Achtung!!
Kevin, I watched a documentary on Hitler last night. They say everything goes full circle. I believe we are going full circle, once again.
Posted on 07/08/2002 7:33:23 AM PDT by SheLion
General Motors' Adoption of Smoke-Free Policy in All Ingham County Plants Hailed by Smoke-Free Environments Law Project of The Center for Social Gerontology.
The Center for Social Gerontology (TCSG), based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and its Smoke-Free Environments Law Project hailed the actions of the General Motors Corporation in adopting a total ban on smoking in all its Ingham County, Michigan plants and facilities, effective August 5, 2002.
Jim Bergman, TCSG Co-Director and head of the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project said: "General Motors management is to be highly praised for announcing the adoption of a totally smoke-free policy in all their Ingham County auto plants. Having worked very closely with the Ingham County Commissioners and Health Department on the adoption of a county-wide smoke-free worksite regulation, which was enacted on February 12, 2002, we at the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project are aware that General Motors could have sought permission to create designated smoking areas in their plants. Instead, they have opted to 'adopt a wall-to-wall no smoking policy' which applies to 'all employees, contractors and visitors,' effective August 5, 2002.
This is a tremendous victory for workers - old and young - whose health was threatened by secondhand smoke in General Motors facilities, a number of whom sought help from our Smoke-Free Environments Law Project in recent years. We also commend the Ingham County Health Department for their work with General Motors on this policy."
"The adoption by General Motors of a total ban on smoking in its Ingham County facilities is huge - for GM workers and in its implications for all businesses. This action by General Motors shows that corporations of any size can adapt to smoke-free policies and that union members - most of whom are not smokers - will accept such policies for their own health and the health of their co-workers. We hope and expect that other corporations will follow the lead of GM in adopting smoke-free policies," stated Bergman.
To access a copy of the General Motors smoke-free policy online, go to http://www.tcsg.org/sfelp/images/GM.jpg To access a copy of the Ingham County smoke-free regulation, go to http://www.ingham.org/BC/adoptedsmokingregulation.PDF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Center for Social Gerontology (TCSG), was founded in 1972 as a nonprofit, research, training and social policy organization, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Smoke-Free Environments Law Project (SFELP) is a statewide project of TCSG which provides information, consultation and advice for businesses, local units of government, and individuals in Michigan on policies and practices to protect employees and the general public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and to address the legal requirements and liability issues related to secondhand smoke.
For comprehensive information on this topic, go to the web site of the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project at http://www.tcsg.org/sfelp/home.htm.
Oh, then why is that with fewer smokers, most of said illnesses are on a sharp increase.
I thought you guys said that smoking policy should be left to the private company choice ? I see that you all have a consistant view here.
The only consistant view seems to be whining over any bans against smoking and using whatever means you have to try and support stinking up as many places as possible.
The state balances its budget on the backs of smokers, but they are still treated like second class citizens. The taxing of cigarettes is a crime wave waiting to happen.
Agreed. The obscene taxes placed on cigarettes will only drive it into the black market.
Not being able to smoke in one's own car borders on insanity.
Agreed. A car is your own property. Just please use the ashtray so the litter problem can be diminished.
Termination for one offense borders on criminal. You don't support Nazi tactics in government. Why do you support them in the workplace?
I support the right of a workplace to set its own rules. Why don't you? If my company prohibited drinking alcohol on the premises (and many companies do) I would have to agree if someone got fired for that reason. However, I think that any reasonable employer would take you aside and read you the riot act first - termination would apply to repeat offenders.
Now we are wondering how did THEY get into this war on the smokers. Who is funding THEM? Might be interesting to find out where they are getting their grants from.
Your cruel words to me roll off my back, Dog. My friends know where I stand on this issue.
SheLion and Liberal should never be used in the same breath. And that's a fact!
Let me give you a big virtual hug, Great Dane!
Oh, but VWM_Minion doesn't think so! He's related to Dog, I found out. heh!
The butts far outnumber anything else. Maybe smokers think that because it's a small item, it doesn't matter as much as a dirty diaper chucked out the side window or by the bank entranceway. However, that thinking causes the stuff to really accumulate and create a yucky mess. The filters take a long time to degrade with the result that there are heaps of the c**p by the curb and in the grass.
You will NEVER talk sense to Dog. He's an anti smoking of the worst kind. You will find out. And his cousin VWM_Minion is sitting in the same booth as Dog. I gave up trying to respond to any of their snide remarks.
Freedom only looks good for THEIR side. I don't know why they even bother calling themselves Conservatives.
You post #2 below suggests otherwise ...
..now they aren't allowed to grab a quick smoke at work. If GM is allowed to get away with this, the rest will be soon to follow.
Translation - Darn GM for wanting to get away with deciding what goes on on their property.
SheLion, you are not reading correctly. I SUPPORT THE RIGHT OF A COMPANY TO DO WHAT IT PLEASES ON ITS OWN PROPERTY. Read, if a company wants to allow smoking, then I SUPPORT THAT.
The gerontologists I knew were, for the most part, liberals who had found a convenient nitch where they could grab government grants and do what they wanted. Their dream was to involve and use old people to push forth their socialist agenda.
It makes me wonder if Big Pharm didn't get ahold of them, to further promote their products. Stranger things have happened.
I, too, believe in the owner's choice to run his business the way HE sees fit, without government intervention. But why are they doing it NOW? I am very suspicious of this, Joe.
Why now? It already has Sappi Paper Mill in an UPROAR. The emails I am receiving from an employee at Sappi, you just wouldn’t believe. They have a lot of men at Sappi who smoke and who have worked there for years. Why is Sappi doing this to them? Why is GM doing this to their people? It’s not good, Joe. Not good at all.
And you know how pressured these people will be, because good jobs are hard to find, plus these men are working for their pensions. It makes me sick to my stomach. I feel their pain. I really do.
I've gotten word that letters will be written to the GM Union about this. Not that it will help, but can't hurt.
This of course, is exactly what we have been arguing about smoking and non-smoking in restaurants and bars, but the health folks don't see it as a property rights issue.
Having worked very closely with the Ingham County Commissioners and Health Department on the adoption of a county-wide smoke-free worksite regulation, which was enacted on February 12, 2002, we at the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project are aware that General Motors could have sought permission to create designated smoking areas in their plants. Instead, they have opted to 'adopt a wall-to-wall no smoking policy' which applies to 'all employees, contractors and visitors,' effective August 5, 2002.
That partial paragraph bothers me more than anything else about the article.
The company had the option to create designated smoking areas. They chose to go with a total ban, as is their right on their property. Why aren't bar and restaurant owners given the same choice?
It's also awfully dificult to tell an employer to pound sand if you've been there long enough to be vested in their health and retirement plans. Everyone always likes to think, that given the same situation, they'd stand on principle and walk, but in reality it's a pretty dificult thing to do.
Oh well.
For liberty and property.
The Obesity Scam
By Peyton Knight
CNSNews.com Commentary from the American Policy Center
July 02, 2002
As Americans gather for Fourth of July festivities, you can bet the barbecues will be satisfying hungry people, as will picnics, lunches and dinners, as Americans come together as family and friends to celebrate.
As a result, some, if not most, will pack away a lot of food.
Here's the bad news. You're fat.
You have been eating all those good things that are available to Americans: soft drinks, snack foods, not to mention an abundance of steaks, chops, chicken, pork and fish. You have some nerve eating well. And you have packed on those pounds. Some, not me, but some people are saying, "You're 'obese.'"
You may not look like Tom Cruise or Michael Jordan, but according to the federal government's Body Mass Index (BMI) scale, the physiques of these celebrities are described in terms usually reserved for the Rosie O'Donnell's of the world.
On the bright side, you'll be happy to know that your ever-expanding waistline is not your fault. It turns out that you are merely a victim of the savvy marketing of a sadistic food and beverage industry - one that preys on your weaknesses, and most unconscionably, your children's weaknesses, to the degree that it's all you can do to resist cramming one more Big Mac in your fat face.
This obesity diagnosis has been provided free of charge; your tax dollars at work.
However, if the trial lawyers and "fat police" have their way, this seemingly benign absurdity could end up eating away at the liberty of anyone with taste buds and a stomach. If you're a smoker, you are probably saying: "I told you so."
That's because the same movement that raped and pillaged "Big Tobacco" is now gearing up to take on Big Food, Big Restaurant and Big Beverage. Indeed, the blueprints for attack are identical.
First, trial lawyers and their comrades in government work to create a class of victims. In this case, it's any self-loathing porker who unwittingly orders an extra-generous portion at a restaurant, only to find himself incapable of putting down the fork when the first cheese fry is rejected by his brimming esophagus.
However, in this instance, "victims" were lacking, so in 1998 the U.S. government modified the BMI scale to automatically classify an additional 30 million Americans as overweight and obese. Snap your fingers and you have victims and an "epidemic."
The epidemic needs to be sold to its "victims." For this task, tofu junkies, animal rights organizations, anti-corporate groups, haters of capitalism and the reliably hysterical media are employed.
"There is no difference between Ronald McDonald and Joe Camel," says Dr. Kelly Brownell who works closely with the radical anti-consumer group "Center for Science in the Public Interest" (CSPI). "Children are to the obesity field what second-hand smoke was to tobacco," he wails.
CSPI is the leader of the "twinkie tax" brigade. Michael Jacobson, CSPI's founder says, "We could envision taxes on butter, potato chips, whole milk, cheeses and meat." People like Brownell and Jacobson think Americans are incapable of making their own dietary decisions.
Once the political atmosphere is tolerable, legislation is proposed to cure the ill, usually in the form of taxes.
For instance, Deborah Ortiz, a State Senator from California, has proposed a special tax on soft drinks to "diminish the human and economic costs of obesity in this state." (Sound familiar, Joe Camel?) Luckily for soda drinkers in California, her proposal recently failed.
Kooks like Ms. Ortiz have their cheerleaders in the media to back them up, and the next time Coca-Cola drinkers might not be so lucky.
"The Obesity Epidemic in America is getting worse; Americans continue to get fatter," cries the Harris Poll. "Americans are living large and eating larger," Michael Booth of The Denver Post reports. "Burger joints, convenience stores and even highbrow bistros are now offering portions up to seven times as big as government serving suggestions for a healthy diet."
Oh, the horror.
Soon, frustrated fatties, fed-up with their diets, will seek legal counsel against Ronald McDonald and his greedy cohorts.
The restaurant and beverage industries will be forced into paying massive settlements, to balance the scales of justice, of course. The price of a delicious Big Mac will skyrocket due to fat taxes and offsetting legal costs. Meanwhile, the only people able to afford Big Macs will be the newly rich, portly plaintiffs who started the whole mess.
Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) was one of the few on Capitol Hill to foresee this debacle. During the tobacco trials, he asked, "Where does this end? If we don't hold people accountable for decisions they make, does it end with tobacco? Does it end with alcohol? Does it end with fattening foods?"
There is no obesity epidemic in America. Only fat bureaucrats and tubby lawyers feasting on a growing number of people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
(Peyton Knight is the Legislative Affairs Director of the American Policy Center, an activist, grassroots think tank headquartered in Warrenton, Va.)
Copyright 2002, Peyton Knight
CONTROL< baby...that's what it's all about and liberal right takers like you will see what damage you've done to a "FREE" people before it's all over!
Achtung!!
Good point, metesky! Very good point!
Makes me wonder what is REALLY going on here.....
Let's start there....they're nailing your disability monies from SS...your paying survivor benefits from the wives/husbands/wives/husbands (confusing, eh?) They've left behind...But oh, that's right, this is America, they're free to do what thay want......
But we're not!!
Achtung!!
Kevin, I watched a documentary on Hitler last night. They say everything goes full circle. I believe we are going full circle, once again.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.