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HARRY MENDENHATT executive vice presidenl Lumber Merchqnls Associotion of Norlhern Colifornio 1055 Lincoln Ave. San Jose. Ca.95125 (408).295,4103

1|\N November 21, Bruce Pohle of \f Southern Lumber Co., in SanJose and I testified before the Senate Subcommittee on CAL/OSHA in Los Angeles. Senator Russell chaired the hearings which were aimed at finding out from business if CAL/OSHA was accomplishing improvement in safety and a reduction in injuries or whether it was just another harrassment of business.

Most of those testifying were from large corporations such as GM and Ford but it was apparent that everyone had dssentially the same complaint. It was obvious that the compliance officers were spending more time looking for ungrounded coffee pots, ungrounded circuits, and other similar electrical violations than they were in assisting to reduce the number of injuries in industry. Senator Russell commented that 80% of all violations cited were for electrical of one form or another.

All of those testifying commented on the seeming lack of knowledge the inspectors had of the industry they were inspecting. They enforced the safety codes to the very letter even though in some cases it caused a greater hazard. Had they been knowledgeable they would have realized that the codes cannot be applied to every piece of machinery and every condition in exactly the same manner.

LMA has received copies of several inspections of lumber yards by the CAL/OSHA compliance officers and in all but a very few cases the compliance officers expressed an arrogant attitude and attempted to impress management with their authority. Violations found were almost all in the non-serious category and most were based upon noncompliance with codes rather than citing specific safety hizards.

We testified that California should attempt to re-establish the excellent rapport between the Division of Industrial Safety and the business community that was prevalent only three short years ago.