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Mcwane fined over safety violations { April 15 2003 }

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   http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/national/15PIPE.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/national/15PIPE.html

April 15, 2003
Pipe Maker Is Fined Over Safety Violations
By DAVID BARSTOW and LOWELL BERGMAN

McWane Inc., an Alabama-based pipe manufacturer with one of the worst workplace safety records in America, has been fined $196,000 for new violations at its largest plant, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced yesterday.

The violations occurred at Tyler Pipe, a sprawling foundry with 1,200 employees in Tyler, Tex., 90 miles east of Dallas. OSHA, which has cited McWane's plants for more than 400 safety violations since 1995, found 13 serious violations, four repeat violations and one minor infraction when it returned to Tyler Pipe for a new inspection in October. Some of the most serious violations were discovered weeks into the inspection, when a worker was crushed by a truck. Both legs had to be amputated.

"OSHA is holding Tyler Pipe accountable for the well-being of their employees," John L. Henshaw, the OSHA administrator, said in a written statement. "We expect them to step up to the plate and make their facility a safer place."

In January, McWane was the subject of a series of articles and television documentaries by The New York Times, working in partnership with the PBS program "Frontline" and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program "The Fifth Estate." The articles and documentaries reported that McWane was one of the most dangerous employers in America.

Since 1995, there have been more than 4,600 injuries at McWane plants. The company, which makes cast iron water and sewer pipes, employs about 5,000. Three workers were killed because the company willfully violated federal safety laws, OSHA inspectors found. The company has also amassed hundreds of environmental violations in that time.

G. Ruffner Page, president of the company, said in an interview yesterday that McWane had decided not to contest either the new violations or the fines. He said the company was working hard to improve safety by spending millions on new training and equipment, changing managers and hiring safety consultants. Just last week, he said, he completed a 10-hour safety course.

"Like every business, every company," he said, "you have to change with the times."

In recent months, McWane employees have reported significant changes. Safety hazards once ignored are now dealt with promptly. Workers reporting injuries say they are no longer singled out for retaliation or dismissal.

"They have religion," said Patrick Tyson, an OSHA administrator under the Reagan administration who was recently hired as a consultant by McWane.

But as Mr. Page acknowledged, yesterday's fines are evidence that McWane plants can still be treacherous. "It takes a long time to turn around a 1,200-employee plant," Mr. Page said.

Several of the worst violations at Tyler Pipe were discovered because of what happened to Guadalupe Garcia, a 43-year-old machine operator, who was crushed by a truck on Oct. 29 and lived only after doctors pumped more than 200 pints of blood into his mangled body.

"He's a legless man trying to do the best he can and get on with his life," John J. Eastland, a lawyer for Mr. Garcia, said yesterday. "He seems to be grateful for what he does have."

Union officials, long critical of OSHA's enforcement efforts, said that yesterday's fines were far too light given McWane's history and the gravity of the new violations.

"These are things that kill people," Margaret Seminario, director of safety and health at the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said of the new violations at Tyler Pipe. "Here you have very, very serious hazards, an employer with an atrocious record. And you get basically a slap on the wrist with respect to enforcement."



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company


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