Deukmejian Plan to Abolish OSHA

In January of this year, Gov. George Deukmejian made public his plan to eliminate Cal/OSHA and turn the protection of workers in California over to the federal Occupational, Safety and Health Administration program, allegedly to save the taxpayers $8 million.

This is a terrible blunder that will cost the people of California dearly in terms of increases in worker illness, injury and death. If the Cal/OSHA program is abandoned, there surely will be annual losses of untold millions of dollars due to lost worker productivity, increased medical costs and escalating workers’ compensation expenditures.

The governor’s ill-advised plan to close down Cal/OSHA for an alleged savings of $8 million is to abandon a program that is vastly superior to federal OSHA and costs the taxpayers of California less than 50 cents per worker per year. The governor’s proposal flies in the face of advice and counsel from labor, management, community leaders and the editorial position of our major newspapers statewide.

If Cal/OSHA is abandoned and the protection of worker safety and health is turned over to the federal OSHA, they plan to have only 100 field inspectors to replace the 230 positions currently provided by Cal/OSHA.

The director of the Department of Industrial Relations has admitted publicly that federal OSHA advised him in February that it does not wish to take over in California and would provide more support to keep Cal/OSHA afloat. Thus, it is abundantly clear that a savings of $8 million in a $39-billion budget is not the issue at all, and there must be a politically motivated hidden agenda.

Since its inception, Cal/OSHA has had an effective track record and has been the model by which all OSHA programs in the United States are measured. In 1973, the year before Cal/OSHA began operations, the death toll among California workers was 711 but, by 1985, it was down to 401 despite a rather substantial growth in the size of the work force. Currently, California’s worker death rate is only about one-half that of other large states with a comparable worker population mix.

The Western Occupational Medical Assn. appeals to the people of California to join with labor, industry, community leaders and major newspapers statewide to urge Gov. Deukmejian to withdraw his proposal to abolish Cal/OSHA, the finest worker safety and health program in the nation.

IRA H. MONOSSON MD

Chairman

Board of Directors

Western Occupational

Medical Assn.

Aptos