FEDS FINE McWANE FOUNDRIES $ 8 MILLION DOLLARS, FOR MASSIVE WORKPLACE SAFETY AND POLLUTION VIOLATION

[Omaha Steve]

http://gangbox.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/feds-fine-mcwane-foundries-8-million-dollars-for-massive-workplace-safety-and-pollution-violations/

Posted in Uncategorized by gangbox on the April 25, 2009


New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

McWane Inc. had been found guilty on 30 counts of safety and environmental crimes at its plant in Phillipsburg, N.J.

By DAVID BARSTOW

Published: April 24, 2009

TRENTON — McWane Inc., a major manufacturer of cast iron water pipes, was fined $8 million on Friday for dozens of workplace safety and environmental crimes at its New Jersey plant, the culmination of a multistate series of federal prosecutions against the Alabama-based conglomerate that began in 2003.

The prosecutions of McWane represented one of the most significant federal crackdowns against workplace safety and environmental crimes of the last decade. The cases revealed a corporation that for years routinely lied to regulators, sometimes altering accident scenes, sometimes fabricating documents and sometimes bullying employees into giving false information to the authorities.

In the New Jersey case, the final one pending against McWane, a jury convicted the corporation and four of its managers in 2006 of repeatedly conspiring to deceive regulators at McWane’s foundry in Phillipsburg, N.J., the Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company. In long-delayed hearings this week, Judge Mary L. Cooper of United States District Court sentenced the four Atlantic States managers to prison sentences ranging from 6 months to 70 months.

On Friday, it was McWane’s turn. The company faced a maximum fine of $15 million for its conviction on 30 counts.

Addressing Judge Cooper, McWane’s president, G. Ruffner Page, expressed regret for the McWane employees who had been injured or killed, and for the communities whose air and water were fouled by the company.

“This experience has been extremely painful for this company, and for me personally,” he said. “All of us are deeply sorry.”

Federal prosecutors, with investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the F.B.I., began investigating McWane in response to articles in The New York Times and a companion documentary on the PBS program “Frontline.” They described a Dickensian corporate culture that put production and profits ahead of all other considerations, including the well-being of its 6,000 employees, who toil in one of the nation’s most dangerous industries.

FULL story at link.

[hedgehog]

1. My guess? Thuis is an old plant that really hasn't upgraded since about 1942.