[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 10 (Wednesday, January 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H313]]
  SERIOUS SAFETY AND HEALTH HAZARDS FOR STAR-KIST WORKMEN IN AMERICAN 
                                 SAMOA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from American Samoa [Mr. Faleomavaega] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my serious 
concerns about the health and safety of American workers.
  Mr. Speaker, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 sets 
forth safety and health standards for businesses which affect 
interstate commerce. The law was an attempt to correct several 
inadequacies in the workplace, including an attempt to level the 
economic playing field between businesses who provided safer and 
healthier working environments and those companies which did not. This 
was a bipartisan law, passed by a Democratically-controlled Congress 
and signed by a Republican President, Richard M. Nixon.
  The Occupational Safety and Health Act, together with its 
regulations, is today applicable to the 50 States, the District of 
Columbia, and the U.S. territories. American Samoa is one of those 
territories.
  Mr. Speaker, last year the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration, or OSHA, began what ended up being a 5-month 
investigation of one of the two largest private employers in American 
Samoa, Star-Kist Samoa, Inc. Star-Kist Samoa is a subsidiary of Star-
Kist Foods, which is a subsidiary of the
 $11 billion conglomerate, the H.J. Heinz Food Co. This investigation 
concluded last month with the signing of a settlement agreement of 
approximately 100 citations which were issued for violations of Federal 
law and regulations. The violations included 42 willful, 35 serious, 12 
repeat, and 4 failure to abate violations. The violations were for:

  Failure to provide adequate machine guards for dangerous points of 
operation resulting in 11 amputations--5 total finger amputations, 1 
total leg amputation, and 5 amputations of at least 1 finger joint;
  Failure to provide 1,900 employees the use of puncture resistent 
gloves to protect their hand from sharp fish bones, knives, and wire 
racks, resulting in numerous injuries requiring sutures;
  Failure to provide basic employee hearing conservation measures, 
though Star-Kist Samoa was aware that 19 employees had developed 
significant shifts in their hearing;
  Failure to inform employees of the results of noise surveys;
  Failure to perform baseline audiograms for over 600 employees;
  Failure to conduct annual audiograms for over 1,500 employees;
  Failure to evaluate audiograms that had been conducted;
  Failure to develop and require the application of lockout-tagout 
producers for employees engaged in such tasks as cleaning and unjamming 
machinery;
  Failure to enforce the use of confined space permits;
  Failure to keep adequate records of worker injuries and illnesses; 
and
  Failure to comply with OSHA regulations on respirators, chemical 
exposures, eye washes, and bloodborne diseases, resulting in 100 
employees being admitted to the LBJ Tropical Medical Center for 
treatment after being exposed to lethal gas.
  Based on these violations, Star-Kist Co. agreed to pay $1.8 million 
in penalties. This is a substantial penalty and was based on the 
severity of the violations, the period of time over which the 
violations occurred, prior knowledge by company officials of the 
violations, and the number of employees subjected to the unsafe or 
unhealthy conditions. Based on the formula OSHA uses to determine 
appropriate penalties, OSHA officials determined that a penalty in the 
range of $4 to $5 million was supportable. It was determined, however, 
that based on Star-Kist's willingness to correct the violations, a 
somewhat lower penalty was acceptable.
  Mr. Speaker, the unsafe and unhealthy conditions found at the Star-
Kist plant in American Samoa would not have been tolerated in any of 
the 50 States of the United States. That 42 of the violations were 
willful, in other words they were violations of Federal laws which 
Star-Kist management was aware of but purposely chose not to correct, 
is an indication to me that the management of Star-Kist Foods and H.J. 
Heinz here in the United States wanted to get away with as much as they 
could, regardless of the risk to the Samoan employees.
  I have heard attacks made recently to the effect that a government 
which governs best is a government which governs least. In an effort to 
reduce the number of Federal regulations and make the climate in 
America more conducive to business, some are talking of doing away with 
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that would be a grave mistake, and I use the 
example of what has happened to the Star-Kist employees in Samoa as an 
example of what would happen to employees in the United States if we do 
not maintain regulations to protect the safety and health of our 
workers, and provide sufficient funding to enforce these regulations. I 
have not heard one complaint, not even from Star-Kist, that OSHA acted 
improperly or impartially during the course of this investigation. OSHA 
did an excellent job in enforcing Federal law and regulations during 
this inspection, and I wish to publicly commend them for their 
outstanding performance.
  Mr. Speaker, I have much more to say on this matter, and I will take 
the opportunity to do so later in the week.

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