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| Photo: Charlie Ehlert/Univ of Utah Health/AP |
The Labor Department is moving to strip three Republican-led states of workplace safety oversight, saying they have failed to adopt more-rigorous Covid-19 safety standards. It is the latest development in a fight between the Biden administration and some states over federal coronavirus rules.
Officials at the Labor Department said Tuesday that it is starting the process of revoking state-level oversight of workforce-safety programs in Utah, Arizona and South Carolina. The federal government said it began taking steps after the three states didn’t adopt, at minimum, the federal Covid-19 safety plans for healthcare workers, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, released in June.
The plans, which were issued under a federal rule-making process known as an emergency temporary standard, included requirements on masking, social distancing and paid time off for Covid-19 vaccinations.
“The longer these states refuse to adopt an emergency temporary standard for healthcare workers, the longer they’re needlessly putting thousands of workers at risk of the spread of the coronavirus,” Jim Frederick, OSHA’s acting assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, said Tuesday.
The Labor Department’s move marks the latest in a series of disputes between the federal government and some states over handling Covid-19. Those include disagreements over a forthcoming federal mandate requiring vaccines or weekly testing for workers at private employers with 100 or more employees.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said the state planned a legal challenge of the Labor Department’s decision to revoke its OSHA authority. “With no state regulators in the way, the federal Labor Department will be free to penalize employers who do not comply with President Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate,” he said. --->READ MORE HERE
The U.S. judiciary system is doing a poor job of stopping, blocking, and delaying COVID-19 vaccine coercion, but workers who have toiled throughout the pandemic are using their voices to pressure companies into laying off of forcing the jab.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer declined on Tuesday to block Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ vaccine mandate for health care and nursing home employees. Earlier this year, new Justice Amy Coney Barrett also refused to intervene when students at Indiana University asked the highest court in the land to give them some relief from their educational institution’s vaccine requirements for the fall 2021 semester.
Even small court wins, such as last week when a federal judge ruled that New York must allow health care employers to consider religious exemptions for workers and when another judge in Texas ruled that American Airlines couldn’t put employees waiting for exemptions on unpaid leave, are overshadowed by other judiciary decisions reinforcing the medical coercion in areas as private as family visitation rights.
The courts’ lack of vigor for reinforcing personal freedom has resulted in the firing of many people, but workers are determined to fight back. Employees all across the nation have protested, and some of their efforts are being rewarded. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories and resources:
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FDA to allow Americans to ‘mix and match’ COVID vaccine booster shots
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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