Despite a decade of research, hearings, testimony, letters, phone calls and support, both houses of Congress voted in early March to overturn a hard-won rule protecting workers from repetitive-stress injuries, which injure some 600,000 workers every year. The AFL-CIO, with backing from the AFT and the rest of its affiliates, is insisting that the Bush administration "hand back" the ergonomics standard.

As Healthwire goes to press, the AFL-CIO will be presenting a formal petition for a new ergonomics standard—signed by AFL-CIO affiliates—to the U.S. Secretary of Labor. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) will then hold a hearing on ergonomics protections; the AFT and other AFL-CIO affiliates plan to make sure that injured workers are heard. With musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), including repetitive-stress injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome, being the number one reason for worker injury, the effort to gain ergonomic protections in the workplace will continue, reports AFT health and safety specialist Darryl Alexander, who is the AFT’s liaison to the AFL-CIO on this issue.

AFT president Sandra Feldman charges that opponents "focus on short-term compliance costs rather than the immediate and long-term health benefits to working men and women across the country." Many teachers, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, nurses, office employees and other workers suffer from chronic painful injuries from certain repetitive tasks, says the AFT.