The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1957-12-20

Industrial Accident Board.
Officially known as the Minimum
Safety Standards For the Construc-
ton Industry In Montana, and COM
piled in a 144-page booklet, the new
code represents more than a year OF
research and public hearings carried
on by safety advisory committee
to the lab.
The completion of the code and
its availability in printed form,
like the exposed surface of an ice
berg, however, presents only a por-
ton of the effort put forth to bring
about the machinery for developing
safer working conditions in the con-
struction field.
Funds for drafting the code were
not made available until the 1855
Legislature. Then another long delay
of IA months occurred before the
Industrial Accident Board appointed
the advisory committee on April %,
1856. The first committee never met
due to Chairman George Jacoby, Hell
ena, having suffered heart attack.
Later, Fred Ross, Helena, was ap-
pointed as the public member of the
committee and as its chairman. On
June 20, 1856, the first advisory
committee meeting was held. Other
members of the committee were Rob-
ert Harris, Kalispell, secretary of
Montana State Council of Carpenters,
and Chester Bates, Helena, Hodcar-
riers business representative and
member of the State AFL-CIO execu-
tive board, representing labor. Man
agement representatives. were Dan
Mooney, Butte contractor, and James
BENEFITS, Billings.
Long before the June 20 meeting
it was apparent that little material
on safety regulations pertaining to
construction was available for the
committee to study and use in devel-
oping a code applicable to Montana. |
This lack of material led committee |
members Bates and Harris to seek |
assistance from labor groups in other
areas and from international union
sources. AS result, at the June 1856
meeting there were copies of con-
struction industry safety codes from
II states on hand for committee
consideration.
CODES OF II STATES STUDIED
At the second meeting the five
man group decided upon the prepare
ton of rough draft of a proposed
code, following exhaustive studies of
the several states codes made avail
able by Harris and Bates. Then fol-
lowed number of other meetings
and two public hearings-one in April
and the other in June of this year.
Toward the end of June this year,
revisions of various por-
ions in line with suggestions made /
At the public hearings, the committee
submitted the proposed code to the
ALB with recommendation that it I
,e adopted and put into effect.
In reviewing the effort put forth
o draft a code which would be mu-
ually acceptable to both labor and
ilC lllQODCiy, 1lcll ID 10 eiiO iiAoo w |
Omit ''that this code is not perfect, I
tut it is step in the right direction, 8
nd is much needed There will
be some changes and amend
lents that will be needed from year
0 year and there are some phases
f construction that were left out
because of the appropria-
on being insufficient but these
ems can be taken up in the future
nd made part of the code -.
eff it is enforced properly" the
union official points
out, ct will result in cutting down
the number of accidents, injured
workmen, and help the workmen
and employers by reducing the pre-
miums on workmen's compensa- y
ton" to employers who lower their y
accident frequencies. "a
IRST INDUSTRIAL CODE g
PROVED IN 1949 h,