking what reason OSHA has to single out auto manufacturers in the South for special scrutiny. If the auto industry is especially hazardous, where is the data? And why focus on Southern facilities and not those in Michigan or Ohio?

“OSHA’s recently released REP is troubling…” Roby writes. “It calls for ‘comprehensive safety inspections’ for all members of the ‘Auto Parts Supplier Industry’ covered by OSHA’s ‘Atlanta East, Atlanta West, Birmingham, Mobile, and Jackson’ offices. Auto Parts Suppliers outside of the Southeast are not impacted. While many other regional notices provide quantitative data demonstrating a pattern of workplace industries that might justify such a targeted program, the REP in question provides only that ‘hazards associated with the Auto Parts Supplier Industry that are the focus of this REP continue to be the source of serious injuries, including amputations, and deaths to employees.’ This statement is presented without support.”

Roby also asks in the letter about the aforementioned reports of an OSHA rule change allowing union representatives to accompany OSHA agents on inspections of non-union facilities.

“This practice is troubling,” wrote Roby. “In effect, OSHA appears to have unilaterally determined that organized labor representatives — union reps associated with neither the employees of the business nor the government — may participate in formal government inspections of private businesses on private property. This significant and highly questionable policy was reportedly made not through a formal rulemaking and public comment process, but rather in response to a union inquiry.”

Roby plans to further question Secretary Perez on Wednesday during his scheduled testimony before the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

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