The State - News from Feb. 8, 1987

Gov. George Deukmejian’s plan to dismantle the state’s occupational health and safety agency (CAL/OSHA) would wipe out local efforts to criminally prosecute employers whose negligence results in workplace deaths, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner has charged. Deukmejian, in his 1987 budget proposal, said that the elimination of CAL/OSHA would save the state $8 million a year. But Reiner, whose office has filed 12 OSHA-related criminal cases in the last two years, contended that workplace safety would be significantly reduced by employers who no longer feared criminal sanctions.