Submitted by Robert Wechsler, Dec 19, 2007 22:26

Diana Furchgott-Roth takes a snapshot in time and proceeds to make an argue without any historical context. If the current omnibus spending bill cuts funding for OMLS, "short shrift" she calls it, while other DOL agencies receive boosts, it is only because the DOL has been defunding OSHA and Mine Safety for years. While OLMS saw its budget increased by 20 percent since 2001 and its personnel boosted by one third, OSHA, mine safety, and child labor enforcement have all seen decreases over the same period. That is the context and why Mine Safety and OSHA has seen an increase this time around. She can make all the arguments she wishes about OLMS protecting union members from "deceptive practices and irregular accounting" but where is her concern about protecting mine workers from budget cuts in the very agency that is supposed to protect them? Though the agencies all sit side by side in the DOL, she ignores what doesn't make her case. Sorry, you can't play this ideological game under the ruse of promoting democracy in unions when your own administration is taking funds away from the very agencies that are supposed to protect them from injury or possible death.

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