Chamber of Commerce Quotes

[L]egal costs alone of defending against class actions will impact disproportionately on small enterprises which rarely have the resources to employ the staff counsel uniformly found among larger companies.

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William B. Norris, Chamber of Commerce, Testimony, Consumer Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee,” Chamber of Commerce Public Presentations.

The truly attractive targets would be the overwhelming majority of businesses which are honest, ethical, and legitimate—large companies because of their assets and small merchants because of their vulnerabilities.

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William B. Norris, Chamber of Commerce, Testimony, Consumer Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee,” Chamber of Commerce Public Presentations.
341603/18/1970 | Full Details | Law(s): Class Action Jurisdiction Act

To the extent that [this legislation] seeks to make varying warranties fit into identical standards, it discourages competitive diversity from coming into play, and to that extent fails to serve the interests of either consumers or business.

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A.S. Yohalem, Chamber of Commerce Presentations to Congress

[W]e believe that voluntary progress has been sufficient to warrant a continued extension of the legislative moratorium on warranties and guarantees. We believe that business should, and will, act to implement the ‘full disclosure’ warranties statement adopted last year by the Chamber.

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A.S. Yohalem, Chamber of Commerce Presentations to Congress

The Act broadly authorizes the Secretary to grab any police powers in the occupational health and safety fields that are now held by states. State safety officials could be forced to report directly to the federal Secretary when he says so.

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Chamber of Commerce magazine, Nation’s Business. April, 1968.

The Labor Secretary would wield power over every aspect of these businesses….The act also opens the doors for the labor Secretary to: Rewrite local building codes, Revise local fire regulations, Cancel any professional football game should he decide, say, that tag football would be safer and healthier than tackle.

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Chamber of Commerce magazine, Nation’s Business. April, 1968.

The vast majority of accidents result from human failings. No amount of legislation against employers is going to stop an employee who decides to take a short cut in his job or to shed his steel-toed shoes or safety helmet.

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Chamber of Commerce magazine, Nation’s Business. April, 1968.

The new regulations would crown the Secretary as a virtual safety czar. He would have power to decree what is safe and healthy in any private business. He could shut down a machine or an entire plant if he detects ‘imminent harm.’

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Chamber of Commerce magazine, Nation’s Business. April, 1968.

Exercising such authority, of course, would require an enormous federal policing force, perhaps in the thousands. Already, employers, in their long-standing voluntary programs to make their plants safer, scratch hard for qualified safety experts. Labor Secretary W. Willard Wirtz blandly explained to Congressmen that getting people would be no drawback. He said he could staff his safety policing team with the hard-core unemployed. These presumably would then show up as federal ‘inspectors’ armed with power of life or death over your business.

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Chamber of Commerce magazine, Nation’s Business. April, 1968.

[T]he inevitable effect of this legislation will be to create an artificial barrier on job opportunities for women. There will be a strong compulsion on employers to divide their jobs into women’s jobs and men’s jobs and to never hire a person of the opposite sex in those jobs just so they will not have the Department of Labor looking over their shoulders.

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William Miller representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Testimony, House Hearing.
359804/02/1963 | Full Details | Law(s): Equal Pay Act

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