Ruger to be fined

[Pathfinder]

From the sayuncle blog site (http://www.saysuncle.com/2009/06/11/ruger-to-be-fined/):

"The AP:

The federal government has proposed over $255,000 in fines against a New Hampshire firearms manufacturing center alleging 60 safety and health violations between November and May.

Officials say inspections at Sturm Ruger & Co. in Newport identified many mechanical, respirator protection, electrical, lead, and fire hazards.

That’ll teach them to get in the EBR market! I kid."

[TAB]

thats actually not that big of a fine when it comes to safety violations.

[tombogan03884]

 Means that in May they had not fixed what they got tagged for in Nov.

[JC5123]

Means that in May they had not fixed what they got tagged for in Nov.

Exactly. Not to mention they are making a profit. How dare they make money i this economy! While everyone else is suffering. It takes to long to impose a windfall profits tax, so we'll just fine 'em!

Probably not even close to the truth, but the way the feds are operating these days it wouldn't surprise me...

[tombogan03884]

Exactly. Not to mention they are making a profit. How dare they make money i this economy! While everyone else is suffering. It takes to long to impose a windfall profits tax, so we'll just fine 'em!

Probably not even close to the truth, but the way the feds are operating these days it wouldn't surprise me...

Actually, the best factory I ever worked in could have got hit harder than that.
Winter before last when we had all that snow the factory up the street got a bid for $20,000 to clean the 3+ feet of snow off their flat roof, they decided to pinch pennies, they hired a bunch of day laborers from Boston to do it. It happened that OSHA was inspecting another factory in the industrial park and saw them up there with no guard rails, turned out 29 out of 30 were illegal, cost the company $300,000.

[Sponsor]

[TAB]

Actually, the best factory I ever worked in could have got hit harder than that.
Winter before last when we had all that snow the factory up the street got a bid for $20,000 to clean the 3+ feet of snow off their flat roof, they decided to pinch pennies, they hired a bunch of day laborers from Boston to do it. It happened that OSHA was inspecting another factory in the industrial park and saw them up there with no guard rails, turned out 29 out of 30 were illegal, cost the company $300,000.

I have never heard of a onsite OSHA inspection that did not atleast find one violation.  Paper cutters, for example, they have a hard on for them, if its not latched, its ~6k fine.

[MikeBjerum]

OSHA inspections should be a good thing, and should serve a good purpose.

They do protect workers and provide a safe environment in their purest form.

However, these damn inspectors can wield a long, large, political sword and find lots of stuff no one can do well enough for them!

I'll reserve judgment and just hope that Ruger's pockets are deep enough to handle this possible attack or genuine oooops in operation.

[Fatman]

Read The Death of Common Sense.  OSHA is just another self-serving government jobs program.  Fact is the injury/death rate of workers continued on the same (not accelerated) downward trend it was on before OSHA. If you look around you can find the stats on your own, independent of the book.  During my stint in manufacturing, I found out quite a few things about OSHA and its inspectors.

Did you know inspectors get yearly bonuses based on the dollar amount of the fines they collect?  We got fined a couple of hundred thousand for a mixing vessel "violations".  The vessels in question had an opening on top designed to prevent paper bags from falling in during additions - it was about a foot square with bars about 4" apart running in one direction.  Vessel had an impeller at the bottom (about 10 feet down) connected to a motor by a shaft at an angle that prevented you from touching it if your hand / arm was in the mixer.  Didn't matter, common sense be damned, inspector proclaimed the systems in violation and fined us per mixer.

Also had a lock out/tag out procedure in place with fixed guards around chains, sprockets and other moving parts on production lines.  Despite all the training and preaching we did as management, we had injuries where workers actively and intentionally removed guards to work on or clean moving machinery and got severely injured, including one fully de-gloved hand. Yup, we got fined heavily, sued by the employee and we couldn't fire him.

Yay OSHA.

[CJS3]

thats actually not that big of a fine when it comes to safety violations.

+1, Just a slap on the wrist. Must have been a rookie inspector.

[billt]

I'd like to know what they do with all of the "fine money". I'll bet that disappears faster than a whore in a church choir.  Bill T.