Basha's Spotlighted in Hill Testimony on Unsafe Working Conditions

Basha's, Inc., a major Arizona grocery chain, was spotlighted today on Capitol Hill for unsafe and illegal employment practices at its distribution center.

A. C. Span, a former Basha's employee "outsourced" for focusing managers' attention on workplace accidents and hazards, was among a panel of sworn expert witnesses testifying before the House Committee on Education and Labor on governments' underreporting of workplace injuries. The hearing on "Hidden Tragedy: Underreporting of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses," viewable in Phoenix by webcast, repeatedly emphasized that US government data systematically under-report anywhere from 30% to 60% of workplace injuries.

It also highlighted the Bureau of Labor Statistics/OSHA practice of interviewing only employers, not employees, in field data collection on workplace injuries and work-related illnesses.

Today's hearing disclosed numerous methodological discrepancies among OSHA, Workers' Compensation, and BLS in how they define work-related injuries and in what sources they utilize to determine how many and what types occur each year. While Workers'Compensation data are far more extensive than OSHA's data, definitions among the 50 state workers' comp databases and OSHA's about what constitutes a reportable injury or illness and how each is defined vary widely. Further skews result because many workers--including the self-employed--are not included at all.

The hearing revealed also that there are wide descrepancies between hospital records and employer records on the same case, yet government data rely exclusively on logs and reports employers maintain at the worksite. For instance, one panelist noted that BLS missed 67% of amputations that occurred in one year in Michigan.

Committee Chairman George Miller was visibly incredulous when told that BLS investigators do not routinely also interview employees when on data-gathering site visits to the "establishments" included in its database. (An employer such as Basha's can operate numerous establishments, or worksites.)

Span's under-oath testimony was particularly relevant in offsetting one panelist's assertion that employers have no incentive to under-report because already, under current practices, US employers are likely to be investigated only once in 100 years.

Span's testimony made clear that fear of investigation is not the only reason some employers intentionally deflate worker injury counts at their establishments. Some employers, for instance, offer incentives and bonuses to company physicians, HR personnel, and others to turn in low counts. Others punish workers for injuries or related complaints. Others expect company physicians to certify workers to return to work before they are recovered, and others use worker team incentives that discourage one member from reporting an injury in order to preserve rewards for other team members.

Span stated that Basha's point system can penalize workers who report injuries, miss work because of injuries, seek ways to work with managers to minimize accidents, or attempt to organize the workplace as a way to ensure worker safety. He testified that points can be deducted for "infractions" such as reporting injuries, with consequences ranging from "light duty" to termination. An employee placed on "light duty" will almost certainly see his or her hourly rate slashed to minimum wage for the duration--regardless of cause of injury or seniority.

Span, testifing under oath, stated that when he and co-workers approached managers to institute a safety committee, office doors were literally slammed in their faces. Span is among several workers whose jobs at Basha's disappeared overnight through outsourcing when, they allege, they sought managers' cooperation in addressing worksite hazards ranging from inadequate training for operating heavy forklift equipment in high traffic areas to nails on floors. Span stated that it can take 5 to 6 months to become proficient in operating a forklift in warehouse-like conditions where other workers are in the immediate vicinity.

Span testified to toe amputations, smashed fingers, and other serious injuries at the Basha's distribution facility. He himself was injured in the immediate presence of his supervisor when debris from a truck he was unloading flew into his eye. Workers are not provided safety glasses at the Basha's facility. Span was given points for reporting his injury, and testified that it was not included on the establishment's OSHA log. He also alledged that the facility has even hired heavy equipment operators who don't have drivers' licenses.

The hearing noted that probably 90% of US employers try to provide accurate and fair workplace safety reports. Those who don't not only skew national data, but also are highly unlikely to address safety concerns. Even recording near misses and first-aid cases can help conscientious employers develop accident prevention methods. Employers who low-ball accident reports thus also low-ball national prevention strategies.

Unsafe workplace practices can also be seen as a kind of unfair "cost-savings" competition against others in the same industry.

For more on Basha's, see the "Hungry for Justice" campaign organized by Interfaith Worker Justice AZ, a coalition of people of faith to encourage safe, humane, fair, and healthy worker policies. (IWJ-AZ is not affiliated with any union.)

Message to AZ Progressive Bloggers

This morning I listened to an American father weep as he described getting one day's notice that his job would be outsourced. His crime? He had approached management three times asking to meet with a committee of workers to improve the safety conditions in the warehouse. This is a prominent employer. This is also a place where just one hour's sick leave, even with a doctor's written confirmation, results in "points" on your record, and where 16 points means you're fired.

My friends, low-paid Arizona workers are suffering in huge numbers, and it isn't only our undocumented workers. We may hear more about them, but worker exploitation and dehumanizing, dangerous workplaces are far more common here than the largely church-going, generally kind people of our state understand.

In this notoriously anti-union state, many employers, large, middling, and small, routinely engage in labor practices that would sicken a decent justice-oriented person. Withholding water from construction worksites. Cheating workers of earned wages. Punishing pro-workplace safety leaders by outsourcing their jobs on a day's notice. Subjecting workers to intimidation, harrassment, surveillance, and sabotage to suppress efforts to win fair and safe working conditions.

When these things happen, decent, hardworking people lose their lives, their limbs, their eyes, their wages, their homes, and even their families. Unsafe workplaces mean reckless operation of heavy equipment. Foundry furnaces operated by people without training, or furnaces with broken door hinges, resulting in a young man's death. Doubled-up work orders for "troublemakers"--that is, more work than one person can do in the allotted time--that result in exhaustion and serious accidents for themselves and their co-workers.

This doesn't lower our costs. On the contrary. It raises our costs in every way.

The problem is that most Arizonans do not know. We just don't know.

The reason is because there are no firewalls between media marketing and media editorial operations. Too often, the companies whose advertising dollars keep large state newspapers, magazines, and websites in business are also the companies that deliberately endanger and exploit their workers. They can do that because nobody knows.

There's no sunlight on exploited workers and filthy, unsafe workplaces.

It's a vicious circle that doesn't just corrupt management and exploit laborers. Generally, jurisdictions that discourage fair labor laws also discourage fair consumer protections. It doesn't take much imagination to see that a company that will cheat its stockroom workers of earned wages won't have any problem stocking expired or substandard merchandise. It can do those things because nobody knows.

Just as bloggers nationally force the mainstream media to cover news that is in the best interests of the people as a whole, so Arizona bloggers can help bring our state into the 21st Century with regard to workers' issues. We can help guide our citizens into a new future where employers and consumers alike understand that a healthy workplace ecology means a higher level of prosperity and quality for all.

We need to care about the fundamentals in our state: our workers, our workplaces, the wages our employers pay, and the benefits they provide, as well as workplace health and safety and product quality control standards. These are the building blocks of our own communities and of our own quality of life: When we take care of the fundamentals, everyone benefits. There's no such thing as half a boat sinking.

So I'm calling today for progressive Arizona bloggers to devote some of our energies to publicizing what's going on. I'm both asking for grassroots reporting, for organized networking, and for giving some of our Internet exposure to media releases that cover these issues. This information sharing on behalf of Arizona's low-wage families is our responsibility so long as we call ourselves "progressives.
Why? Because justice is a fundamental, non-negotiable progressive value.

If you are interested in being part of a statewide information/justice network for AZ's lower-tier workers and their families, please contact Pico. Let me know. Flip me an email at picodegallo@cox.net . In this way we can keep each other informed, with media releases, stories, and reports that more conservative mainstream media either block or ignore. Let's work together to raise Arizonans' awareness of the basics. It's not just about lower-tier workers. It's also about our families, our kids, and our collective future.