Nassco Faces 451 OSHA Charges of Safety Violations

In what federal safety officials called their largest case in California, the National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. was cited Wednesday for 451 instances of workplace safety violations uncovered in a “wall-to-wall” inspection at the shipyard earlier this year.

The citations, which include 11 instances of willful, or intentional, violations, came in the second review by inspectors with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration since a crane accident at the shipyard in July that killed six workers and injured six others.

The earlier inspection netted 19 alleged violations of federal safety rules, which the company is currently appealing.

The latest round of citations allege that Nassco committed a wide range of violations, such as exposing workers to falling loads from cranes and impaired crane operator visibility. The citations amount to a total of $72,300 in proposed penalties.

“This was a major inspection,” said John Hermanson, OSHA area director in San Diego. “We looked at everything in the shipyard for safety violations. We toured the entire yard, the whole facility.

“And this case speaks for itself--with this many violations, many of them willful and a lot more of them serious violations,” he said.

Hermanson said OSHA has never uncovered this many violations at any work site in California since the federal agency assumed jurisdiction in the state last summer. And he said he hadn’t heard of cases comparable to the Nassco violations that were revealed before last summer, when safety reviews were conducted by a state inspection agency.

“This demonstrates OSHA’s strong commitment to enforce worker safety rules,” he said.

Officials at Nassco said there were 451 instances of 110 separate types of violations, and that the company is reviewing the citations before deciding whether to appeal the penalties.

Fred Hallett, Nassco vice president for finance, said the company has already corrected 75 percent of the problems and is waiting on supplies to correct the remainder.

Safety ‘Predominant Issue’

“We are committed to correcting all of them,” he said. “Safety is a predominant issue for Nassco.

“We dedicate a large amount of our efforts to safety,” he added. “We have a full-time safety department, including three union representatives. The company provides the financial resources, but the employees have to make it work.”

However, union officials said they have raised safety concerns for some time, but that it was only after OSHA entered the shipyard that their concerns were taken seriously.

“We’ve been complaining about a lot of this stuff for years,” said Bud Michel, a business representative for the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 389.

“Just by nature, the shipbuilding and ship repair business is unsafe. We have full-time safety representatives, safety committees and safety meetings,” Michel said.

“And a lot of these things they were cited for have always come up and nothing was ever done,” he said. “Now all of a sudden they’re cited by OSHA and they’re correcting the problems. But we’ve been complaining about them for a long, long time.”

Willful Violations

The 11 willful violations cited by OSHA call for $34,000 in proposed penalties. These violations are ones in which an employer either knew that a condition constituted a violation or was aware that a hazardous condition existed and made no reasonable effort to correct it.

The operation of cranes was at the center of some of the willful violations for which Nassco was cited. For instance, the report says:

- Workers were exposed to the hazard of falling loads when crane hooks were modified without first determining the effect on the hooks’ structural integrity.

- A crane operator’s visibility from a floating dry dock was impaired in that he could not at all times see the suspended hook block.

- Rail tracks between two berths were cracked in three places and not securely attached to the supporting surface, which could cause the crane to derail, especially while carrying a heavy load.

The company was cited for 278 instances of serious violations, in which a substantial probability exists that death or serious physical harm could result and the employer knew or should have known of the hazard. A total of $38,000 in penalties was proposed for the serious violations.

These violations included cracked, dirty and painted windows on a crane that impaired the operator’s visibility; open-sided platforms and floors; missing guardrails; a lack of guards on machines, belts and pulleys, and electrical violations.

Penalties of $300

In addition, there were 162 instances of other-than-serious violations, with penalties of $300.

In responding to some of the alleged violations, Hallett said that poor visibility for the crane operator was actually a design problem created by the crane manufacturer. He said Nassco has now asked the manufacturer to install another window “so the visibility is clearly not obstructed.”

And he said that crane rails are constantly being maintained and repaired. “We have continual problems with crane rails,” he said. “We get after that and keep after that.”

Hallett said other safety problems have already been cleared up, such as workers not wearing safety glasses and hard hats.

“I would estimate--and I see all of the accident reports--that 20% of the people in our medical office are there for foreign objects in the eye,” Hallett said. “These are preventable if you wear glasses. So we put on a campaign to make sure people use their glasses and don’t take them off.

“And hard hats. So if the guy working above you accidentally drops his wrench,” Hallett said, “it hits your hard hat and not your head.”

Accident Prompted Inspections

The OSHA inspections were prompted by the July crane accident, which occurred when a steel basket suspended from a crane fell 30 feet to the deck of a ship. The federal inspectors entered the job site and found 19 alleged violations, including seven willful violations, and proposed penalties totaling $62,800.

In January, OSHA launched the second inspection, in which six inspectors spent two weeks at the shipyard and uncovered the 451 violations alleged Wednesday. Nassco now has 15 days to accept the OSHA findings, to pay the penalties and correct the problems, or to file an administrative challenge to the rulings.

Meanwhile, a separate review of the crane fatalities and injuries is continuing at the San Diego County District Attorney’s office.

Spokesman Steve Casey said deputy district attorneys are reviewing Nassco and OSHA files to determine if there was any potential criminal liability in the crane accident.