Dear FRONTLINE,Dear Frontline, Between watching your television program and reading the New York Times' three-part series on the McWane Corporation and its barbaric management philosophy, I felt really sick to my stomach and my heart went out to all the employees who risk life and limb on the foundry floor everyday and to the families of those who were injured or killed. It was like reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,
Kirsten Berger
peekskill, ny
Dear FRONTLINE, As long as Congress fails to put teeth into the enforcement branch of OSHA, the blood and guts (literally) of those employees who have been victimized by this company, McWane, are on the hands of an additional 535 individuals. Do we really need to see conveyor belts actually consume two human beings on national tv to make a change? Huge Kudos to Frontline, the New York Times, and the Canadian Broadcasting system for this broadcast. Wake up Congress... you are the lawmakers, do your job.
Veronica Bennett
wilmington, ca
Dear FRONTLINE, I was a Tyler Pipe employee for 30 years. Prior to McWane buying the company, Tyler Pipe was a great place to work. It was run much like ACIPCO is today. Safety was emphasized as much as productivity and quality. It is a totally different place today.
tyler, tx
Dear FRONTLINE, An excellent programme, but sadly it is an exception that proves the rule that corporate media tend to avoid topics that are embarrassing to corporations. Why did it take so long and so many lost lives and limbs before this company was exposed ? The figures indicate that Americans have more to fear from American corporate bosses than from foreign terrorists - yet the latter gets constant, massive coverage, the former a rare programme like this. Let's hope more of the media get inspired by your example and help to encourage more companies to follow the enlightened policies of ACIPCO. But since many will need more than encouragement, OSHA needs to be greatly strengthened. Government needs to get on the backs of corporate criminals.
Ted Welch
palm bay , florida
Dear FRONTLINE, Most excellent report! This is why I love this show. This kind of criminal behavior from unregulated and arrogant corporations happens all of the time and it must be stopped. Many people have personal knowledge of just such actions and feel powerless in preventing them. I hope that your program will inspire the courageous among us into taking appropriate action to prevent any more of these violations. Even though I feel that the current executive branch in charge in this nation is diametrically opposed to enforcing the law in this area, I still feel that enough pressure can be brought to bear against these criminal transgressions and some positive change can be realized. Remember, the Nixon administration created the EPA!
Kevin Bayhouse
boise, id
Dear FRONTLINE, Thank you for the unparalleled writing and reporting. Recent events only reaffirm the evil of corporate greed, and yet Frontline managed to report it in a an unsensationalist manner. I especially enjoyed your segment about the other steel pipe company the ACIPOC. That is what America is about and what it should be and could be if we believe in the same ideals that Mr. Eagen did and not McWane's unhumane grasp for profits.
Jeffrey Hsu
rochester, ny
Dear FRONTLINE, I have been a safety professional in the construction industry for nearly 15 years, and have run my own safety consulting firm for the past 9 of those years. During that time, I have seen incredible changes in the way our industry has confronted safety in general, and OSHA specifically. More and more, there are examples of the wonderful life AND profit-protecting activities that a safe contractor can implement to keep his or her employees safe. Much like ACIPCO, these employers have embraced workplace safety as an integral part of doing business. For these employers, OSHA has pretty much ceased to be a motivating force. The driving force has been the moral and fiscal commitment to safety - safety is good business, when done right. On the other side of the coin, however, remain employers like McWane and their subsidiaries - those who will only do as much as they have to to comply, or as much as they can be forced to do by regulators or the courts. For these employers, OSHA remains a foe to be defeated - or ignored. For them, safety is an irrecoverable cost, because they do not truly understand the benefits, and they cannot wait for the return on their investment. I became physically ill watching your program, knowing full well that there are still far too many McWanes out there. In our industry, they are the employers who continue to have trenching fatalities, electrocutions, or falls from great height. Those same employers will continue to fight against OSHA, new regulations, and workplace controls as being "too restrictive", "not clear", or "too costly". Some folks respond to the "bolt from the blue" as Mr. Weil points out (in his article on your site)- they change their ways when disaster strikes, or OSHA comes knocking. Unfortunately, though, many times that is too late - after someone has lost their life, or a limb. Can OSHA fix this? No, not entirely. Can they help? Absolutely. Only through a combination of market forces and regulatory control will we truly be able to create safe workplaces. When the McWanes of the world are no longer recognized strictly for their commercial success, and are instead judged by their moral success as well, there will be change. When stockholders realize that their profits are paid in blood, there will be change. When it becomes socially unacceptable to run an unsafe operation, there will be change. When OSHA is empowered to pursue the bad actors, and to assist the good ones, there will be change. Justice may be blind, but the American public cannot turn a blind eye to this continuing disgrace. Thank you for producing such a powerful program.
Marko Kaar
hartford, ct
Dear FRONTLINE, This excellent investigative report fails to ask some important questions. Who is buying McWane's products? Municipal governments using public funds! Egregious violators of labor laws should be debarred from receiving public contracts.This would provide the needed market incentive to improve workplace safety conditions without increasing OSHA's budget one dollar.
Matthew Carmel
maplewood, nj
Dear FRONTLINE, Frontline is about the only remaining media voice speaking for the average person anymore. The McWane story was excellent. It is obvious that there is a segment of our society (mostly rich and recently receiving tax cuts) that wants to turn the rest of us into peasants so they can have a continually exploitable pool of disposable and cheap labor. Thank you for doing this story.
east lansing, mi
Dear FRONTLINE, While the Frontline story on McWane is excellent, a few matters were left unexplored that could have placed it in context: 1. How much money and gifts does McWane give to political candidates and to whom does it, and has it given? 2. Has the voting in Congress toward OSHA and worker and environmental negligence reflected contributions by McWane and other serious offenders? Is there a pattern of payoffs to obtain congressional and party negligence and obstruction of OSHA? 3. A Frontline (or N.Y. Times or CBC) correspondent, fitted with hidden camera and microphone, could have obtained a job at McWane to dig deeper into management behavior that is flagrantly and criminally negligent. While dangerous, reporters do go into life-threatening war zones to get a story.
Jack Starr
new york, ny
Dear FRONTLINE, My office represented a worker injured at Tyler Pipe when he fell asleep on a loading dock during his lunch break and an 18 wheeler backed up over his body starting at his feet and ending with its tires up on his chest. Tyler Pipe, as correctly indicated by your show, was immune from suit for failing to adequately light the area so that personnel could be seen by truck drivers prior to backing into that very dark area. The case went to trial in Marshall Federal Court against the trucking company for failing to inspect the area before backing in, and a verdict was rendered in favor of the injured worker. Tyler Pipe should have been held accountable and the jury should have been able to consider its role in this accident. Workers Comp law has not evolved as its creators intended. However, I doubt we will likely see any significant revisions in favor of remedies and assistance for injured workers in the heavily Republican Texas legislature and government, and the heavily Republican Congress. I applaud this show for revealing what happens when the baby is thrown out with the bath water with regard to tort reform. The Republicans have been telling a tale of "out of control juries" handing down excessive and unfounded verdicts. They have claimed that lawyers and the legal system are out of control and costing businesses and consumers untold sums in unnecessary and frivolous costs. However, clearly the corporate world is not capable of policing itself effectively. Profits have always and will always govern corporate policy. i applaud those companies that place safety and employee wellfare above all else. Unfortunately, these companies are the exception, not the rule. Consumers, workers, voters, and legislators need to understand and be reminded that laws have to have penalties and consequences if they are going to be effective. Laws are in place to deter bad behavior. Only laws with penalties serious enough to outweight the profit of the conduct will have any deterring effect on corporations. Please continue to do these pieces. With the policital firestorm brewing in Washington to review and strip tort laws of their teeth and effect, it is important that we have a clear picture of the consequences that will befall those who will live the outcome of those changes.
Patric McCallum
marshall, texas
Dear FRONTLINE, Bravo! Thank you for taking on this subject. Brilliant job of reporting. Now it is up to us to demand follow through from our politicians.
crownsville, marylad
Dear FRONTLINE, I am the widow of Sonnie Joe Peacock killed at Atlantic States in Phillipsburg NJ,on Jan 12 1999.All I saw about him on the show was his picture.I am disappointed there was not more about him. Tomorrow Jan. 10 would have been his 58th birthday. Sun Jan 12 he is gone 4 yrs. He left a wife , mother .3 sisters, 1 brother, 3 children, and 3 grandchildren who really miss their "Pop Pop".
Atlantic States should not be allowed to remain open.They have NO regard for human life.Workman's Comp laws relieve the company of responsibility for my husband's death. They are not the least bit affected by giving me $312 per week for a human life. Why can't OSHA do something about the unsafe practices at these plants?IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS BEFORE MORE LIVES ARE LOST?
Gloria Peacock
phillipsburg, nj
Dear FRONTLINE, as a former OSHA industrial hygienist i applaude the frontline program and the two NY TIMES articles - OSHA is a paper tiger - businesses like McWane's need this and continued strong media attention - i am appaulded by Mr. Vacco's lame responds to the interviewers questions and comments - thank you again - a follow up program would be very enlightening - especially a follow up interview with mr. henshaw
janet b murphy
eastchester, new york
Dear FRONTLINE, As a result of your "investigative reporting", McWane should close its doors, shutter its plants, and discharge all its workers. Let someone else risk their money, provide the jobs, and produce the industrial products needed by the United States. If private industry can't do the job in a way that satisfies environmental and labor actitivists, let the government take over.And we will end up with a standard of living like that of the old Soviet Union, or Cuba or North Korea.
charleston, south carolina
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