It took only a few minutes before we began receiving responses to "Texan Responds To Comments Against Spanish-Language Safety Instruction," the second item in today's ProSales Business Update. Those comments by John Smith, safety manager at Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Co. in Dallas, in turn were responses to a comment in last week’s PSBU regarding an article in our July magazine on whether some yard safety issues stem from Hispanic workers’ problems with English. When that first writer said,  “Last I looked, we live in America, an English-speaking country," Smith replied by sending us an April 17 interpretive memorandum issued by Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin G. Foulke Jr., reiterating federal policy on training The memo says, in part: “an employer must instruct its employees using both a language and vocabulary that the employees can understand." Then Smith added, “Our safety training and safety programs are intended to keep our employees safe and free from injury. We owe it to them to make sure they understand how to perform the job safely. We also owe it to them to follow up and ensure that they are actually doing the job safely.”

Here are some of the replies:

"Both Mr. Smith and [the first writer] have valid points, so what we have in essence is a dilemma. The goal should be to provide safety *and* promote English. If the Labor Department is going to make it mandatory that companies provide multilingual safety instructions, companies should have the right not to hire non-English-speaking people. I support the idea that this country is strong and productive, based on our language, culture and borders (to quote Michael Savage). It is not strong because we have layers and layers of government rules and regulations. Safety is first, but English shouldn’t be thrown by the wayside."
David W. Aldridge, Engineered Wood Products Specialist
Oso Lumber Inc., Arlington, WA

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"When we boot the illegal immigrants out of the U.S. and take back their Social Security and health care cards then we might find the next step is to re-enforce the idea of English as the national language. Learn it and use it if you come here legally. Are we really going to become a nation of 'all things to all people?' Whatever happened to the idea of 'One Nation Under God?'"
Ted Newman Jr., owner
Lakes Region Remodeling Co., Tuftonboro, NH

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"A few years ago we explored converting our safety manual to Spanish to accommodate the growing number of Hispanic workers we were encountering. The safety consultant we were using discouraged it. Why? His explanation made great sense, the overwhelming majority of Hispanic construction workers in our area came from poor rural areas of Mexico and could not read Spanish. They were illiterate in their native tongue."
John Archibald, VP of Operations
Forge Lumber LLC, Cincinnati

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"I manage a lumber store in central/eastern Utah. We don't have the language problem with employees, so I don't have a vested interest in jumping on any bandwagon one way or another. Speaking for myself, I feel that we should be bound as employers to furnish safety training in a manner that protects our employees. However, I also feel we should be empowered to (brace yourself) discriminate on who we are able to hire by being able to require fluent use of the official state and federal language (English). If a worker wants to live and work in this country, he should be required to 'fit the mold' by aquiring the skills, training, and communication ability (language) needed to mesh with established citizens. Workers should be federally required to fluently speak and write the official language as a condition of living and employment in this country. Employers should be required to provide proper instruction in the official language. If either chooses to avoid that responsibility, then they should be held accountable. Employers should not be forced to offer training in every potential language out there."
Eric Howes, Store Manager
Magnuson Lumber Inc., Castle Dale, UT

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"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he spoke Portuguese & Spanish. And after him for nearly 300 years came explorers and settlers who spoke every imaginable language of the time from all the continents of the world. Some time during the late 1700s, the people got so mad they started to fight back. The country they got mad at spoke English. The people of this country at the time could have chosen any language they wanted to use, but instead they chose English. I don't care what Hillary Clinton or anyone else says; English is the national language of these United States of America. The French, Germans, Japanese, Chinese or any other country will not change their language for me or you, why should we?"
Robert Riggs, Owner
Riggs Sales Service Inc., Lexington, KY

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"Hire employees that speak English. Or more realistically, those whom at least can comminicate in a comprehensive manner in English. Employers who hire and keep purely speaking Hispanic workers and provide a completely Spanish evironment for them to work and operate in are adding to this communication barrier -- and ultimately making the whole problem worse for all AMERICAN citizens, regardless of their original tongue. My families being of the french, Micmac Indian of Canadian descent and also Polish dialect... But I'm not asking you to dial "!" to continue in any of those languages either now am I?"
R.W. Titchen, Territory Manager
GRK Fasteners

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Give it up and get a life! Nearly anyone who is not Native American came from somewhere, or his or her grand- or great-grandparents did. People who settle here learn the language eventually and it just makes sense to help them along the way. Safety training benefits everyone on the job, so a bit of whatever language you need to get this done can't hurt. I live in Southern California and the Hispanic workers I've known are nearly all hard working, polite and have the same ambitions as the rest of us: A decent job and a better chance for their kids. As to the immigration hoopla, let's make it easy for people to get in. That way they'll go home again without the fear of never getting back into the USA. We need people to do the work most American's have no interest in doing. Eat your veggies and be glad we had a migrant to pick them!
Ding Kalis, President
Mag-Bit, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.