Корпорации давят на Трампа, чтобы отменить правила безопасности, спасшие бы жизнь погибшему на заводе

The Revolving Door Project, a Prospect partner, scrutinizes the executive branch and presidential power. Follow them at therevolvingdoorproject.org. On April 14, 2011, United Steelworkers (USW) member David Roy was working at a Dow Chemical plant in Midland, Michigan. Roy, a 47-year-old father of two, was on a caged ladder on a distillation column when he suffered a heart attack. He fell backwards off the ladder, plummeted roughly 30 feet, and died from a combination of the heart attack and blunt force trauma. Following his death, Dow released a statement saying the accident was a reminder of “how fragile life is.” Fifteen years later, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), of which Dow Chemical is a member, is pressuring the Trump administration to repeal an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule that the USW believes could have saved David Roy’s life—a reminder of how fragile the rules that keep us safe are in the face of corporate pressure. In 2016, OSHA finalized its Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment rule. The rule, which aimed to enhance fall protections, included a provision requiring employers to equip all fixed ladders that extend more than 24 feet above a lower level with either ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems. Read more from the Revolving Door Project Personal fall arrest systems consist of a harness, a lanyard, and an anchorage, which, when properly used, catch and protect an employee from injury in the event of a fall. Ladder safety systems are rails or cables attached to a fixed ladder that workers hook onto during a climb, automatically locking in place in the event of a fall. OSHA’s rule applied to all new ladders installed after the rule’s two-year phase-in period and established a 20-year deadline—November 18, 2036—for employers to retrofit or replace old ladders. The traditional method of improving safety on ladders is to surround them with a metal well or cage. OSHA initiated its rulemaking process on ladder protections after reviewing years of research from safety professionals and government agencies determining that such devices do not actually prevent injury or deaths in the case of a fall. As early as 2004, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the United Kingdom’s government agency responsible for workplace safety, found that “caged ladders cannot provide positive fall-arrest.” In layman’s terms, cages do not effectively stop falls. Indeed, HSE found that even if a cage does manage to catch a falling worker, it can “lead to significant if not fatal injury.” Similar conclusions were drawn by Oregon’s Department of Transportation (“falls in cages can be very gruesome … sometimes tearing off body parts”) and the International Safety Equipment Association (“cages should not be used as an individual method of fall protection”), among other safety groups. The fatal impact of most falls also established an evident need for updated protections. Falls have long been the leading cause of death in the construction industry, and among the largest causes of severe injuries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which is responsible for tracking data surrounding workplace deaths and injuries, found that between 1992 and 2004, an average of 213 construction workers died annually from workplace falls to a lower level, with nearly 80,000 additional lost workdays resulting from nonfatal falls. If anything, it seems to be getting worse over time, with 389 fall deaths in the industry in 2024. For the past decade, OSHA and American industry have operated with the understanding that ladder cages are not a sufficient safety measure and additional protections are needed to decrease the numbers of deaths and injuries resulting from workplace falls. Now, that status quo is poised to change. In July 2025, a petition from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), and the American Petroleum Institute (API)—three trade associations representing oil, gas, and chemical manufacturing behemoths—urged OSHA to remove the 2036 compliance deadline for the 2016 Walking-Working Surfaces Rule. The petition claims ladder safety and personal fall arrest systems “[have] the real potential to make employees less safe” and cites over $3 billion in compliance costs for the petroleum refining industry. In April 2026, OSHA took the first step to grant the industry’s request. The agency issued a proposed rule removing the 2036 deadline, while also seeking comment on repealing or revising the requirement for new ladders to be equipped with personal fall arrests, leaving the door open for employers to continue to rely on cages. In its explanation of the proposal, OSHA determined that the rule “is not likely to result in a meaningful increase in risk to workers.” Labor unions, safety professionals, and even a prominent member of the American Chemistry Council disagreed with OSHA’s assessment. “It’s a step backward for protecting workers from falls,” said Travis Parsons, the director of occupational safety and health at the Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America, which works to improve conditions for Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) members. “The administration is putting business interests in front of worker safety.” Other unions echoed Parsons’s assessment in their public comments on the proposed rule. “By eliminating the deadline, OSHA is effectively telling employers that an outdated cage, which offers zero fall arrest capability, is acceptable to let their employees fall to their deaths and suffer life-altering injuries,” wrote the United Steelworkers (USW), which represents 850,000 workers, including employees of companies that are part of the petitioning trade associations. The USW’s comment alludes to David Roy as an example of the dangers of climbing without a personal fall arrest or ladder safety system. “It is our belief that a personal fall arrest systems or ladder safety systems could have saved this member’s life by allowing him to be rescued, and life-saving measures provided to change the outcome of this tragic loss of life,” they wrote. Other labor groups, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), and contractor trade associations also submitted comments opposing the proposed deadline removal. SAFETY PROFESSIONALS SIMILARLY URGED OSHA to not move forward with the rulemaking effort, highlighting the lack of fall arrest capabilities offered by ladder cages which precipitated the 2016 rule change. The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), which works with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop voluntary, best-practice safety standards that can go beyond the legal floor set by OSHA, opposed the rule after consideration by its Fall Protection Committee. David Keeling, who leads OSHA as assistant secretary, was previously a member of ASSP. “Fixed ladders remain a considerable exposure for the worker,” ASSP wrote, citing research from the U.K.’s HSE. While ASSP acknowledges that better data is needed to differentiate between fall injuries and fatalities on different types of ladders, the standard-setter explicitly rejects that ladder cages are a viable fall protection structure. “Peer-reviewed and government-commissioned research, consistently detail the hazards associated with ladder cages, confirm that they do not provide equivalent protection to fall arrest ladder safety systems, and confirm that fall arrest ladder safety systems can safely arrest falls … In the chance occurrence that a cage did arrest a fall by a worker getting caught by the cage, serious injury or death could occur.” The International Safety Equipment Association, which represents the safety equipment industry, and the Institute of Hazardous Materials Management, which certifies and credentials professionals for a host of safety expertise, opposed the rule on similar grounds. Indeed, OSHA’s own data, which it contributed to a 2017 study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), is at odds with its current determination about ladder safety systems. The data showed at least 63 fatal falls in the oil and gas extraction industry from 2005 to 2014, the majority of which occurred at heights over 24 feet. While the study does not delineate by ladder type, it did note the use of fall protection equipment. Though fall protection equipment was required in 86 percent of fatalities, it was only actually used in 44 percent of those incidents. Even when it was in use, the CDC found the system was either not anchored or not worn properly in over 70 percent of the falls. Contrary to both the industry petition and OSHA’s current stance, the CDC determined the “proper use, fit and inspections of personal protective equipment are essential in reducing fatal falls in this industry.” The anti-regulation side of the debate is largely made up of industry trade associations, including the American Feed Industry Association, the Alliance for Chemical Distribution, and the National Association of Manufacturers, among others. The construction industry, perhaps wary of appearing too cavalier about the lives of its workers, has largely stayed out of the debate. But OSHA also received an opposing comment from 3M, the manufacturing conglomerate whose portfolio includes fall protection equipment. 3M is a member of the American Chemistry Council, which filed the initial petition that prompted OSHA’s rulemaking. In their comment, 3M reiterated the safety concerns highlighted by other groups, while also raising issues with OSHA’s estimated savings from deadline removal. OSHA, citing data from the industry groups’ petition, estimated $3.6 billion in savings for the petrochemical industry, as compliance costs could reach $55,000 per ladder. 3M, however, called the estimate “significantly overstated,” saying the market data indicates compliance costs to be around $1,000 to $3,000 per ladder. The conglomerate added that the petitioners’ estimate has “no reasonable relationship to actual market pricing and should not be accorded significant weight in OSHA’s rulemaking analysis.” In weighing a rule change of this kind, OSHA considers the compliance costs as well as the human costs in terms of injuries and fatalities potentially caused by the rule’s repeal. However, the lack of standardized data regarding injuries and fatalities on fixed ladders, or whether those ladders were equipped with safety systems, makes it difficult to assess the exact impact. The latest data from BLS showed 666 deaths from falls to a lower level in the U.S. in 2024, but does not include information regarding involvement of ladders. A 2022 BLS report showed 816 fatal work injuries primarily caused by ladders from 2016 to 2020, five of which were caused by fixed ladders in 2020. It does not include a detailing of fixed-ladder deaths for the other years, nor does it indicate whether those ladders had cages or safety systems. “The industry needs better data,” said Thom Kramer, vice president of finance at ASSP. “Good data leads to good decisions.” Kramer also noted the lack of data around how many people were saved from a fall thanks to safety systems, as those incidents are rarely reported. Without such data, it’s difficult to accurately quantify the impact of OSHA’s proposed rule. The data we do have shows the U.S. has far deadlier workplaces than other developed countries. A 2023 paper co-authored by Kramer showed the U.S. had 23 times more fall-related deaths than the U.K., and 3.5 total workplace fatalities per 100,000 people, compared to fewer than 1.5 per 100,000 for the top 15 European Union countries. It remains to be seen the degree to which OSHA incorporates these considerations into its final rulemaking decision. Keeling, though formerly a member of ASSP, also worked as a health and safety executive for UPS. Ahead of his appointment to lead OSHA, Keeling received criticism for UPS’s refusal to provide air-conditioning in delivery trucks, endangering workers during periods of extreme heat. “David Keeling was in a position to change those things, and he didn’t do it,” one worker told The New York Times ahead of his confirmation. While workers and industry await OSHA’s final rulemaking, the agency has continued to stress the dangers of workplace falls. From May 4 to 8, just one month after issuing the proposed rule, OSHA celebrated the Department of Labor’s National Safety Stand-Down, a yearly event to raise awareness about fall hazards and the importance of fall prevention in the construction industry. It emphasized, as noted above, that falls are consistently the leading cause of death for the industry. “Those deaths were preventable,” the page reads in bolded font.