I’ll Be NAMned: In Letter to Issa, the National Association of Manufacturers Advocates for Lower Safety, Environmental, Commodity Regulation Standards

When newly-appointed Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell  Issa (R-California), reached out to Big Business leaders asking for their two cents on which policy  initiatives were most important in 2011, the National Association of Manufacturers, a notoriously anti-worker body, jumped at the chance to undermine the American laborforce.

 In one five page letter, supplied by TPM, NAM managed to outline, often quite vaguely, ELEVEN dubious rules changes.

They include, but are not limited to:

blocking rules that limit trucker workdays to 14 hours

denouncing the new Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) that would force employers to fix known workplace hazards

stunting a new rule that demands workplace noise reduction (NAM prefers ear plugs/muffs “if they are more cost-effective”)

limiting aspects of the newly-signed Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

avoiding new regulations on derivatives trading (widely viewed as a central cause of recent financial crises)

loosening standards on air quality

fighting an EPA rule for tighter emissions standards

These actions are par for the course for NAM, whom WIKIPEDIA lists as both an anti-union organization and a union-busting group.