Louisville Courier-Journal op-ed: I refuse to stand by while KY lawmakers try to gut protections for workers | Opinion
House Bill 398 is a gift to irresponsible employers at the expense of working people. It tellsevery construction worker, every firefighter, every public employee that their safety doesn’t matter.
EDITOR'S NOTE: President Reinstedler's op-ed is in today's AFL-CIO press clips. We were concerned that you might miss it, so we are posting it.However, it may be paywall protected.
By DUSTIN REINSTEDLER
As a former bricklayer and the president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO, I know firsthand the dangers workers face on the job. Our state has spent decades crafting occupational safety and health (OSH) regulations designed to protect the men and women who build our communities, teach our children and keep our economy running. House Bill 398 threatens to erase those protections overnight. This bill is not just an attack on workplace safety—it's an attack on every working Kentuckian.
For 52 years, Kentucky has operated its own OSH program, approved and monitored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This program allows our state to set standards tailored to the needs of our workforce while maintaining protections that are, at minimum, as effective as federal regulations. Today, Kentucky has one of the lowest workplace injury and illness rates since tracking began in 1997. That is not an accident; it is the direct result of our state’s OSH standards.