Document NeYyG69Q6jED0YZvKrVmLdR4D

THE INDUSTRIAL SAFETY MOVEMENT 4 In small units, statistical measures of performance are unreliable, so that it is difficult to produce clear-cut evidence as to the effectiveness of accident preven tion work In other words, a small plant may have, by luck, a good or bad acci dent record over a few years, whether or not its safety program is sound These are obstacles to progress, real and senous ones They are not, of course, ex cuses for failure to try to prevent acci dents The association approach offers some real hope for improvement. Meanwhile, some smaller plants have demonstrated over a large number of years that small plants con carry on effective safety programs Labor-management cooperation At top levels, and m some cases at grass roots, progress has been made m enlisting the support of organized labor in manage ment's campaign to reduce accident losses In 1949, the National Safety Council is sued a policy statement declaring the com mon interest of labor and management in accident prevention Even before this date, representatives of leading labor organiza tions served as members of the Council's governing boards At a number of National Safety Congresses, reports were made by labor and management men on specific ex amples of local and companywide coopera tion between unions and corporations In 1955, a Labor Division and a Labor Confer ence were formally established to function within the framework of the National Safe ty Council Labor has been represented at the vari ous presidential and gubernatorial indus trial safety conferences Some unions have independently done extensive safety work and have published printed matter and released films which were real contributions to safety Continued and expanded efforts to bring unions and managements together should be fruitful, since labor and management have a mutual interest in accident preven tion While the slow educational process is underway, individual concerns, industries, and unions will have to make their own independent judgments on the wisdom of specific steps toward cooperation It is the hope of the great majority of farsighted safety men in both labor and management that every opportunity for cooperation will be pressed to the fullest extent consistent with practical realities. Research Statistical data on industrial accidents have been compiled by the National Safety Council for almost forty years Analyses computed annually and published in indus try rate pamphlets and Accident Facta have proven of utmost importance in evalu ating the leading causes of accidents Some industries through their trade as sociations have recorded accident rates for almost fifty yean In most instances, even the divisions of an industry can establish their positions with regard to number and types of accidents and can determine their experience in comparison with national averages There are a large number of codes relat ing to safety Continuing research has been necessary over the years to keep these codes in line with current industrial de velopment The development of new products, such as synthetic rubber and plastics that have been incorporated in safety equipment and devices, has made it necessary to rewrite codes to mclude new and acceptable ma terials of construction Special research projects, such as those malting studies of walkway surfaces and safety belts, can be and have been financed by pnvate sources and coordinated by the National Safety Council Since the Council is not an approval agency, results of these projects are given as a summary of find ings with no attempt to set minimum standards Safety and the law The earliest legal steps taken for indus trial safety were regulative or concerned with setting up bodies to investigate and correct abuses In the second decade of this century, the great legal moves were largely concerned with workmen's compensation payments. In the following years, there has been a gradual growth in regulation of industry on safety matters by federal, state, and local governments The Walsh-Healey Act, which deals with companies having supply con- J-J7