The Sad State of OSHA Enforcement

I just watched a disturbing Frontline episode from a couple of weeks ago: A Dangerous Business Revisited. It was a follow-up to a story from 2003 where Frontline, the New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation teamed up to investigate the sorry state of worker safety at a number of iron pipe foundries in North America all owned by McWane, Inc.

The show makes it clear that the Bush administration has slow-rolled enforcement of worker protection rules at OSHA. Only when the Frontline story brought the case to the attention of the Justice Dept. and environmental laws were used to go after McWane and its executives did any real improvements occur at the plant. Thanks to Frontline and prosecutors at the Justice Dept., McWane is finally being held accountable for their reckless behavior that has injured and killed workers for years. Clearly more needs to be done to improve working conditions for American workers, but this documentary gives some hope that things can change.