From January 8-10, 2003, the New York Times ran a three-part series on massive occupational safety and health violations at facilities owned by McWane, Inc. The company, based in Birmingham Alabama, is a large and profitable operator of foundries. The series tells the story of corporate indifference to a horrific record of employee injuries and deaths. A video of a program on McWane that was aired on PBS in early 2003 (“A Dangerous Business”) is also available (it runs about 55 minutes).

Read the articles in the series and/or look at the video.  Discuss the following questions:

1) What does the McWane saga tell us about the limitations of each of the following as means of protecting the safety and health of employees?

            1) the law and regulatory agencies

            2) labor unions

            3) the labor market

            4) the ethics and professionalism of employers

2) Why wasn’t OSHA more effective in dealing with McWane? Are the penalties that OSHA can impose sufficient to deal with employers like McWane?

3) How did McWane deal with workers’ compensation claims?

4) Does investing in the safety of employees pay off for employers or not?