Breaking Up Is Hard to Do If You’re a State and OSHA: Explained

South Carolina is the latest state to be embroiled in a fight over its power to enforce worker safety protections, following a union’s bid for federal regulators to step in and wrest control from the Palmetto State.

Home of major manufacturing plants operated by BMW AG and Boeing Co., South Carolina is one of 27 states, plus Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, that has the federal government’s blessing to operate a job safety agency. With the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration setting minimum requirements for itself and the states, there’s often tension among them.

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