NOTE: This document is provided for historical purposes only.
Patrick Tyson, Constangy, Brooks, and Smith
MS. TAYLOR: Well, if any of you had any doubts before you came to this conference about what the agenda was, I think after listening to our representatives from government, business, and labor, you should realize that the agenda is to address the serious issue of ergonomics in the workplace, to do it together, and to handle it as a safety and health issue, and see what we can collectively do to solve this problem.
I'd like to ask you to join me in thanking again our Welcome Panel. As they exit, I'll ask Pat Tyson and his panel to come up.
Thank you.
I'd like to introduce Mr. Patrick Tyson, who will be the moderator for our keynote presentations this morning. Mr. Tyson began his career as an attorney with the Department of Labor in the '70s, and later served as OSHA's deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary throughout the '80s.
He is currently a senior partner of the law firm, Constangy, Brooks & Smith.
He brings to this keynote panel his vast experience in dealing with a myriad of employers in developing and implementing ergonomic programs throughout the country. His distinguished career and involvement in national safety and health policy has helped shape the direction of ergonomics as we come to know it.
I am pleased to present Mr. Pat Tyson.
MR. TYSON: Thank you, Sandy. And let me add my welcome to all of the many welcomes you've already heard this morning.
What Sandy said in a nice way is I've been in this game for very long time, and I've been in the ergonomics game for a very long time from a number of different perspectives, both at the Agency when we first started to deal with the issue and since then with a number of clients who have either been forced by the Agency to get involved in the ergonomics issue or who, on their own initiative, decided that it would be the right thing to do.
What we want to do with this part of the program is really get down to the nitty-gritty. We're going to start with presentations from two speakers here next who will give you, from their perspective, a success story, both from the standpoint of a company that has an excellent record with respect to ergonomics and with a union official who can talk to activities that his union has been involved in.
We will then move into breakout sessions and a number of other sessions. As I was going through the program, it occurred to me that maybe the way to look at this is as follows.
I, as a lawyer, push paper around and go to meetings a lot and don't ever really accomplish anything. What I like to do when I'm not doing that is to work with tools. You will find, if you do that, if you're the handy person, that you can never have enough tools. You can never have enough screwdrivers in your workshop. You can never have enough wrenches and pliers.
What we're going to give you for the next two days is a whole bunch of wrenches and pliers, a whole bunch of tools and a whole bunch of plans that will apply to lots of different workplaces and lots of different situations.
I urge you to take advantage of that opportunity. There's a tremendous amount of expertise on the program the next day and a half. These folks have got a lot to share. It's very nice of them to come forward and do that, and I really think that you can gain a lot from the experience, and we certainly hope that you will.
