The company and OSHA, the US safety regulator, agreed to a settlement on 9 March 2006 that is likely to become final on 8 April 2006.
OSHA cited a number of safety breaches at the facility in an inspection period between April and October 2005, including two ‘willful’ violations. OSHA documented that an access platform stopped 12 feet (4m) from the crane cab it is meant to reach. OSHA also cited two cases where cranes were used before hazards that had been found in a recent inspection could be corrected. OSHA also cited the company for not guarding a crane runway, and other non-crane related safety breaches.
In November, Alstom contested all of the citations, and then began mandatory negotiations with OSHA.
Part of the reason why OSHA reduced the fine appears to be an agreement formed between Alstom and its labour union, the Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, to improve safety. The agreement sets out plans for training in accident analysis, job hazard analysis, workplace inspection and lessons learned, and also says that both parties want to participate in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programme and make the site an OSHA Voluntary Protection Programme Site.
In March, the company appointed former Universal Instruments CEO Ian De Souza the new managing director of the site, following a few months of turnover in the position, according to an article in the Hornell, New York Evening Tribune newspaper.
The company employs 1,100 people at its Hornell plant, according to the newspaper.
