Baldwin asks OSHA nominee Mugno about barrel plants
Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Wednesday questioned President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration about the agency’s response to an investigation of workplace dangers inside barrel refurbishing plants in Wisconsin.
Baldwin (D-Wis.) used all of her five minutes of time to ask Scott Mugno, nominated to be assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, about the agency’s slow reaction to reports of workplace danger inside Mid-America Steel Drum, a chain of industrial drum and tote refurbishing plants in the Milwaukee area.
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation exposed risks to workers and residents from the plants where dangerous chemicals have been mixed, causing fires and reactions and sending plumes of foul fumes into the surrounding neighborhood. Baldwin entered the Journal Sentinel articles into the official record of the hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
The plants refurbish 55-gallon steel drums and large plastic chemical containers, cleaning them for reuse or recycling. Drums that cannot be refurbished are burned.
The three plants, known locally as Mid-America, are operated by Container Life Cycle Management, a joint venture majority owned by Greif Inc., a $3.3 billion Ohio-based firm. CLCM has plants in Milwaukee, Oak Creek and St. Francis.
Saying the case “concerns me deeply,” Baldwin said the agency has moved too slowly and failed to take advantage of all the information available to it, noting OSHA officials said they could not use recordings made by a whistleblower who secretly recorded company officials talking about dangers in the plants.
“My interactions with OSHA throughout this process have given me the impression of an agency that is hesitant to use its statutory authority to issue willful violations and full fines to protect workers and incentivize employers to comply with the law,” she said.
Baldwin asked Mugno, an executive with FedEx, how he would address the issue.
Mugno said he was not familiar with the case and could not answer, though he said he planned to read the Journal Sentinel reporting on Mid-America and other barrel plants.
Baldwin said she found that frustrating given that her staff met with OSHA staff members prior to the hearing to alert them to her questions.
In April, OSHA cited the company for 15 violations, including mixing dangerous chemicals and exposing workers to risk from reactions, at the Mid-America plant in Milwaukee, levying a $108,000 fine. The company is fighting the citation and the fine could be reduced, Baldwin noted.
OSHA did not open up investigations into the company’s other two plants in the area, in St. Francis and Oak Creek despite reports of similar conditions as found in the Milwaukee plant.
Baldwin wrote letters urging the agency to open cases at the plants, saying “OSHA’s inaction is extremely troubling.”
OSHA opened an inspection into the Mid-America Steel Drum plant in St. Francis on Aug. 3 — the same day the Journal Sentinel posted a story examining why the agency had inspected just one of six plants in the chain and reporting on a sharply worded letter from Baldwin.
Two weeks later, the inspection at the Oak Creek plant was opened.
Those inspections remain open. An OSHA spokesman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Will Kramer, a whistleblower who recorded company officials talking about the dangers, provided the Journal Sentinel with 16 hours of tapes. Baldwin said the case shows whistleblower protections need to be strengthened.