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Mr. Peter Field is the owner.

He goes into figures on accident prevention. He goes into the meetings that were held in this community:

Last evening the State Occupational and Health Administration people held a meeting here in Newcastle to acquaint the local people with this law. I counted over 300 people in attendance, which indicates the concern of all people, not just businessmen and employers in this law. Teno, people are mad at the power this gives the Federal Government over their actions. No one in attendance at this meeting spoke in favor of the law or any part of it. I was even approached at joining a concerted effort by business people in this town to not allow inspectors to enter our property.

Gentlemen, this is getting serious.

Naturally something like this is ridiculous but it does give you an indication how people feel.

Don Owsley, head of the Wyoming OSHA and three of his assistants chaired the meeting. In most instances he and his people were unable to adequately answer questions on particular problems concerning their safety regulations as they would affect local industry. In other words, Teno, we are forced to comply with a law we don't understand, and also where the people who are to enforce the law won't tell you what is required for compliance.

Carroll Riggs is a young man at Shoshoni, Wyo., and has but few employees. He writes to indicate that in his opinion there is this general type of objection.

The town of Lovell has a manager who went to a meeting held by the Department of Labor :

If the description of the Wyoming Retail Merchants Association (Gaylord Hansen), which pointed out vast and detailed safety rules and regulations, and high fines and cost of compliance, is true, I feel immediate investigation is called for.

There are some pressure groups using this as an advantage to maybe avoid compliance. We are putting it all in the record.

Here is one from ranchers at Clearmont, Wyo., regarding the agricultural facet. One of the biggest funniest things going around Wyoming these days is a picture of a cowboy on a horse after OSHA got through with him. Have you seen it? It is the funniest thing I ever saw in my life special spurs and all.

Mr. CONTE. Back in the spring, in April, I was questioning the Secretary on this. I said:

I am ranking Republican on the Small Business Committee. Small businessmen are concerned that they can't seek advice from your shop any longer. Is that right? They don't have the money to get safety engineers; they don't know the safety needs that they have to have. The Federal Register posts certain regulations which they can't interpret and they are worried.

Secretary HODGES. I think they should be worried. For one thing, they don't usually have the services of a trade association.

And then he said that OSHA was setting up informational programs. He said:

We are doing this in a number of Western States where this was particularly a problem, where metropolitan areas are few and far between. We set up regional information sessions. In northwestern Wyoming, we will pick out a small but convenient community there, go in, bring in your staff experts, invite all the businesses, even though small, from around there to come in and listen to our description of what the requirements are or what they can expect, to really try to understand the nature of the law.

Have they been up there?

Mr. RONCALIO. The last place in the world that I can conceive I would want to go to a prayer meeting with Jewish friends would be Cairo, Egypt. The last place in the world I can see an occupational administrator would want to go to is northwest Wyoming. You haven't an employer up there of 10 people or more. If they went up in August, they went fishing, and if they went up in January they went skiing. That is ridiculous.

Those 14,000 deaths and they are not a funny thing-they take place every year. They didn't take place in these kinds of shops. They take place where there is the need for examination and inspection. Mr. BERGLAND. Mr. Roncalio, you referred to the application of this act as it affected farmers and ranchers. Would you detail the complaints you have heard?

Mr. RONCALIO. Yes. There are at least three letters. Here is the TriCounty Grain Co., Chugwater, Wyo., a town of 75 or 100 people in the wheat country. It is from the manager and vice president:

I feel the OSHA is not a workable piece of legislation. I realize the need for safety laws and regulations but I don't feel these laws have to be imposed and enforced by the Federal Government. The people in the Wyoming Department of Health and Safety know our needs in relation to Health and Safety and are doing and have done a good job in this area.

As you know I have the largest grain elevator in Wyoming and I honestly try to maintain my place of business in a safe and healthful manner.

He makes generalizations but doesn't have factual and specific objections.

This was a generalization-type reaction. Let's see if I can find another one.

The tragedy, gentlemen, is when I go to my hometown of Rock Springs and I see people like Harry Weiss, who is in the junk business, which happened to be a business my poor father was in after 20 years of coal mining. He has a ramp about so high, and it is the same old ramp he has used for 40 to 50 years, with thick lumber. It doesn't look good. It has massive iron around the edges of it, and it is not the healthiest thing in the world.

He has been told that he must get lifts on either end or he gets out of business. They are forcing this man out of business and they are forcing everyone for a block by him out of business because they happen to be between the spur of a railroad and a road that happens to be widened. Fortunately, if the railroad comes in to condemn, to get more space, and those people get bright lawyers, they can pick up a smart lawyer to get another warehouse somewhere. But only if something like that is in the offing can some of these small businessmen survive some of the necessities for compliance that inspectors have given them.

Mr. HUNGATE. In the case you cite, do you think they do not need that improvement?

Mr. RONCALIO. That is a difficult question. I am just pointing up to you the hardship that some of these things are doing to some busi

nesses.

Mr. McKEVITT. How many employees work at that place where lifts are needed?

Mr. RONCALIO. Two or three. One is a poor gentleman who has been working there for over 20 years. He feels like being part of the owner

of the place. He would be lost without it. He would be on public welfare and stay there the rest of his life. This is one of those situations in Rock Springs.

Mr. McKEVITT. What is the purpose of the lifts?

Mr. RONCALIO. I don't know. I suspect probably to avoid injury from lifting something too heavy.

Mr. McKEVITT. It is a truck pickup dock?

Mr. RONCALIO. It is a truck pickup dock and very, very old, with wooden steps coming up each side.

Mr. HUNGATE. We will have to move along.

Mr. CONTE. I want the record to be straight, Mr. Chairman, and I don't think we ought to place all the blame on the Department of Labor. I think much of the blame rests right with the Congress if the act is bad.

Let me note that on page 59 in part VI of our Labor-HEW appropriation hearings-I would recommend that our witness read the whole chapter-we again discuss the need to be able to go in and help the small businessman. Here is what the Secretary said:

Indeed. part of the problem seems to be that there are many employers who wish us to conduct an inspection, if you will, free of charge, come in and say, "If we were here for real, we would do this, this, and this."

And here is the important part:

Under the terms of the act, there is just no way we can do that.

Mr. MICHEL. So you are bound lock, stock, and barrel by the language of this act to do some of these things that we have been getting the most complaints about from some of our people? The inspectors have to proceed in this way? Is that what you are telling us?

This act has to be changed. It is more than rules and regulations.

Mr. RONCALIO. It has to be changed.

Let me read one more, if I may. This is from Stewart's Super Service Station, Moorcroft, Wyo.:

Regarding the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. That is an impossible legislation and set of rulings.

Were I to meet these specifications, I would have to build a new service station. Otherwise it would be necessary for me to move four underground tanks, a combined capacity of 14,000 gallons, tear down two of my motel units

He only has six.

I feel that this should not apply to a man that employs less than 10 employees, also that it should be more of an educational, or at least a warning with a year's grace to make the necessary modifications, or the erection of a new station.

I can understand how that persons who know nothing of working for a living or operating a service station or other small business would promote such an unworkable law.

Here is Bailey School Supply:

Most of us businessmen here in Wyoming have been astounded that a bill such as the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 could be approved by the U.S. Congress. Your action in amending this bill and the methods of enforcing it will surely be appreciated.

We have been operating our business since 1917 and have never had an accident more serious than a cut finger which required no more treatment than a band-aid.

These 14,000 deaths we are trying to do something about cannot be attributable to these small operations in these small areas.

We want to keep it that way and we appreciate any suggestions from any source which might be helpful in promoting safety.

However, the methods of enforcing this law appear to be completely un-American and many of the requirements are simply "picky" and obviously should have never been included in the law.

That is from a man of learning, wisdom, and restraint, a quiet and

decent man.

(Letters follow:)

Hon. TENO RONCALIO,

House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.

B & B HOMES CORP., Casper, Wyo., June 5, 1972.

DEAR SIR: We manufacture travel trailers and mobile homes here in Casper and are enclosing a copy of the citation sent to us by the U.S. Department of Labor; Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Representatives from OSHA arrived un-announced and conducted an investigation of our premises. The citation was sent to us and we corrected the alleged violations in a two week period with the exception of some wiring which was curtailed because of a depleted wire supply in the area.

We sent a letter on May 5 to Vernan A. Strohm, OSHA area director, informing him of our full execution of OSHA requirements.

Despite our co-operation and compliance with their directives, penalties of $200.00 are being filed against us. In our estimation it is Un-American and we don't intend to pay!

We believe in maintaining Health and Safety Standards in our plant, but we strongly feel that OSHA have gone too far and are infringing on the private rights of the individual.

We would appreciate any assistance or influence you can exert in seeing that the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is repealed or amended.

Very truly yours,

ROBERT P. INGRAM, President.

HARRES WELDING SERVICE, Worland, Wyo., February 23, 1970.

Hon. TENO RONCALIO,
House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.

MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN: I have just returned from a meeting where a State of Wyoming employee explained the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, and rest assured I am dumbfounded. This piece of legislation is so overpowering that I feel in my case the only solution is to discharge my employees and do such work as I myself can do, and operate as an individual. I am satisfied that not one of those legislators voting for this bill took the time to read it, or if he did so, took the time to reason its impact on business in general and small businesses in particular. I paged through this mess of insanity and picked at random parts that would apply directly to my business and found that some of the regulations if applied to the letter of the law, could be a greater hazard and danger than the way we now do various things. One case in particular requires that in the use of a right angle grinder, the operator must have a shield enclosing 180° of the periphery of the grinding disc and said shield is to be between the grinding wheel and operator-consequently the operator cannot see where he is grinding or what he is grinding, necessitating his having to lean forward and over the machine to try to see his work-thus creating, in my opinion, a more dangerous situation.

When an employee chooses not to obey company policy and safety instructions specified in this law and is consequently discovered by a government inspector. the employer is fined-yet this same employee can commit the same offense off duty and in his own home and in the presence of minor children with complete immunity. I find the above viciously discriminatory and to say the least, asinine. Actions of employees on my premises can be interpreted as a violation of law and create a financial burden to me while the same actions by the same employee elsewhere constitute no violation whatever-ridiculous to say the least!

I doubt that there is a man or group of men in the entire federal government that can interpret this law reasonably.

With the nation in financial crisis as it is today and suffering from the burden of the unemployed, I hardly think the above law can induce small business to expand and create jobs—in fact it will do just the opposite. A law of this nature creates a financial burden that General Motors and Ford Motor Company can easily absorb and pass on to their customers, but for people in my position, it is impossible-my customers will not tolerate it. The only benefactors from this law will be those thousands upon thousands of government overpaid bureaucrats it will take to enforce the law. And while on the subject of bureaucrats, one would think the federal government would eliminate some of these parasites who have outgrown their usefulness.

If the foregoing seems to imply I am not safety-minded or concerned about the health and welfare of my employees, I can assure you we have been in business for 19 years and as yet have not had a single serious injury due to an existing hazard in our operation.

If relief from the above Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is not forthcoming and soon, I have no choice but to discharge my employees and operate as an individual.

Respectfully yours,

ALFRED HARRES.

COLLINS COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY,
Gillette, Wyo., March 28, 1972.

Congressman TENO RONCALIO,

U.S. House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.

DEAR SIR: Last Thursday I attended a Chamber of Commerce sponsored meeting, to inform the public of the OSHA law. That same night I wrote you a letter regarding my feelings on this law, and the type of enforcement described by Mr. Strahm of the Labor Department.

Since that meeting, we have had seven lost man-days in our small company, working on safety. We have cleared up every violation that we can find. My time has been spent trying to read and understand the OSHA law, in order to try to clean up any violations that we might have. Besides the lost man-days, I spent $345.00 for fire extinguishers and almost $200.00 for other items such as electric cords, trash cans, hard hats, etc.

I now ask myself why I did this. Certainly not because I think this small building needs seven fire extinguishers, when only four people work here. Not because I think we need extension cords that meet OSHA requirements. In fact I don't think we are one bit safer today than we were five days ago.

I realize I did all of this through fear, and I'm not alone. You can't find a three-way extension cord, hard hat or many of the other items needed to comply, for sale in this town, because there was a run on these items.

OSHA has been the primary topic of conversation everywhere I've been since that meeting.

Do I feel this is good? Indeed not. It isn't that everyone wants to be safer, we all simply panicked when faced with the gestapo tactics described by Mr. Strahm (a Department of Labor Official).

I now find I regret having been victim of these tactics, at the same time realizing they have it within their power to ruin me financially if they so desire.

I blame the apathy of us all for allowing a situation such as this to develop, but now that I am aware of it, and want to do something, I don't know what to do. Not just this one issue, but many issues that have developed over the years. I have pretty much voted a republican ticket throughout my life, because I felt I more closely aligned with their policies. However, I now feel that neither major party is any different.

I have always steered away from Mr. Wallace, because of his views regarding integration mainly, and I am despaired to think we may have to elect someone like him, in order to break the clique that has developed in Washington. When the IRS is allowed to run rampant over the small people, while many millionaires pay less taxes than I do, and our elected representatives allow this to continue, it is time for a change. Past history proves that changing to a re

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