A Brief History
On July 11, 1990, a small group of safety professionals from several local Southern California companies gatehered at Southwestern Portland Cement Company in Victorville, California under the name of the "High Desert Safety Society." These companies represented the initial membership which formed the nucleus of our present growing organization which is now known as United Safety Associates (USA).
Though USA is a relatively new organization, it was the only organization west of the Mississippi which took an aggressive and formal stand against MSHA's "Excessive History Violations Policy." During 1991 and 1992, as a fledgling organization, USA retained the services of a Washington DC based law firm to represent the interests of its member companies in opposing the agency's proposed policy. Working closely with our law firm and other industry groups in the eastern portion of the country, USA filed an Amicus Brief with the United States District Court. Our efforts resulted in the successful relief of the repeat citation aspect of excessive history assessments.
In 1994, we cooordinated activities with MSHA at the federal level and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal OSHA), Mining & Tunneling Unit at the state level to gain releif on several issues of dual jurisdiction which had created difficulties for mine operators. Working with expertise from within the membership and with the assistance of the heads of the agencies involved, by early 1995 we were able to gain effective relief on these dual jurisdiction issues at no additional cost to our member companies.
Selected additional legislative and other accomplishments include:
- Comments on proposed SB198. Injury & Illness Prevention Program regulations
- Comments of the proposed Cal OSHA Ergonomics standard
- Membership on the ANSI Z16 Committee - Methods of Reporting and Compiling Injury and Illness Statistics
- Membership on the ANSI Z490 Committee - Criteria for Practices on Safety, Health and Environmental Training
- Comments on proposed regulations regarding MSHA 30CFR. Part 46 Training
- Comments on numerous occasions regarding candidates for nomination to the Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission
- Providing opinion, commentary and research on selective issues for Legal Publications Services, Mine Safety & Health News
- Providing editing comments for Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 453 September 2002 "Saving Lives or Wasting Resources? The Federal Mine Safety & Health Act" by C. Gregory Ruffennach