Responding to the Bush administration's announcement that it plans to hold additional public forums to determine whether or not the federal government should regulate workplace safety conditions, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., criticized the decision as a blow to working men and women across America.

Wellstone, soon to be chairman of the Employment, Safety, and Training subcommittee, said the announcement was a continuation of the Bush administration strategy to overturn 10 years of work by the Department of Labor on workplace injuries, and countless studies and broad consultation with employers across the country, begun under Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole in the early 1990s.

The first substantive piece of legislation that President Bush signed was a bill overturning OSHA's ergonomics standard; a rule that was 10 years in the making. The Republican-controlled House and Senate overturned it after just 11 hours of debate. Since Bush and Congressional Republicans killed the ergonomics rule, it is estimated that 376,000 workers have been injured in the workplace.

Every year 1.8 million workers incur ergonomics injuries - 600,000 of these serious enough to require time off from work. Since 1990, six million workers have suffered serious injuries from exposure to ergonomics hazards. Wellstone said study show the ergonomics rule would actually net businesses an average of $4.6 billion in savings every year over the next 10 years, yet business lobbyists opposed it.

"Ergonomics injuries are the biggest job safety and health problem in our country today," Wellstone said. "We already have an exhaustive record , including a National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine report, which unambiguously shows that exposure to hazards in the workplace causes ergonomic disorders, and that these injuries can be prevented. We don't need more study - we need action - now,' Wellstone said.

'I intend to make sure that the Senate's Employment, Safety and Training Subcommittee is a forum where working people's health and safety, and working families' standard of living, is put first. We're going to be looking closely at the administration's actions on ergonomic injuries very soon.'