The president of a Saukville foundry where investigators said a “catastrophic mechanical failure” spewed molten metal on workers Monday was featured in a Wall Street Journal story complaining that the Obama administration workplace investigators were killing jobs with red tape.
The Nov. 2, 2012, story quotes Lance Johnson, president of Johnson Brass & Machine Foundry Inc., saying, “I've never been audited by more government agencies in my life than I have under Obama."
He said the company had spent “well into the six figures” dealing with what he considered duplicative audits.
"I would have spent that on more equipment," he told the Journal. "That would have created more jobs down the line."
The Huffington Post reported that records show that OSHA proposed penalizing the foundry with a fine of $9,638 “for exposing workers to apparent hazards” in 2011.
According to the ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN-12, U.S. Department of Labor records say that two of three violations concerned the servicing and maintenance of machines, and the other was for improper machine guards to protect workers from rotating parts and flying sparks.
Johnson didn’t respond to a request from the Huffington Post for comment on Monday’s accident, which injured eight and sent four to the hospital.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a centrifuge used for metal casting sprayed molten brass onto the backs and legs of the workers and caused a small fire, which was extinguished with hand extinguishers. The four workers remained in the hospital on Wednesday, according to the company.
Source: host.madison.com
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