PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Workers Memorial Day
by Donna Puleio Spadaro, MD Thursday, May. 01, 2003 at 10:22 PM
dspadaro@usachoice.net (email address validated) 814-437-7891 Franklin PA 16323

As my brother was killed in an industrial accident, I am able to describe first-hand the difficulties families face when dealing with OSHA and wish to comment on local coverage of Workers Memorial Day.

As my brother was killed in an industrial accident, I am able to describe first-hand the difficulties families face in dealing with OSHA and wish to comment on the article about Workers Memorial Day (“Ceremony will commemorate those who died at their jobs” Tribune Review, 4/27/03). While the Dick Corporation can “negotiate” with OSHA to have fines reduced, families, whose tax dollars fund OSHA, have no such access. Requests for information about the circumstances surrounding fatalities are met with obfuscation, delays and total lack of response. Concerns of families, about the accuracy and adequacy of the conclusions, are dismissed as being due to inexperience or emotional distress.

In the Corsi case, the conclusions of Dr. Wecht differ vastly from those of OSHA. Where OSHA acquiesced to the Dick Corporation and found “no evidence of willful or criminal violations” and reduced the fines to a paltry $12,000, Dr Wecht found “failures so blatant and overwhelming that a person could only conclude that the actions, errors and omissions more than rise to a level of recklessness and grossly negligent conduct” and recommended that the Dick Corp. be held criminally liable. Certainly Dr. Wecht’s concerns cannot be written off by OSHA in the condescending manner that family members’ concerns are. Over a year has gone by since Corsi was killed, and the results of the investigation that is being conducted by District Attorney Zappalla into the discrepancies between the conclusion of Dr. Wecht and those of OSHA still are not known. Unlike the District Attorney, families of victims have no such luxury of time. After facing innumerable delays in obtaining information, we are finally told that no further action can be taken because the OSH act requires that any citations and penalties must be issued within 6 months of the “alleged violation.”

OSHA fines are not issued as punishments and no amount of money can compensate for the loss of life. However, the issuance of trivial fines, that corporations can negotiate down, and citations that understate the problems results in neither accountability nor acknowledgement by the offending company and no increased diligence to safety issues that could avert further tragedies.

While the article stated that Ronald Bush was honored at this event, it failed to note that he was the SECOND WORKER KILLED WITHIN ONE YEAR at the same facility in Springdale. After the first death, OSHA issued an inconsequential fine of $7200. A more thorough investigation and a less “slap on the wrist” fine may have resulted in meaningful change in the company’s safety policies and perhaps averted this second death. In my brother’s case, the company admitted no wrongdoing and paid a $6000 fine for a REPEAT violation.

One expects corporations to minimize their wrongdoing to avoid penalties and perhaps even criminal charges. After suffering tragic losses, families, expecting justice and fairness from OSHA, are further devastated by its indifference and by the gross imbalance in the access we have to OSHA compared to that of corporations.

On Worker’s Memorial Day recall, therefore, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

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