The Nation - News from Nov. 3, 1988

Questioning the commitment to safety at the John Morrell & Co. meatpacking operations, more than 100 members of Congress asked the chairman of the company that owns Morrell to spell out what safety improvements were planned its Sioux Falls, S.D., plant. Morrell was fined $4.3 million last week by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for conditions at that plant. It was the largest fine against a single employer in OSHA’s 17-year history. Morrell is owned by American Financial Corp., of which financier Carl Lindner is chairman. In separate letters--one signed by 110 members of the House of Representatives, the other by 11 senators--Lindner was urged to take a more “active, legitimate and sincere leadership role in guaranteeing improved worker-safety conditions at the John Morrell plant.”