The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed fines of $104,700 for alleged workplace safety violations at a Biddeford bakery.
In a Monday release, OSHA detailed the allegations against Interstate Brands, doing business as Hostess Brands. The problems include eight “serious” and two repeat violations, OSHA charged.
“Our inspection identified mechanical, electrical, fall and exit hazards, including some similar to those cited at other Interstate Brands facilities,” said William Coffin, OSHA’s area director for Maine. “Left uncorrected, these violations expose workers to the hazards of electrocution, lacerations, amputation, falls, being caught in operating or unexpectedly activated machinery and being unable to exit the workplace swiftly in the event of a fire or other emergency.”
According to the release, OSHA inspectors reported missing guardrails that would prevent workers from falling into hoppers; a locked emergency exit door and an exit route blocked by product racks; unguarded moving machine parts on a conveyor belt, band saw blade, drill press and other equipment; a lack of documented procedures to prevent the unintended activation of machinery during maintenance; and individuals working on live electrical equipment who were not familiar with the protective equipment needed for such work.
The recurring violations, OSHA said, involve failing to guard chains and sprockets on a cake conveyor and a packaging machine feeder and failure to provide personal protective equipment to safeguard employees against electrical shocks, arc flashes and arc blasts while working with live electrical parts.
OSHA said it cited International Brands in 2010 for similar hazards at plants in Columbus, Ga., and Schiller Park, Ill.
The company has 15 days to deal with the alleged problems or to contest the findings. The citations can be found at http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/InterstateBrands_315672352_1222_11.pdf.
Locked emergency exit should be criminal.
Agreed. With all the safety violations we see here I also have to wonder how many sanitation violations State Sanitarian Inspectors would find if they happened to drop by. Time for everyone (Business and State) here to step up to the plate to show some concern about running a legitimate business enterprise that won’t eventually maim, kill, or make the public ill.
Not according to Captain Pain he sounds like he wants to go back to the 1920 were people were killed on the job an the companies did not care about there employees
Time to call Hannaford, if that’s the case…
for a large corporation they sure act stupid and carelessly
OSHA is a joke. No question some of the infractions they listed deserve attention, but $104,000? I’ve dealt with them before. We were fined $1,500.00 for not having cups with our water cooler on the job. Then, after the fine, we were able to ‘negotiate’ it down. Typical government bureaucracy.
Rules are rules you don’t like it to bad an live with it
You don’t think you break laws on a daily basis? Do you go 55 on the highway. Anyway, it’s not like we’re talking about “laws” with OSHA either. I don’t remember any of the OSHA regulations going through the “how a bill becomes a law” process. OSHA is just another unelected, uncountable, inane government bureaucracy.
i agree i do not stay right at the speed limit . So you want law makers to vote on every regulation that comes along if that happen nothing would ever get done in DC there are other agencys in DC that make rules with out going thru both houses
Not a whole heck of a lot getting done in DC anyway, these days.
If they did vote on rules they would be so weak that you mite as well as not have any rules at all than people would be killed at work is that what you want ? They are other agencys that do make there own rules
“So you want law makers to vote on every regulation that comes along?” Actually, yes I do. That’s how laws are made according to the Constitution. Since when did it become acceptable for laws, which are not voted on by our representatives, to be passed by unelected government agents? I know that OSHA is just one of many of these agency’s, and I am thoroughly against all of them as well.
“Since when did it become acceptable for laws, which are not voted on by our representatives, to be passed by unelected government agents?”
Because those “unelected government agents” serve at the will of the Congress, you know, those people YOU ELECT. Sorry that you don’t get to vote on each and every person who gets hired in government (and I SERIOUSLY DOUBT that was ever the intention of the Constitution you keep throwing around), or every piddling little rule and regulation that comes down the pike. Interstate Brands KNEW THE RULES AND REGULATIONS and chose to ignore them, thus the fine. As for negotiating the fines down, the purpose is to GET THE PROBLEMS FIXED, not assess fines and let the problems continue. Yeah, CaptainPain, we really should go back to those wonderful days before protections and means of redress were in place, when workers would be maimed for life or killed and the business did nothing about it.
It’s not about who get’s hired to work at government jobs, it’s about binding legal regulations where offenders face fines, otherwise know as a law. As to how safe this workplace really was, I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but I’d be willing to bet that the owner wasn’t putting a gun to anyone’s head and forcing them to work there. If I felt that my employers actions were causing my work environment to be unsafe, I would inform them. If nothing was done about it, I wouldn’t work there anymore. Conducting myself as a thoughtful, reasonable person would be my protection and form of redress. I used to work at a place where it was stressed that we couldn’t lean wooden pallets up against the walls because of OSHA regulations. I’m not talking about some massive platform that’s built to hold a truck, I’m talking about your standard, everyday wooden pallets. When you say that Interstate Brands knew the rules and regulations and chose to ignore them, it sounds as though the company made a voluntary agreement to follow those rules. They did not. Laws are not a voluntary agreement between government and yourself. They are forced upon you using coercion (“obey our laws, or else!”).
Ok tell how Railroad retirement board can make there own rules ?? So if thats the case you want law makers in DC to vote an make rules for the work place an not let companys make there own rules
Last time I checked, OSHA is a government agency, not a private enterprise. I’m not familiar with the rules of the Railroad retirement board, so I cannot comment on them.
Huh????
Don’t be a sheeple. Rules? These so-called rules are made by unelected officials who generally are lazy and couldn’t make it in a real job where they have to perform. The prohibitive fines they levy serve nothing more than to stifle business.
The rules are in place to save lives you don’t like to bad. what about all thoses ladies that burn to death because they were locked in the mill is that what you want to happen ??
it’s “too” bad…not “to” bad
How ’bout you follow the rules of the english language and use proper grammer?
If thats the only come back that you have than you know im right . Look up to an too in dictionary too means also, in excess, overmuch
Well Mr. Dickerson – take it from someone who worked under the constraints of the CFR for an entire career, and was responsible for complying with them for my company for over 25 years: they are common-sense based, developed and refined by intelligent people for decades, and deal with both simple and complicated issues. They are only violated by executives intent on squeezing more money out of an operation, those too lazy to comply, or people with the intelligence of a road apple. Large fines are almost always negotiated down by 50 to 75% if good intent to comply is demonstrated. And only the road apple would be du#b enough not to comply.
And, since you are the guru of the rules of the english language, be advised that it’s “grammar”, not “grammer”.
“and” also has a d in it: “to bad an live with it” :-)
Wow, another English grammar expert heard from. Too bad you have nothing better to do with your life than correct the grammar of online posts.
It wasn’t the grammar. It was the spelling. :)
When there’s over 100,000 pages in the CFR, it’s a bit difficult for those who actually work to keep up!
No your’e a joke, leaving standards up to the individual company would see a return to operations such as the long gone and little lamented “Radium Room” at the Walpole Watch Company. Where young women painted watch faces with a radium mixture to have them glow in the dark and in time perished in cancerous agony. You can take that pronostication to the bank, “Turkey”
Yes, they were licking their brushes to keep a point on it, but it was not from an enforcement problem. The ‘new’ miracle substance was also put in liquid medicines and a myriad of other things. Like asbestos, it was a wonderful product at the time. It wasn’t until much later that we found out differently.
Oh. What is ‘pronostication’?
I got stopped yesterday on i 95 for going 6 miles over the speed limit. Darn cops i think its all his fault. Maybe i can negotiate with the judge to drop the case
Sounds more like an obstacle course than a bakery.
Note that the reporter here has failed to give a balanced report. The editor should have caught the omission of NO contact with the company. This is a one sided, allegation of neglect. These things are normally blown way out of proportion to shock the company into submission, having personally survived several OSHA visits. There usually is a long sane reply to most of these things, like the locked exit was during non-working hours, etc. Don’t know the specifics on this one, but you can bet there is more that the reporter opted not to tell or the company wasn’t ready to comment on it.
Shame BDN for letting this through the editorial screen…..
Where does all that money go? Why do they have to pay a fine? It should be, fix it or be shut down. If the plant is still running then osha doesn’t care about people’s safety, all they care about is getting a businesses money. This is no different than a cop letting a drunk drive home after he failed a sobriety test and blew a .10. No wonder there is no work in Maine.
This company’s bakery fled Natick, Massachusetts about a dozen years ago….. ‘Bet they wish they could leave OSHA behind too.
Nevertheless, blocked exit doors is a pretty serious thing. But the world wouldn’t miss Twinkies in any case.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577151211961572458.html
Hostess Brands Inc. is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter, a move that would mark the second significant court restructuring for the Twinkie and Wonder Bread baker in the past several years.
The privately held Irving, Texas, company, which employs roughly 19,000 people and carries more than $860 million in debt, has been facing a cash squeeze amid high labor costs and rising prices for sugar, flour and other ingredients, according to people familiar with the matter. Those costs together have proved higher than the company’s roughly $2.5 billion in annual sales, creating losses and cash shortfalls, they said.
Hostess also currently owes more than $50 million to vendors, which have been demanding payments on shortened timeframes after delivering goods because of Hostess’s financial condition, one of the people said.
Hostess’s filing would mark what’s known as a “Chapter 22” in restructuring circles, since the company had already sought bankruptcy protection once before. Hostess, before called Interstate Bakeries Corp., slashed debt and costs during a four-year stint in bankruptcy court that began in 2004. The company has struggled since emerging from bankruptcy proceedings in February 2009.
A drill press?! So that’s how they get the cream inside Twinkies. Now what is the band saw used for?
The band saw is for the Devil dogs,Yes I know it says Drakes but owned by Hostess Inc.
Probably used to cut up cakes for the single slice packs LOL.
What? Laplague and the repugs haven’t gutted OSHA yet to create jobs in a business friendly enviornment? I bet it’s on the list though.
Hi Buzino
It’s all long past now, right wing crackpots notwithstanding. But the use of radium dials was intensely controversial at the time. I have W.W. Co. literature in my collection that touts the “cleanliness and safety” of the “Radium Room.” W.W.Co. did not lack for people telling them this was a very bad procedure but they were having none of it, and continued for many years, until the weight of tragedy inflicted on their workers became a P R. nightmare they could not longer sustain. And then they found a new way to supply luminescent numbers on watch faces. FYI Johnny Carson was “Karnack” he was a prognosticator or prophet.
ttfn
Way to go, just shut them down why don’t you! OSHA should be ashamed.