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May 23, 1999
We all need to consciously resist succumbing to ideology, to
checking our brains at the door, to adopting a position before the
facts are in then swearing an oath to defend it.
I recently attended an industry meeting addressed by prominent
industry figures, gentlemen whom I highly respect and whose company I
greatly enjoy. But it does not enhance my pride in our industry to
see a large part of the audience rallied into joining battle against
OSHA Ergonomic Standards when they haven't yet the faintest idea of
their contents, or to hear them sniggering along with the speaker
about "tree huggers".
Honest laughter and good humor are a healthy remedy for what ails
us. But sniggering is a mechanism that a mob uses to exert peer
pressure. At the next industry meeting you attend, listen carefully
to which one you're hearing; if it's sniggering, don't swear loyalty,
steer the meeting in a better direction. Here's to your health.
Ted Mooney <mooney@finishing.com> Brick, NJ
Ted
I think the reaction you are seeing is to 25 years of off the
wall, anti business legislation and media articles. They have taken
the worst of our industry and other industries and made us villains.
We are the polluters, environment destroyers of the industrial age.
Better if we all go out of business!
The reaction is to what is perceived as persecution not
regulation. And it may be an over reaction but I understand it. It
gets the troops going and maybe someday legislation will become
environmentally sound and business friendly.
Drew Nosti <gray1goose@usa.net> Reading Pa
Following Up
(I'm not trying to get in the last
word, just encourage further participation)
Until the day when business is environmentally friendly,
legislation that is "environmentally sound and business friendly"
remains an elusive contradiction. And without tough regulations no
finishing shop can remain competitive while becoming environmentally
friendly. We've known since 1928 how unhealthy hex chrome is; without
legislation, what has industry as a group done about it in 71 years?
And what are we as a group doing about it today? Conducting pep
rallies to raise money so lobbyists can influence legislators away
from reducing operator exposure limits!
Just a couple of years ago I was in a plating shop where an
article written by a well-known industry figure was taped to the
bulletin board. Said article seriously asserted that the only chrome
platers who got cancer were those who picked their noses! Talk about
blaming the victim and ridiculing him into not coming forward.
Clearly it's possible for regulations to be off-the-wall and
persecutory, as you say. So how do we strike the proper balance?
Surely not by sniggering ourselves into shipping money to Washington
to fight Ergomomic Standards sight unseen and to fight tightening up
chrome exposure standards after seven decades of unhealthful worker
exposure.
Ted Mooney <mooney@finishing.com> Brick, NJ
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