Joe Poirier

12/12/17
Business, GOvernment and regulations
Professor Lambert

1. In the latter half of the 20th century the federal government has taken particular interest
in protecting the consumer from corrupt business practices aimed at ripping the
customers off. The first right is;The right to be informed: to be protected against
fraudulent, deceitful, or grossly misleading information, advertising, and labeling, and to
be given the facts to make an informed purchasing decision. Also known as a company
can’t say that cigarettes don't cause cancer and make you live forever. They have to
provide warning labels and make sure you know all the facts, dangers etc before
purchasing a product. The second right is;The right to safety: to be protected against the
marketing of goods that are hazardous to health or life. This goes along with the
previous point, for example asbestos is now outlawed and can no longer be used in any
trade and is being removed from buildings and anywhere else it has been detected. The
third right is The right to choose: to be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety of
products and services a competitive prices; and in those industries in which competition
is not workable and government regulation is substituted, to be assured satisfactory
quality and service at fair prices this means that you have the right to shop and compare
on stuff such as insurance and know that all the prices are going to be competative and
fair, not outrageous and or monopolized. The fourth right is The right to be heard: to be
assured that consumer interests will receive full and sympathetic consideration in the
formulation of government policy and fair and expeditious treatment in the courts. This
means that the consumer interest groups must protect and stand up for the consumer if
a company is making fraudulent claims on a product or a product is unsafe for
consumers.the fifth right is The right to privacy: to be assured that information disclosed
in the course of a commercial transaction, such as health conditions, financial status, or
identity, is not shared with others unless authorized. Three major government consumer
protection agencies are the Consumer product safety commission (CPSC), Food and
drug administration (FDA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The

FDA is tasked to make sure that the food we eat, the drinks we drink, and the
prescription drugs we take are saf. This means they subject all companies to a rigorous
inspection of all new drugs and current drugs on the market.they are funded through all
the big pharmaceutical companies and the u.s government.They enforce the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which govern how companies can produce and sell food,
drugs and cosmetics to consumers. The CPSC is defined as such according to his website
“A U.S. government agency that protects the American public from products that
may create a potential hazard to safety.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission focuses on consumer
products that pose an unreasonable risk of fire, chemical exposure, electrical
malfunction, or mechanical failure. Products that expose children to danger and
injury are also a high priority. The Consumer Product Safety Commission
investigates complaints from consumers concerning unsafe products, and also
issues recalls of products that may be defective or violate mandatory standards.”
They are the agency that does its annual don't buy these toys because your
children could die or be severely harmed. Report each year first week in
December they issue a report and hold a Press conference discussing their
findings and their reasons for saying some toys are more dangerous than others.
 The CFPB is defined as such “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
(CFPB) is a regulatory agency charged with overseeing financial products and
services that are offered to consumers. The CFPB is divided into several units:
research, community affairs, consumer complaints, the Office of Fair Lending
and the Office of Financial Opportunity. These units work together to protect and
educate consumers about the various types of financial products and services
that are available.” this means they have to make sure that products such as
quickbooks, turbotax and others are accurate in the content, up to date and as
accurate as possible according the input data.

2)· What is the employment-at-will doctrine and what are the legal restrictions
on it? The Employment at will doctrine is a document that says any non contract
employee is an employee for an indefinite amount of time and the work
relationship maybe terminated by either employee or employer at anytime. The
legal restrictions are you cannot fire someone due to age ( 50+), gender, religion,
race and other classes of people vary state to state. Then there are the unions
who play by a different set of rules. People are protected by these classes and
once you join a union typically only the union can fire you and that’s only after
due process and by the union boards approval. The EEOC or Equal Employment
Opportunity Commision. They make sure employers are giving all people an
equal chance at employment barring any Bona Fide Occupational requirements.
The EEOC also investigates and prosecutes the offending company if a minority
person or a person that falls into a protected class is denied employment or fired
for a reason that person feels is discriminatory in nature. Along the lines of EEOC
Affirmative action makes sure that minority races are fairly represented in
Universities and in the workplace. The way they do this is track how many
applicants receive a yes on admissions or employment and how many minorities
accept the offer. This in the past has come under fire as unfair to non minority
people and in the 1970’s UCLA med school ha to turn away a caucasian
students (allan Bakke) because they needed to meet the affirmative action goals
and had to deny Bakke admission even though his test scores as noted by
admissions were excellent. Bakke sued for reverse discrimination because they
allowed less qualified applicants to be admitted on the base of they had to meet
the affirmative action quota. This prompted rapid change and that came in the
form of if a university had 2 applicants one was a minority and the other
caucasian and the caucasian had better scores they were allowed to admit the
caucasian because they were more qualified.

3) to pull a direct quote from the book ““companies go beyond compliance; they do
not only assemble diverse teams but implement a range of policies and practices to
include all employees in a workplace that is welcoming, fair and accommodating.”-pg
361 This is how laurence and Weber worded it in the book. This is true and they
also spelled out how to acheive a diverse and fluidly functioning workplace.

a. Articulate clear diversity goals,set quantitative objectives.and hold managers

accountable. Make sure if you work in Human Resource you know the companies policies on
diversity. Make sure you set specific, realistic and obtainable goals for your co. department,
ETC.
b. Spread a wide net in recruitment to find the most diverse and most qualified candidates.
Go to various recruiting events, post on all major recruiting sites and cover all other avenues of
recruiting
c. Identify promising women and persons of color , and provide them with mentors and
other kinds of support. Make sure you set up a way that they can voice their concerns and they
feel safe in the work environment
d. Set up diversity training and monitor company's goals and progress towards them. Make
sure every so often people go to or get refreshed on diversity and inclusion. Pg 362

These steps that the book describes are key to avoiding costly lawsuits and damaging your
company's reputation. Also this makes the workplace a safe, more productive place to work and
will help boost company morale. Also people will want to come to work and do their best. Also in
today’s market more and more companies are working and interacting globally. This means that
companies need to be more diverse and inclusive. Hiring someone who can fluently speak
another language could down the road make or break a business deal, not to mention it gives
you a selling point in recruitment and when you are making a sales pitch.

4b) here is a list of everything that happened at 3 mile island nuclear power plant and the
horrible mismanagement of the situation by the power company.Unit 2 reactor has operated
over a year, but on the morning of March 28th, 1979, a valve malfunction started the meltdown
at Three Mile Island.
 Nuclear plant is overheating
 Water turned off that could have been used to cool down the plant.
 There were so many alarms and data that operators didn’t know what was happening.
 1 ½ hours later, the meltdown starts
 6:15am, radiation starts leaking into the plant, Governor Thornburgh is aware at this
point.
 The regional office promptly dispatched the first team of inspectors to the site and other
agencies, such as the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency,
also mobilized their response teams.
 By the evening of March 28, the core appeared to be adequately cooled and the reactor
appeared to be stable. But new concerns arose by the morning of Friday, March 30. A
significant release of radiation from the plant's auxiliary building, performed to relieve
pressure on the primary system and avoid curtailing the flow of coolant to the core,
caused a great deal of confusion.
 the governor of Pennsylvania, Richard L. Thornburgh, consulted with the NRC about
evacuating the population near the plant. Eventually, he and NRC Chairman Joseph
Hendrie agreed that it would be prudent for those members of society most vulnerable to
radiation to evacuate the area. Thornburgh announced that he was advising pregnant
women and pre-school-age children within a five-mile radius of the plant to leave the
area.
 Within a short time, chemical reactions in the melting fuel created a large hydrogen
bubble in the dome of the pressure vessel, the container that holds the reactor core.
 Half the experts at the NRC think it’s dangerous, the other half thought it wasn’t. It was
later settled that the half that thought it was dangerous were using the wrong equation
and it wasn’t going to explode.
MET ED
 Originally claimed that there was no off-site release---not true!
 Can’t trust Met Ed, claiming that the problem can be solved overnight.
  NRC sends inspectors to TMI and they learn the truth.
 Even the plant designers cannot get through on the telephone to figure out what is
happening!- They could have told them to turn on the water (problem solved)
NRC
 NRC puts out a small audit of the plant (too small in relation to the plant’s size)
 This valve has malfunctioned 11 times at other plants, NRC has never issued warning
 NRC wasn’t addressing safety concerns
 ½ of NRC team thinks the hydrogen bubble is dangerous, other ½ thinks it isn’t, not very
clear.
Governor Thornburgh and Lt. Governor William Scranton
 Met Ed tells them that the meltdown is over, Thornburgh wants to see the plant- sends
someone from NRC to inspect.
 Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton was telling reporters that wasn't exactly true: "The situation is more
complex than the company first led us to believe. There has been a release of
radioactivity into the environment."
 After visit- next day to order evacuation.
 NRC does not give a clear answer if Thornburgh should evacuate people.
 Someone sets off civil defense alarm because numbers were skewed in the calculation
of how dangerous the plant is, which causes mass chaos, so they issue the limited
evacuation notice.
President Jimmy Carter
 Tries to call Thornburgh by lines are busy
 Sends Harold Dentin to inspect the plant (someone Carter could trust)
 President visits the plant, briefed about hydrogen bubble
 Goes into power plant despite being potentially dangerous.
 Helps relieve the mass chaos, “if the president can go in, it must be safe enough”
Did they act responsibly? Met Ed did more than just drop the ball they fumbled the ball and let
the other team return it for an easy 6 points. THeir press conferences were horrible in the sense
they did nothing to calm the public and only made themselves look like fools. The good that
came out of this was no one was seriously hurt. Also we learned that a nuclear core meltdown
isn't fatal. Also unless there is a catastrophic disaster then a core meltdown just means the rod
is damaged and unusable and the reactor needs to be deactivated and bricked up The reactor.
In Modern terms id give Met Ed a 3/10 score. They were able to help calculate how to best de
escalate the situation however their media conferences were atrocious thus resulting in the
severe drop in score. President Jimmy carter and Harold Dentin got a 10/10 they did what they
could to help de escalate the situation and figure out if the hydrogen bubble in the reactor was a
serious threat.