I'm back and other goings on

After a few weeks of moving and being in transit, I'm back to blogging. The story still dominating the labor headlines is the Crandall mine collapse, with owner Bob Murray seeming more and more bizarre every day. Thankfully, though the Mine Health and Safety Department is still run by a corporate goon thanks to a Bush administration recess appointment, Dems in Congress are stepping up on investigating this mess:

Chairman Miller Requests Information from Labor Department & Murray Energy on Crandall Canyon Mine

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, today sent requests for documents, communications, and other information from the U.S. Department of Labor and Murray Energy Corporation related to the operation and stewardship of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah.

“Gathering this information is the first step in an investigative effort to learn what went wrong at the Crandall Canyon Mine and what we must do to prevent such tragedies in the future,” said Miller, whose committee has jurisdiction over worker safety issues. “The families of the miners, the public, and miners who still work underground every day deserve a full accounting of the events that led up to and followed the collapse at Crandall Canyon Mine.”

Miller announced last week that the Education and Labor Committee will convene a hearing into the mine collapse during the first week in October.

As awful a tragedy this specific mine collapse was, I've got a feeling the investigation won't be, in the end, so much focused on Crandall itself, as it will be a test case for exposing the blatant disregard for worker safety and the buddy buddy relationship between mine owners and their former colleagues that now run the "oversight and regulation" department, making clear to the nation how neutered and corrupted the very institutions that are meant to protect American citizens have become.

The other big story would have to be the continuing recall of Chinese made products, which plays into the larger, building tussle with China. Between lead and other poison-filled products, massive worker rights abuses and manipulation of the Yuan, along with Chinese ownership of so much of our national debt, shit is looking to be headed on a collision course with the proverbial fan.

In this case, though, it's not a clear cut "blame China" situation. In a way, Mattell is getting what it paid (very little) for. So, it's shame on China for having virtually no oversight and clearly willingly skirting rules to do things more cheaply; and shame on Mattell for entering into a situation where the risks were clear.

In an attempt to calm nerves and save some lives, the Senate is calling for action on inspection of toys:

Unwilling to wait for the Chinese to deal with their manufacturing issues, Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) have urged the CPSC to launch an inspection program against dangerous toys in time for the holiday shopping season. At a news conference yesterday, Senator Durbin said such a program would help restore the confidence of American parents that toys are safe. “A family going inside a toy store shouldn’t have to play Chinese roulette to try to guess what toys are safe for their kids,” Durbin insisted.

The recent parade of toy recalls has brought calls for more inspections from several members of congress. Many have expressed concern that the CPSC does not have the resources to police the toy industry. In the last two decades, the CPSC staff has dwindled from 900 to 400, and its budget stands at only $62 million annually. Durbin, who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, said that congress could take legislative action to strengthen the CPSC. He said congress would soon discuss increasing the Commission’s budget and mandating comprehensive toy inspections.

Here's my question: why not address the root of the problem, the unfair trade deals that allow corporations to profit big time on cheap labor and business expenses, made possible by the poverty and lack of oversight in China? We will be spending money hand over fist to try and catch their errors, which generally will cost them much less than the reward of overseas production, while they sit back and continue to fuel the root problem. Genius.