USWA: Oregon Steel Mills Board Member Resigns
16 May 2000
USWA: Oregon Steel Mills Board Member Resigns; Company `In Denial' About Accidents & Injuries
PUEBLO, Colo., May 16 The following was issued today by
the United Steelworkers of America:
In another blow to Oregon Steel Mills, Inc. , a member of the
company's board of directors has resigned for "personal and business" reasons.
The company, plagued by citizen-filed environmental complaints against its
Pueblo operations, and a rash of injuries and deaths at the mill, is currently
being investigated by a team of federal safety inspectors conducting a
comprehensive "wall-to-wall" safety audit at the Pueblo subsidiary. In the
midst of the company's bitter labor dispute with the United Steelworkers of
America (USWA), California businessman George Stathakis resigned his position
on the Oregon Steel Board of Directors less than one month after the company's
annual meeting. Mr. Stathakis, a Director of Calpine, a California energy
company, has dissolved any remaining links between Calpine and Oregon Steel.
Mr. Stathakis had received numerous complaints from Northern California labor
leaders about his continued service on the board of Oregon Steel while at the
same time partnering with labor on Calpine projects. Calpine has a
partnership with the Labor Council in a proposed energy project in San Jose,
California.
The USWA called for other members of the company's board to follow
Mr. Stathakis' lead. "We applaud Mr. Stathakis' decision to separate himself
from a company that fails to act responsibly. The other members of the
company's board should also recognize that the deaths, maimings, and burns at
the mill are happening on their watch. Upstanding business leaders should
think twice about continuing to bear responsibility for an irresponsible
company," said USWA Subdistrict 5 Subdirector Dave Kins.
The USWA today blasted Rocky Mountain Steel Mills denial that one or more
steelworkers have been injured in recent weeks. Despite the presence at the
mill of a team of federal safety inspectors conducting a comprehensive "wall-
to-wall" safety audit at the Pueblo subsidiary of Oregon Steel Mills, Inc.
, a rash of accidents and injuries continues to plague the mill.
The "wall-to-wall" inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration began in February, six days after the mill recorded its second
workplace fatality in less than ten months. The USWA today said that the
company is "in denial," and will not be a safe workplace until the company
"owns up to its responsibility to protect worker health and safety," said John
Perquin, USWA Assistant Director for Health, Safety and the Environment.
"Oregon Steel and Rocky Mountain Steel Mills appear to place little value
on workers at the Pueblo mill," said Perquin. "A worker injured in April was
burned so badly in a mill accident that he was hospitalized until May. The
worker was severely burned on his arm and leg. The company calls that injury
minor, and says the worker was hospitalized only because he had a chronic
medical condition that warranted observation. If a company executive had been
burnt so badly he or she required a lengthy hospitalization, would they think
that was `minor'?"
The company continues to blame its workers for the epidemic of injuries
and accidents. "Whose mill is this anyway?" asked Perquin. "The company says
the workers are to blame for killing, burning, maiming and crippling
themselves. It's obvious to everyone except the company that there's a safety
problem at the mill. That problem will never be corrected until the company
admits it exists."
Even the presence of the federal inspectors has failed to stem the tide
of workplace injuries and fatalities. Since the inspection began:
-- In mid-April, a ladle used to pour hot steel dropped due to a crane
malfunction, sending thousands of pounds of molten steel into the
mill. The company has not made details of the accident public.
-- In late April, another worker was hospitalized with injuries sustained
in yet another mill accident. The worker was burnt from his shoulder
to his hip, due to scalding, when he was performing maintenance on a
piece of equipment that was not fully de-energized.
"Even the presence in the mill of several OSHA compliance officers has
failed to stop the carnage of what we've come to call the `Killing Mill',"
said Ernie Hernandez, president of USWA Local 2102, which represents
production and maintenance workers at Rocky Mountain Steel. "Steelmaking is a
dangerous business, but since Oregon Steel took over this mill, the safety
record has been shocking. Men and women don't have to die and be maimed to
produce steel. It didn't happen in the years before Rocky Mountain Steel
replaced its experienced workers, and it's got to stop."
"In the past, we've tried for months to meet with the company about
deteriorating safety conditions in the mill, and they simply refused to meet
with us," Hernandez said.
Fatal and maiming injuries have increased alarmingly at the Pueblo mill
since the company unlawfully replaced its veteran workforce with
inexperienced substitutes during a contract dispute.
The deteriorating safety conditions at Rocky Mountain Steel are
underscored by the deaths of two workers in less than ten months. In
contrast, with nearly twice as many workers on the job, no company employees
were killed at work from the time Oregon Steel bought the mill in 1993 until
the company replaced its veteran workforce in late 1997.
"These injuries and accidents are the result of the company treating
safety as an afterthought," Hernandez said.
The USWA called upon the company to release details of the two most recent
injuries. "The company is trying desperately to keep a lid on these two
latest health and safety problems. They don't want the workers to know what's
happening to their coworkers. And they certainly don't want their customers
or the community to know the human cost of producing steel at the mill in
Pueblo," said John Perquin, USWA Assistant Director for Health, Safety and the
Environment.
"It strikes me as being somewhat misrepresentative," Perquin said, "when
in a March 3, 2000, company press release, Oregon Steel executive Joe Corvin
states `Our employees' safety is our top priority,' while the facts indicate
otherwise. Since October 1997, OSHA investigators have spent more time
investigating the mill for non-compliance of federal safety laws, than at any
other time in the company's history. If employee safety is the company's top
priority, why have two employees lost their lives while on the job? Why have
others been permanently maimed?"
The comprehensive OSHA inspection is just the latest evidence of growing
government scrutiny into the operations of the embattled steelmaker:
-- On February 10, the ranking Democratic member of the House
Transportation Committee asked the Inspector General of the U.S.
Department of Transportation to conduct a "thorough investigation of
the quality of rail produced at" Rocky Mountain Steel. That
investigation continues.
-- Because of its decision to unlawfully replace its workforce in Pueblo,
the company could be liable for up to $300 million in back pay and
interest in a federal case brought by the National Labor Relations
Board. The decision by the NLRB's Administrative Law Judge is due
soon.
-- In July 1999, Oregon Steel's Rocky Mountain Steel Mills subsidiary
received the second-largest OSHA fine in Colorado history -- $400,000
-- for violations of health and safety law at the Pueblo mill. Since
then, the company has been fined for further violations following the
death of one worker and the double amputation of a second worker's
arms.
-- Recently, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sued
the company for continuing violations of federal air quality standards
-- some of which the company was first ordered to correct two years
ago. Since the filing of the original suit, the State has
subsequently filed to amend its complaint and make it more inclusive
of recently observed violations. In addition, the State of Colorado
is seeking to clarify its pursuit of civil penalties such that it is
seeking penalties of $15,000 per day per violation for each day the
company is in violation until such time as the company can
satisfactorily demonstrate continued compliance with the emissions
standards. Furthermore, the State is seeking injunctive relief until
such time as the company can bring itself into continued compliance.
-- More recently, the USWA filed a Citizens' Suit in the U.S. District
Court in Denver claiming that the steel mill has repeatedly released
excessive and potentially harmful air pollutants, in violation of the
federal Clean Air Act and the Colorado Air Quality Control Act. The
Union further seeks an injunction that would force the steel mill to
comply with regulated emissions requirements.
Oregon Steel, which makes a number of steel products including rail for
passenger, freight and commuter lines, a wide variety of pipe products, plate,
rod and bar, is also the target of a nationwide boycott by the AFL-CIO.
Members of United Steelworkers Locals 2102 and 3267 went on strike against
Oregon Steel's CF&I Steel subsidiary on October 3, 1997, to protest the
company's unfair labor practices and substandard contract offer. When they
ended their strike three months later, management unlawfully refused to
reinstate the vast majority of Steelworkers to their jobs.
CONTACT: John Duray, 412-562-2592, or John Perquin, 412-562-2582, both of
the United Steelworkers of America, or Steve Hopcraft of Hopcraft
Communications, 916-457-5546, for the United Steelworkers of America.
Web site: http://www.uswa.org.