Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-09-01
FoundryW Workers Back
Accident Prevention
Bureau In Labor Dept
Gosser Urges
Burke's Bill
Be Passed Now
Union Officials
Testify Before
House Committee

- 4lt1 ~
man Tom Burke, a form e r
foundry worker, which would
give long over due protection
to foundry workers was given
vigorous support last week by
a delegation from the Foundry
Department of UAW-CIO.
Heinz Sieve, assistant director
of the department w h C h is
headed by Vice President Rich
ard T. Gosser, testified in sup
port of the bill, answering ques-
tons for more than two hours
before a subcommittee of t e
House Committee on Education
and Labor.
The bill would eliminate the
extremely hazardous conditions
in industry and would carry
severe penalties for violations of
safety regulations. 1t asks for
a Bureau of Accident Proven
ton in the Labor Department.
Rep. Roy Wier ID, Mimi, a
former ALL official who is well
aware of foundry conditions,
agreed with the witnesses that
"a foundry is the best place in
the world where anyone would
want to work"
The bill supported by Sieve
and the other UAW witnesses,
provides that the Bureau of
Accident Prevention would
study conditions of employment
in hazardous industries, would
develop safety methods and
standards of operation. 1t would
set up a de prevention
boards for each hazardous in
dustry, representing w k ers,
employers and the public.
Key provision in the bill is
the one ordering these industry
boards to make rules and regu-
lations for the elimination of
unsafe and unhealthful condi-
tions, including the prevention
of accidents a d occupational
disease, and the construction, re-
pair, inspection and mainte-
nance of establishments in the
industry. These rules and stand
ards would be drawn up after
public hearings. After they have
been approved by the Secretary
Of Labor they would be en-
forceable by law with a $1,000
fine or six months imprison-
ment as the penalties.
The only way to get real COM
plaince, the JAW men told the
special House Labor subcommit-
tee holding the hearings, would
be to add a provision forbidding
any employer who violates the
rules to sell his products in in
terstate commerce.
Sieve told of the deplorable
health and safety conditions in
smaller foundries. He said the
highest accident rates were in
plants hiring 10 to 500 workers.
Since the union bargains for
workers in plants of different
sizes, it finds it impossible to
get the same improvements in
sanitary and working conditions
in the smaller, less profitable
plants, it can win from the
larger plants, he said. T y
want safety rules imposed "all
across the boards so that the
safer plants won't be at a dis
advantage in the highly COM
petitive i in d t y, the union
spokesman the Congress
men.
Birch Mcdowell of Muskegon
said the foundry in which he
worked faced a shortage of labor
b because of the unattractive
working conditions, a d w a S
importing so to rs workers from
the south to fill the gaps.
They're in one day, and the
next day they're gone" he re-
ported.
Besides the competitive prob
lem, another reason for a fed
eral accident prevention bureau,
the JAW men said, is the fact
that silicosis takes a heavy toll
of foundry workers, and state
Continued on Page Two II