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Honorable W. J. Usery, Jr.

Secretary of Labor -
Washington; D. G. 20210 I I 5
Dear mr. Secretary:

I wish to recall the correspondence that passed between us in
March of this year. I raised the question of whether election?year
politics and not the health and safety of workers was the dominant
factor in the delay of promulgation of occupational health standards
by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

On March ll, you replied to my letter with assurances that no
such pressures had been or were being exerted on the operation of
OSHA and that the Department is committed to "the most professional
approach in the development, issuance and enforcement of occupational
safety and health standards."

I think your response overlooked the requirement imposed upon
OSHA by the Nixon?Ford Administration that every proposed occupational
safety and health standard be accompanied by a so-called inflationary
impact statement assessing the dollar cost of compliance by affected
employers.

We have been trying to have the Department adopt a proper noise
standard for over three years and yet we are now forced to participate
for the second time in hearings examining the inflationary impact of an
85 decibel noise standard.

The legality of requiring inflationary impact statements is
already under challenge in the federal courts by the labor movement.
Beyond legalities lies the question of the real purpose of the Hixon?
Ford Amdinistration in requiring the inflationary impact statement.

Reproduced from 1he Unclassified I Declassi?ed Holdings of the National Archives

. Usery, Jr.

_-ember 27, 1976

It is a means of providing business management with a sounding
board to set forth exaggerated claims as to the effect on their operations
brought about by costs of complying with such prOposed standards as
Occupational noise and arsenic and carefully calculated to influence con?
gressional opinion against the Act itself. In this macabre charade of the
administrative hearinga the voices of American workers are deadened by
these well?orchestrated complaints.

This device is sucking the life out of an orderly and expeditidus
standard develOpment process. It has resulted not only in insufferable
delays, but perverted the purposes of the Act to that of a protective
operation to shield employers fmem its legitimate consequences.

As such, in an election year, the ghost of the Nixon Administration?s
1972 effort to firm up management support of an incumbent president's
effort for re?election, hangs heavily over the present situation with
regard to the NixonwFord Administration use of the inflationary impact
statement.

In denying OSHA its budget request for funds to carry out further
inflationary impact statements during fiscal year 1977, the Senate Appropriu
ations Committee stated that ?The Committee believes that the promulgation
of health standards should not be delayed just to conduct studies; the
safety and health of American workers is far more important."

The has a moral commitment to do all in its power to
demonstrate that strong standards, firmly enforced, must be developed and
implemented in a timely fashion. This must be done in conformity with
the intent of the Act, and not by means of an interpretation by the Nixonr
Ford Administration, motivated principally by dollar values and electionu
year politics.

Accordingly, we will participate under protest in the impending
inflationary impact hearings on the noise standard, and at the same time
do all within our power to remove this albatross from the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration. It would be of great encouragement to
us in organized labor if you, as Secretary, were to join us in the latter

endeavor.

if



President

   
 

Si cerely,