For organized labor, the hits just keep on coming.

Three weeks after the Bush Administration issued a number of anti-labor directives, Round 2 came last week, when both the U.S. House and Senate voted to repeal sweeping Clinton administration regulations aimed at reducing repetitive motion injuries in the workplace. Bush has pledged to sign the measure.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the vote was "a naked payoff to big business contributors who have opposed every effort to enact a standard protecting workers."

The so-called ergonomics standard did not cover construction workers - any such standard for Hardhats was seen as a long way off because of the wide range of tools and work situations in the building industry. But the standard did cover 102 million workers at more than 6 million work sites around the nation.

The big hangup for Republicans was the cost: the GOP and business organizations said the regulations are too broad and would cost as much as $100 billion a year. OSHA said compliance would cost $4.5 billion every year, and said the new rules would prevent 4.6 million musculoskeletal disorders and actually save businesses $9.1 billion every year in health care costs.

The standards contained new rules to reduce workers' exposure to carpal tunnel syndrome, and other ailments related to repetitive motion, awkward posture, contact stress and vibration. Required fixes could include businesses making adjustments to work stations and to pay for some health care and medical leave if an employee suffers from repetitive stress injuries caused by work.

Since Bush took office Jan. 20, he has rolled back a handful of other policies favored by unions. He issued new regulations that include making it easier for union members to stop their dues from financing political activities and revoking the project labor agreements, which requires contractors on many federally financed projects to be unionized.