Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) holds Clinton Administration Ergonomics rules that Congress repealed.

The Anti-Ergo Coalition: Buying the Right to Maim

The IAM Journal tracked the political and lobbying expenditures of 63 leading members of the National Coalition on Ergonomics ÐÐ a friendly-sounding front group founded in 1994 by the National Association of Manufacturers.

Business groups kicked in $5,000 apiece to join NCE. Within months the coalition boasted a $600,000 war chest and a heavyweight membership list that included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Trucking Association, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Food Distributors International.

The Journal also looked at the political spending of 33 associations and businesses closely allied with but not members of NCE, including UPS, Anheuser-Busch, Fed-Ex and the Timber Products Manufacturers Association. Using the corporate affiliations of their directors and officers, we traced the spending of 23 individual corporate members of FDI, 36 member companies of NAM, 68 members of the COC, nine NFIB affiliates and 40 firms represented by the American Trucking Association.

We looked at political money spent by these groups during the critical period January 1999 through March 2001,when the Ergonomics Standard was proposed, passed into law and then repealed.