Costello Challenges Labor Leader: Retract

Mark Costello

An outraged Labor Commissioner Mark Costello Friday called on labor leader Joe McGill to retract resolution statements that claim the firing of several labor compliance officers indirectly lead to the Kremlin grain elevator accident.

Costello asserted in his letter to McGill, “your resolution is based on falsehoods and your failure to fact check evidences a blatant disregard for the truth.”

Costello wrote, “A cursory fact check would reveal the following: 1. No Labor Compliance Officer has been fired under my administration; 2. Labor Compliance Officers under state law have no authority to monitor safety operations of a business; and, 3. State OSHA under state law has authority only to offer voluntary safety consultation and must be invited into the business.

“To link your political agenda by falsehoods to the incident that maimed two teenage boys is nothing more than an attempt to exploit a tragic accident to mislead the public. Surely, you can disagree with me on issues of policy without resorting to exploitation of this tragedy,” stated Costello.

Costello asked McGill to “publicly retract the false and misleading statements contained in your resolution. Should you choose to let these known falsehoods stand, they will be recognized as statements that are intended to maliciously mislead the public and delegates to the 28th Biennial General Convention of the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO. The citizens of Oklahoma and I eagerly await your retraction.”

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