The person standing next to them is a government official with the power to shut down your business.
Union representatives from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are now accompanying federal government safety inspectors on site visits to review labor complaints at nonunion private businesses, The Daily Caller has learned.
SEIU and other labor unions can accompany the government inspectors on site visits due to a quiet and contested Obama administration rule clarification issued last year in response to a request from a union representative.
SEIU agents recently accompanied an inspector from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the Department of Labor, on three visits to nonunion work sites under contract with the Houston-based janitorial company Professional Janitorial Services (PJS).
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The visits were made to investigate OSHA complaints by SEIU-friendly employees alleging that the nonunion janitorial company did not provide workers safety goggles and gloves in some instances. Though each of the inspections found proper goggles and gloves, OSHA fined PJS for other alleged infractions related to not keeping certain safety data sheets or providing proper training information on use of cleaning chemicals.
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The union representatives are allowed to accompany OSHA to nonunion work sites due to an Obama administration rule clarification that was accused in congressional testimony of violating federal laws.
OSHA deputy assistant secretary Richard Fairfax wrote in a February 21, 2013 clarification letter that union agents can accompany OSHA inspectors to site visits at companies without collective bargaining agreements. Fairfax wrote his letter in response to a query from United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union health and safety specialist Steve Sallman.
OSHA’s published regulation on the matter does not refer to unions, but allows for an OSHA-approved “third party who is not an employee of the employer (such as an industrial hygienist or a safety engineer)†to accompany an OSHA inspector.
Unions: Using government’s monopoly on the use of force to get their nose under your tent flap because their product doesn’t sell in the free market.
I am making a wild guess here – the owners of a nonunion shop, should they ask to accompany OSHA inspectors on a visit to a union shop, would be told yes, of course you can come see the inside of your competitor’s worksite, and lodge charges against them based on what you point out to the OSHA inspector?
If Mr. OSHA shows up at my shop with a 3rd party in tow, they’re both getting thrown in the canal.
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