OSHA Press Releases Hide Behind “Cloak of Invisibility”

After almost four months, the Trump Administration’s OSHA has issued only two enforcement-related press releases, despite having issued well over 200 citations with penalties exceeding $40,000 — the former threshold for a press release.  The more than 200 cases with penalties greater than $40,000 since January 20 are listed below.

The Washington Post today describes OSHA’s failure to issue press releases as part of a government wide effort by the Trump administration to remove or hide important information that had previously been made available to the public.

There was some hope that after Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta’s confirmation, OSHA would again resume issuing press releases for large enforcement cases as all past administrations have — Republican and Democrat. And, OSHA did issue a second enforcement related press release soon after Acosta took office, against Autoneum North America, an auto insulation manufacturer in suburban Toledo. OSHA proposed $569,463 in penalties after an investigation following the amputation a 46-year-old worker’s right hand, wrist and part of his forearm. OSHA’s only other press release was on April 12 describing a $1.5 million citation against Atlantic Drain Service Co. Inc., following the deaths of two workers in a trench collapse in New York last year.

Juliet Eilperin, in a wide ranging Washington Post article, reports that transparency has been under attack throughout the Trump administration:

The Trump administration has removed or tucked away a wide variety of information that until recently was provided to the public, limiting access, for instance, to disclosures about workplace violations, energy efficiency, and animal welfare abuses.

Some of the information relates to enforcement actions taken by federal agencies against companies and other employers. By lessening access, the administration is sheltering them from the kind of “naming and shaming” that federal officials previously used to influence company behavior, according to digital experts, activists and former Obama administration officials.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for instance, has dramatically scaled back on publicizing its fines against firms. And the Agriculture Department has taken off-line animal welfare enforcement records, including abuses in dog breeding operations and horse farms that alter the gait of racehorses through the controversial practice of “soring” their legs.

“The Trump administration seems determined to utilize a larger version of Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility to cover the entire administration” — Norm Eisen (Washington Post)

OSHA has been slightly more liberal about getting enforcement information out through its bi-weekly newsletter, QuickTakes. The May 1 issue (way at the end), for example, had short pieces about three recent federal citations:

• OSHA issued citations against a Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Brundidge, AL for $139,424 after a contract worker was seriously injured when a trolley struck and crushed him. OSHA also issued a $126,749 citation against the worker’s employer, Swisslog Logistics Inc., for serious and willful violations for exposing workers to caught-between, struck-by and crushing hazards and for failing to implement lockout/tagout procedures.
• OSHA issued multiple citations to Napoleon Spring Works Inc. in Archbold, Ohio, after three inspections initiated as a follow-up to a 2013 case and in response to two incidents, on Nov. 2 and Nov. 7 of last year, where employees suffered amputations. In just over two months, there were three amputations at the employer’s facility.  This even generated a news article in the Toledo Blade, which is the point of press releases, after all.
• Durcon Inc. in Taylor, TX has been issued citations for 35 safety and health violations after a complaint about silica exposure.

And with few exceptions, no press release means no news.  I could find very few press stories over the past couple of weeks about OSHA citations. Not coincidentally, three of the articles I did locate were about…. Wal-Mart, Napoleon Spring Works and Autoneum. Interestingly, I couldn’t find any article related to the Durcon case, possibly because if a reporter had happened upon it in QuickTakes, they may not have realized that the citations amounted to a hefty $350,000 and listed the company as Laboratory Tops, Inc. instead of Durcon. A press release might have made all of this more understandable and interesting to the local press in Taylor, Texas and possibly even nearby Austin.

I found only one other article that appeared in the press despite no press release, probably because it was a fairly traumatic incident in Sioux Falls, South Dakota last December. OSHA cited Hultgren Construction and Command Center, Inc. for a Sioux Falls building collapse that killed  Ethan McMahon, a 24-year-old construction worker. (Although the article reports that Hultgren received a $100,000 citation, while the OSHA webpage states that it’s twice that much. Maybe they got it wrong because there was no press release?)

Now these few stories about OSHA citations are a good thing because at least readers in those areas know that OSHA is on the job. The rest of the country, not so much. And that’s the real tragedy of OSHA’s failure to issue press releases: With very little news about OSHA in the papers or on TV, companies that are inclined to cut corners on safety and health may feel that it’s even less likely they will ever see an OSHA inspector, and workers who feel threatened by safety conditions in their workplaces may feel like there’s no point in calling OSHA — assuming they even know that OSHA still exists in these Trumpian times.

We have noted  before how OSHA press releases have been an effective and important tool for a small agency to leverage its resource and discourage employers injuring or killing workers by cutting corners and violating the law.  A dry list (see below) is a rather poor substitute for a press release that can serve notice on employers across the country that OSHA will not tolerate violations of the law.  Press releases can also provide an educational tool for employers and workers who need more information on the hazards they face in the workplace.

For example, local businesses or workers might want to know what happened at Sundial Plastics in Elgin, IL that earned them a $174,000 penalty, or the circumstances were at Pinquest Tool and Die in Rome, NY which received at $152,000 penalty, or at Trinity Welding and Iron Works in Teterboro, NJ which received an almost $152,000 citation from OSHA. True, the data can be found deep in OSHA’s website (or down below on Confined Space), but who’s going to look for it and how are they going to make sense of it?

Lack of Transparency in Other Federal Agencies

In addition to OSHA, Eilperin cites information that has been hidden or disappeared on climate change in the EPA and Interior Department Websites, animal cruelty information on Department of Agriculture’s website, ecological assessments from the Bureau of Land Management, an ethics website that published ethics waivers granted to appointees who would otherwise be barred from joining the government because of recent lobbying activities, and even “a White House Web page that directed prospective donors to private groups that aid refugees fleeing Syria and other embattled nations.”

She lets Norm Eisen, President Obama’s special counsel for ethics and government reform, sum up:

“The Trump administration seems determined to utilize a larger version of Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility to cover the entire administration,” said Eisen, now a fellow with the Brookings Institution’s governance studies program.

Current Data

Since back in March, I have been publishing all large enforcement cases issued in this administration. Because some cases are slow to make the database, the data that I posted previously were not complete. The lists below should be up to date, including all of the “late” cases. I’ve separated the data into large cases in states with federal enforcement, and a separate table for large cases in state plan states.

Federal Enforcement Cases Greater Than $40,000 -- Jan 20 - April 28

State Plan Enforcement Cases Greater Than $40,000 -- Jan 20 - April 5