Steelworkers can intervene in state safety laws suit, federal judge says

A federal judge in Sacramento has approved a request by the United Steelworkers union to intervene in a case over state worker safety laws.

U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez last week approved the request from the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC. The union represents 860,000 industrial workers across the country.

It filed a motion to intervene in September. Neither of the parties in the case objected. Western States Petroleum Association v. California Occupational Health and Safety Standards Board, 19CV01270 (E.D. Cal., filed July 9, 2019).

Mendez found the union had made a "'compelling showing' that the existing parties will inadequately represent its interests." Specifically, the judge wrote, the state is seeking to protect its laws while the union is attempting to protect its members. The union's briefs need to "focus on issues not addressed by defendants" and it must pay its own legal fees.

The petroleum association, which represents oil and gas companies in six western states, is seeking to block a set of workplace safety regulations promulgated under a state law passed in 2013. It claims the "California Process Safety Management Regulations and California Accidental Release Program Regulations" are impermissible under the National Labor Relations Act. This is because it grants collective bargaining rights over workplace safety rules that are governed by the act and are outside the state's purview, the group argued.

-- Malcolm Maclachlan