Rob Andrews: “we should oppose this resolution. When a woman stands at a supermarket checkout counter and when many women who stand…”

“we should oppose this resolution. When a woman stands at a supermarket checkout counter and when many women who stand with her get hurt, when there is a pattern of people getting hurt because the cash register is at waist level instead of higher up, and the evidence shows that one could spend a few hundred dollars per cash register and lift them up to chest level and people will not get hurt; and the evidence shows that by spending a few hundred dollars per cash register, we could avoid tens of thousands of dollars of health care and workers' comp claims, we think the law ought to say that the employer should have to do it. That is what this is about. This is a compilation of 10 years of research; it is an understanding that one-third of the workers' comp expenditures by insurers in this country pay for ergonomics injuries, and it is a cry for simple justice and common sense. Do not be fooled by those who say they want a better ergonomics rule, because if this resolution passes, there will be no ergonomics rule. This sends ergonomics to the death penalty, and it is wrong. Mr. Speaker, there are 6 million injured Americans who cannot speak for themselves tonight, but we, I say to my colleagues, can. The way we should speak for them is to rise up and vote ``no.'' Defeat this resolution in the sense of fairness and justice.”