Patsy T. Mink: “this legislation that we are being asked to vote on today is a piece of legislation which will actually be injurious to…”

“this legislation that we are being asked to vote on today is a piece of legislation which will actually be injurious to thousands of women all across this country. The women are the ones who hold down the lowest paying jobs in this country. They are the most that are on minimum wage, and they are the ones who are affected by the type of injuries that we are attempting to find some sort of protective safety regulations. All of us know when we deal with our own health, we believe that preventive measures are the things that are going to save our lives. There is no one here that would vote against preventive health measures, and yet today the majority of this body is asking the legislature here to vote against preventive worker safety legislation that will have the effect of saving tens of thousands of people from having to be laid off their jobs; lost productivity for that particular business. It just does not make sense. All this legislation is that the OSHA people are trying to advocate for is worker safety. Who can be against worker safety? There are thousands of people out there who have to go home, injured from their jobs, who cannot find a better way to save themselves because their employers do not put into effect those measures that can save them from this type of injury.”