Worker Safety, Health Must be Addressed to Meet Administration's Call for Fair Playing Field When it Comes to International Trade

9/24/2003

From: Diane Hurns of the American Society of Safety Engineers, 847-768-3413 or dhurns@asse.org

DES PLAINES, Ill., Sept. 24 -- In a letter to President George W. Bush sent today the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), the oldest and largest professional safety organization, urged the President to include the issue of worker safety, health and environmental protections in all future trade discussions.

ASSE President James 'Skipper' Kendrick, CSP, applauded the President for including in his recent Labor Day speech the statement, "we expect there to be a fair playing field when it comes to trade." However, Kendrick noted, many ASSE members work in manufacturing and share the concern that, too often, the companies they work for must compete on an unfair playing field that favors manufacturing worksites in other countries.

"For our members who strive to ensure safe and healthy workplaces for their companies' employees, "unfair" specifically means that their employers' competitors in foreign companies far too often are exempt from providing even similar kinds of protections for worker health and safety that Americans enjoy," Kendrick said. "ASSE urges you to include the issue of worker safety, health and environmental protections when your Administration follows up on your stated expectation that there be a "fair playing field" when it comes to trade.

"Our members report positive experiences in the past working with the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs in beginning to move the issue of international occupational safety and health standards forward," Kendrick continued. "We are also pleased to see that the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health John Henshaw is engaged with Canada and Mexico in the Trinational Occupational Safety and Health Working Group. Our hope is that this cooperative effort to improve worker safety and health in these three countries not only succeeds but also becomes an established expectation in our trade relations with all countries. Not only will American workers benefit by more fair playing fields for trade through such an effort, but your Administration can help ensure that workers in other countries enjoy the protections from occupational safety, health and environmental threats that all people, no matter where they work, should be able to expect."

Formed in 1911, the Des Plaines, IL-based ASSE is the largest and oldest professional safety organization and has more than 30,000 occupational safety, health and environmental professional members who manage, supervise, research and consult on safety, health, transportation and environmental issues in all industries, government, labor and education. For more information check ASSE's website at http://www.asse.org