A just government protects workers, communities, pelicans

It’s too late, Tony. Decisions BP made before the April 20 explosion — like declining to install a second, fail-safe blind shear ram on the blowout preventer — could have prevented the ever-expanding devastation. BP selected immediate profit instead.

Nothing intervened to tip those decisions in favor of life over profit. That’s because since the days of Reagan, corporate lobbyists and corporate-kissing politicians have undermined the one force —government — that could protect workers, wildlife and the earth.

Now, in the span of one month, workplace explosions killed seven Washington state workers at the Tesoro Anacortes oil refinery, 29 West Virginia workers in Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine, and 11 Gulf workers on the rig drilling the BP well.

This is the cost of eviscerated government. The terrible events of April 2010 clarify the choice for the electorate. America can continue to cash-starve and clout-curtail regulatory and enforcement agencies, adhering to the fad philosophy that all government is evil, even government that mandates mining corporations remove explosive methane and coal dust. Or America can reject that dangerous diatribe and demand a just government that protects the vulnerable.

The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents oil workers, and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) have strived to place safeguards in collective bargaining contracts. And that’s reasonably successful. For example, of the 34 miners killed last year, only one was a UMWA member. This year, of the 51 killed, not one was a UMWA miner. Unfortunately, those numbers also mean union contracts don’t protect non-union workers.

Employers like Massey take full advantage of that. Massey shut down union mines. After all, the costs of worker safety cut profits and bonuses. Massey’s Upper Big Branch, scene of the worst mining disaster in 40 years, was not a union mine.

That leaves government to force safety on corporations. But in an environment where government is unceasingly derided as “the problem,” corporations have thumbed their noses at regulation and enforcement. Mining companies like Massey have appealed vast numbers of violation citations issued by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), clogging the deliberative process and thwarting action to suspend work in unsafe mines.

BP has a similar record. A 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery killed 15 workers and injured 170. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ordered BP to eliminate dangers and fined it $21 million, then the largest penalty OSHA had ever imposed. Last October, OSHA slapped the corporation with what is now its largest fine ever — $87.4 million — after determining that in all the years since the Texas City explosion, BP had failed to correct the potential hazards faced by workers there.  

Just six months later, an explosion killed 11 workers at BP’s Gulf well. Part of the problem is the record OSHA fines are pelican feed in comparison to BP’s $25.6 billion profit in 2008 and $14 billion in 2009.

Basic to both the Texas City and Deepwater Horizon catastrophes is BP’s obsession with profit. Federal regulators blamed the Texas City explosion in part on BP cost-cutting. Survivors of the rig explosion told CNN that BP routinely cut corners and pushed production despite potential safety problems and that workers had been fired for raising concerns about dangerous practices. As profits in 2009 declined with decreasing oil prices, BP’s Hayward cut costs, The New York Times noted in a story on quarterly earnings.

In the five years since the Texas City explosion, the USW has pushed the oil industry for additional safeguards. Talks between the union and oil industry broke down last fall when USW officials determined the industry was more interested in publicity than progress. Early in July, the USW formally sought resumption of negotiations.

Even if the industry agrees, government regulation and enforcement is crucial. The USW doesn’t speak for all oil workers. It represents those at the Tesoro refinery, but not those on the Deepwater Horizon.

The Obama administration is moving in the right direction. It allocated additional money for the Department of Labor this year, enabling the agency to hire 670 investigators, restoring worker protection staffing to pre-Bush levels.

In a properly functioning democracy, the government prevents powerful corporations like Massey and BP from imperiling people for profit.