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THE fifth estate: A Toxic Company
The McWane Story> Printer Version
Broadcast
January 8, 2003
THE
MCWANE STORY
McWane Inc. of Birmingham, Alabama, is one of America’s largest
privately owned corporations. Their corporate philosophy and hard nosed
management practices have been blamed for an extraordinary history of
work place injuries and fatalities in their foundries.
McWane companies manufacture cast iron pipes and various components for municipal, commercial and residential water and waste-disposal services. Their operating revenues are estimated to be worth between US$1.5 and $2 billion a year.
In the U.S., since 1995, they’ve been guilty of more than 400 health and safety violations in workplaces they own in 10 states. Since 1995, 4,600 workers have been injured in their foundries.
In 1999, four years after McWane bought a pipe foundry in Tyler, Texas, U.S. safety inspectors described conditions there in Dickensian terms in an official report: “Many workers have scars or disfigurations which are noticeable from several feet away. Burns and amputations are frequent… Throughout the plant in supervisors offices and on bulletin boards next to production charts is posted in big orange letters: REDUCE MAN HOURS PER TON.”
Through takeovers and mergers since 1989, McWane have won control of the lion’s share of the Canadian market for cast iron pipes and related products. While there have been no workplace fatalities in McWane Canadian operations, one of three foundries they own in Quebec had the worst incidence of on-the-job injuries in the entire McWane family of companies in 2001, according to internal company documents. (read more about McWane in Canada)
The Canadian market is worth an estimated $100 million a year and Canadian firms have complained that McWane marketing tactics unfairly restrict competition and distort the market place --- to the ultimate detriment of consumers and taxpayers. Canada’s federal competition bureau is currently pursuing a complaint of coercive practices that compel customers to buy McWane products exclusively.
In 1995 they were fined $2.5 million after an effort to force a major American competitor to stop selling pipe in Canada. Bill Miller, a senior lawyer with the Canadian Competition Bureau, refers to their behaviour as “lawless”, in an interview with the fifth estate. (read documents that the fifth estate uncovered about McWane's business practices in Canada)
In this co-production with PBS Frontline and The New York Times, a former U.S. health and safety regulator refers to McWane as a “rogue” company. (for more about see below)
McWane officials
declined requests for interviews but responded to comments and criticisms
in written correspondence with journalists who worked on this project.
(read
their responses)
For more detailed information about McWane read the New
York Times report called Dangerous
Business. The article is accompanied by a multimedia Flash
presentation. It will be published in three parts, starting on Wednesday
January 8.
PBS's Frontline
has produced an in-depth companion web site for their documentary, A
Dangerous Business. Read profiles
of American victims injured or killed working at the US McWane plants
and find out more about McWane's aggressive management style called 'disciplined
management practices.'
the
fifth estate: A Toxic Company
The
McWane Inc Story - The Canadian Connection
-
The Original Documents
After the Story -
Resources
Originally Broadcast January 8, 2003
on the fifth estate
Updated on March 3, 2004