We’re now a month into 2026, which means…one month closer to the start of that great American pastime.
(No, not baseball. Midterm election campaign season.)
Yes, that wonderful time of the year is fast approaching. Like the first sprouts of grass emerging from their winter slumber and flower buds preparing to bloom (and then cover our vehicles with pollen), the first campaign ads now appearing on TVs in various states and Congressional districts. Soon, much like mosquitoes, they’ll overwhelm our lives and cause many of us to reconsider our use of any sort of media.
Sarcasm aside, the approaching midterms signal the arrival of another occasion—the closing window for legislative action to make OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program permanent. While technically speaking, the window to pass the Michael Enzi Voluntary Protection Program Act (S.1417 & H.R.2844) doesn’t close until the end of the 119th Congress next January, realistically, action on non-spending or priority legislation becomes significantly less likely as summer approaches and legislators (especially on the House side) shift their focus to reelection campaigns (or, if they’re retiring, travel).
For the VPP Act, the reality is that we have, at most, another 3-4 months to get this bill passed through both chambers of Congress and onto the President’s desk.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that we’re closer than we’ve ever been to votes by both the House and Senate. On the House side, it’s a case of dotting the proverbial “I”s and crossing the “t”s—H.R.2844 has passed through the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and it is only a matter of when the bill is brought before the full House for a vote. On the Senate side, the expectation is that the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee will schedule a hearing on S.1417 (note: same bill, just different bill numbers in each chamber) in the coming weeks. From there, it’s a matter of committee approval that would then send the legislation to the full Senate for a vote. Much like in the House, the Senate HELP Committee will most likely advance the legislation on a straight party-line vote led by the Republican majority.
Which begs the question—why no support from the Democrats in Congress?
Simply put, it appears that Democrats are being subjected to a pressure campaign from certain elements of organized labor inside DC to oppose the VPP Act. Based on testimony and written letters to the House Education & Workforce Committee, labor opposes the VPP Act because, among other things…
…an “absence of union approval.” And no, I am not making this up.
To quote a letter from AFL-CIO’s Director of Government Affairs, Jody Calemine, to the House committee, “Where union VPP sites are successful, it is because there is a local union with accountability mechanisms, true participation of workers and their representatives in safety and health programs, and collective bargaining. Notably, this legislation omits any requirement for workers and their local bargaining unit to approve any VPP site application and for any renewal of their site’s status, and omits any criteria for a high level of safety and health performance.”
This statement addresses a) the reality of how VPP works and benefits the front-line worker, and b) what I can only assume is a lack of basic knowledge on OSHA’s existing VPP requirements.
Since 1982, VPP has given a voice to the front-line worker and required management commitment—and accountability—to those workers. VPP creates partnerships between management and labor, with OSHA oversight maintaining them. Heck, VPP was created by labor—the Building Trades Council of Southern California was signatory to the first unofficial VPP agreement with CalOSHA on the San Onofre Nuclear Power Generating Station project back in 1979. VPP truly is a labor/front-line worker-led program, to the point where any labor signatory may withdraw from a VPP agreement, at any time, and end a site’s participation in VPP. Simple as that.
As for “…this legislation omits any requirement for workers and their local bargaining unit to approve any VPP site application…”. For that, I’ll pull directly from OSHA’s “VPP Application Instructions for the Site-Based Way to Participate“:
“If, at the time of application, any of your employees are organized into one or more collective bargaining units, the authorized representative for each unit must either:
- Sign the application or
- Submit a signed statement indicating that the collective bargaining agent supports or is not opposed to VPP participation.
- Without such concurrence from all authorized agents, OSHA will not accept the application (emphasis mine).”
The legislation, indeed, does not include any requirement for local bargaining units to approve a VPP site application because…OSHA already requires it. Always has.
The AFL-CIO letter includes numerous inaccuracies and misleading arguments, from misrepresentation of OSHA inspection exemptions for VPP sites (note: VPP sites are not exempt from imminent danger or whistleblower inspections and are subject to OSHA audits—which can result in inspection actions—every 3-5 years) to, and I quote, “Bad actors with repeat violations and fatalities also are permitted to stay in the program…” (OSHA removes worksites from its Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) when they fail to maintain safety standards, such as failing a re-evaluation or receiving serious willful/repeat citations. There’s an entire process for this). Even better, the letter argues that the VPP Act would, “…would divert limited OSHA resources from core enforcement and investigative activities.” It appears that AFL-CIO prefers OSHA to investigate injuries after they occur versus OSHA actively partnering with front-line workers and sites to prevent injuries, never mind the fact that workplace fatalities have remained at the same unacceptable levels since 2009. If enforcement alone worked, this would not be the case.
VPPPA will continue its legislative education efforts as we push to make VPP, a program which OSHA estimates prevents more than 4,000 workplace injuries each year, a permanent, sustainable part of OSHA’s proactive approach to workplace injury and illness prevention. We’ll continue to work with both parties to dispel the same tired, well-worn inaccuracies and misconceptions put forth by those who oppose labor and management working together to protect workers.
Because we believe that VPP works and saves.