OPINION
Tuesday, May 21, 1985
I
Page 6
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCV, No. 3-S
95 Years of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by Students at
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Editorial Board
Battle bre wing
T IS ANOTHER example of market contro s. con-
Isumer welfare. The Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers
Association is up in arms .over last month's Michigan
Court of Appeals decision that said the ban on price-brand
advertising was unconstitutional.
It seems that the wholesalers association see their
markets being threatened if retailers are allowed to adver-
tise the prices of beer and wine. Of course, the lifting of
the ban means lower prices for the consumer.
The battle began in 1979 when Rep. Richard Fitzpatrick
(D-Battle Creek) asked Attorney General Frank Kelley for
a ruling on the constitutionality of the ban. It does not
allow beer and wine retailers to advertise the prices on dif-
ferent brands of beer and wine they sell. Kelley ruled that
the ban was unconstitutional. The wholesalers association
took the case to Circuit Court which ruled in favor of the
wholesalers. But just last month, the Court of Appeals
ruled that the ban was in fact unconstitutional.
Nancy Maciag, an assistant to Fitzpatrick, said yester-
day that he asked Kelley to look into the price-brand ad-
vertising ban because he has some background in adver-
tising and felt that the retailer should be able to advertise
their prices.
The wholesalers association, according to reports, are
planning to appeal the decision to the State Supreme
Court. Hopefully the state Supreme Court will decide to
leave intact the decision by the Court of Appeals and allow
retailers to advertise the prices of different brands of beer
they sell.
It makes sense and means lower prices for the con-
sumer. Unfortunately, government too often looks after
the interests of business and not the individual.
Robots need safeguards
from the 15,000 today. forty years."
By Joseph Blum "Robots are becoming more But GM's Ken Lauk, who heads a
flexible, they can have many dif- Robotics Industries Association
As Robby and Harry worked side by ferent reactions to different con- safety committee, says that "existing
side last July 21 at the Die Cast Cor- ditions. It makes it harder for machine and equipment safeguarding
poration plant in Jackson, someone working nearby to predict standards are not applicable" to
Michigan, neither had any idea that what the robot will do next," says robots.
before the end of their shift one would David Nitzan, director of the Robotics He and other industry represen-
kill the other-and by doing so would Laboratory at SRI International in tatives insist that, with robot
make U.S. industrial history. Menlo Park, California. technology at its present stage of
That day Harry Allen, 34, father of Dr. Murray Cohen, deputy director development, maintenance people
two and a UAW member with fifteen of NIOSH's Division of Safety and operators are required to work
years die casting experience, was Research sees within range of the operating
pinedagan exap iencsedasReeachsesrobotics safety as a machine. As a result, the RIA aa
pineagainst ab palemand crushed to serious and growing problem, but one rafted several presof s t stan-
death by "Robby," a Unimate likely to receive belated action.sIn- dards for personnel working close tea
Allen's was "the first documented Cohen, is to install technological ad- robot.
case of a robot-related fatality in the vances before their dangers are fully There is a continuing effort, mean-
nitedaStates," taccording to theknown. Then, if voters are injured or while, to engineer the danger ut
National Institute for Occupational even killed, Cohen says, "you have to robots. SRI's Nitzan says newly
Health and Safety. But no one expectsgeae nreCofit soysr'eytuhe developed electronic sensors can
it to be the last. goback and retrofi to orrue he* "warn" a robot if something
And while Robby continued to go designed out in the first place" unauthorized is in its path. The
about his business, now inside a devices can be expensive, but
protective cage, the controversy YET AT present there are no state industry is genuinely scared
stirred up by last summer's accident or federal regulations regarding about hurting people, so they'll have
continued to brew. Labor represen- robotics safety, and management and to pay those higher costs." ;
tatives want to know if American in- labor differ sharply over what Frank Mirer of the UAW says his
dustry, in itsd haste to equip factories guidelines should be in effect. union is unwilling to leave robot
with an army of cost-saving robots, is Frank Mirer, head of the United safety up to management. That is
taking the time necessary to develop Auto Workers Health and Safety why he has begun advising local
proper safety precautions. Department, stresses that "Robots chapters "not to allow robots to be in-
THE FIRST programmable, multi- are not that different from other troduced into their workplaces"
functional machines known as in- remote automated equipment we unless they are consulted at "all
dustrial robots were developed in the have been familiar with for years. phases of installation and operation"
U.S. in 1961, but it was the Japanese They have to be treated like other to insure "that maximum worker
who put them to practical use on a machines with the well established safeguards are in place."
mass scale during the 1970s. They principles of machine guarding and
make crackerjack welders, spray zero-energy lockout. We can't forget Blum wrote this article for
painters and machine tenders. everything we've learned in the past Pacific News Service.
Lately, U.S. manufacturers
striving to compete have gone on a
robot buying binge of their own. More The Michigan Daily encourages input from
have been installed in American fac- i. L
tories in the last two years than in the our readers. Letters should be typedtriple
previous 20. The Robotics Industry spaced, and sent to the Daily Opinion Page, 420
Association and several independent
analysts predict that as many as Maynard, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.
100,000 will be in use here by 1990, up
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