Bro. Curtis said:
Sorry, GB, you are not going to change my mind. And the plant they shut down was Union Products, not BOSE.
It sounds like from your posts that you are too young to know much about the beginning of OSHA and what the conditions were like. I was around when OSHA came into being. It was not welcomed but I did see a lot less accidents than before they existed. I worked under a man who lost most of his arm in an industrial wood planer. That would be unheard of today. Many many accidents today are unheard of because of regulations instituted by OSHA.
To think that people will work safely and ethically is simply not true. Some are willfully defiant and others are ignorant. A friend of mine had a worker who worked doing masonry work without gloves and ended up in the hospital due to lime poisioning. Had he used the proper procedure he would have not been sick.
The number one in accident is due to poor housekeeping.
OSHA does provide for an appeal. So I tend to think that there was much more behind the scenes than just a colored floor in the plant where you worked. They do not shut down a plant of operation unless they deem the operation unsafe to the point where it can be immediately dangerous and potentially cause death or be very harmful.
Imagine a 12" wide bandsaw blade 60 feet long snaking out of a bandsaw and flying around in the room where people are working. OSHA put a stop to that.
I had a supervisor who was a Christian killed because he did not follow the proper OSHA safety rules. HE knew better and fell off of the building at 45 ft. high. One of the workers was quite near him and tried to keep him from falling. He was able to touch the man's hand but could not grab onto him. He did not attend the funeral and for a long time had a hard time dealing with the trauma of knowing that he was so close to saving the man. We had worked together for three years by that time. So imagine the impact it left on all of us. That could have all been prevented if he had followed the proper procedure. He left behind a family without any kind of income except what Worker's Comp gave his family. It was tough looking at his family and realizing what they were going through.
When OSHA first started they came on like police and later realized that did not work very well. Then they worked for compliance and that worked much better. The fact is that employers work to make things safe. It is very hard in my profession to begin a business and get insurance. If you are a company known for not complying with OSHA, you will be put out of business by both OSHA and the insurance company.
Maybe you do not like OSHA but don't you feel a sense of ethical responsibility as a Christian to promote a safe workplace? If you do not like OSHA how would suggest that be done ranging from the equipment manufacturer down to the field worker.
I managed a facility and we were never cited for any violations while paying about 16% more than anyone else in the business. We had the best material and had the most business. The company was owned by a Christian man and he expected ethical practices or a person would be terminated. Ethical practices can be followed and business can be conducted in a Christlike manner and still be profitable.
Our insurance modifier was 0.75. A friend of mine has a modifier for his business of 0.58. Because he is safe he only pays 58 cents of every dollar that the average company in his business would pay. So he can afford to pay his workers more because they work safely.
Almost every area of the American society has been affected in a good way in terms of safety and the dealing of harmful chemicals. It is documented that so many industries had been dumping pollutants into the air in violation of any kind of regulations. Imagine the people who suffered due to those practices. Things such as birth defects and diseases which were not present before.
I can remember the day when we saw trash on the rivers and fish dead floating on the rivers due to pollutants from industries dumping into the river. I can remember when fish was not to be eaten because of pollutants in the rivers and oceans. At one time the orange trees were dying and my eyes would burn because of the smog when I would trave through Los Angeles. The signs above the freeways would be coated with black soot from vehicles. Cars today have more power and get better fuel mileage. I drive a Toyota Camry and that car has hardly gone up in price in the last 8 years. It meets the EPA regulations in all 50 states and get better gas mileage than any car I have owned. It is the cheapest car I have ever owned. The problem is not the EPA or OSHA but the greedeaters at the top levels of business wanting their multi-million dollar incomes. In about the 1950s the ratio of the top person to the person with the lowest income was 8 to 1 now it is about 500 to 1.