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Newspaper Cited by OSHA - Workers Ask, "Where's the Beef?"
In a rare action against a newspaper, OSHA is urging the Buffalo News to make changes in its mailroom operations to reduce ergonomic problems.
Still, Larry Bordonaro, president of CWA Local 14169 (Buffalo Mailers Local 81), who called OSHA because of his members injured on the job, is not a happy camper.
“My members are suffering serious musculoskeletal disorders of the wrists and hands, and all OSHA did was give management a slap on the wrist,” Bordonaro says. Nothing has changed since the inspections, he adds.
OSHA inspectors, on the basis of a series of observations between August of 1997 and January of this year, found that members of CWA Local 14169 were being subjected to ergonomic stressors and design problems that increased the risk of injury to muscles, tendons and nerves of the hand and lower arm.
“This is a significant case,” according to David LeGrande, administrative assistant to Executive Vice President M. E. Nichols and director of the union’s occupational safety and health program, because it is believed this is the first time the agency has responded to ergonomic problems in the printing and distribution end of the newspaper business. Editorial workers and other front office personnel represented by The Newspaper Guild-CWA have called on OSHA previously, particularly since the computer invasion of newsrooms.
Bordonaro of Buffalo first alerted OSHA to the potential problems at the newspaper, owned by Warren Buffett, the billionaire investment mogul, late last summer. The local represents approximately 140 mailers at the newspaper.
After months of inspections and observations in the mailroom, David E. Boyes, the OSHA director in the Buffalo area, said that his inspectors found that problems at the paper originate when employees “use extended pinch grips with high finger force to place stacks of inserts into vertical feeders.”
Boyes notes, “This hazard is further increased by the current orientation of the employee in reference to the feeder which forces the employee to rotate the forearm and deviate the wrist while exerting finger force to hold and place the materials into the feeder.”
And, Boyes admits, in a detailed letter to management at the paper, the inspector uncovered a number of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) based on logs kept between 1994 and 1997. The logs show a high rate of MSDs, some of which were serious enough to require surgery.
Bordonaro says his own tabulations — backed up by an insurance company study commissioned by the newspaper, which later fired the insurance carrier — are that 18 workers suffered repetitive motion injuries over a six-month period. Four of them required surgeries.
However, since no OSHA standard applies, Boyes ultimately asked management to voluntarily eliminate or reduce the risk factors with progress reports to OSHA every 90 days until a comprehensive program has been implemented.
Bordonaro, however, says management has indicated it plans to ignore the recommendations and told him in one health and safety meeting, “We haven’t broken any laws.”
Bordonaro adds that in other instances where there were no injuries, OSHA has issued orders and fined management for violations. “Here we have injuries, yet compliance is on a voluntary basis. It doesn’t make sense,” the local president says.
Still, Larry Bordonaro, president of CWA Local 14169 (Buffalo Mailers Local 81), who called OSHA because of his members injured on the job, is not a happy camper.
“My members are suffering serious musculoskeletal disorders of the wrists and hands, and all OSHA did was give management a slap on the wrist,” Bordonaro says. Nothing has changed since the inspections, he adds.
OSHA inspectors, on the basis of a series of observations between August of 1997 and January of this year, found that members of CWA Local 14169 were being subjected to ergonomic stressors and design problems that increased the risk of injury to muscles, tendons and nerves of the hand and lower arm.
“This is a significant case,” according to David LeGrande, administrative assistant to Executive Vice President M. E. Nichols and director of the union’s occupational safety and health program, because it is believed this is the first time the agency has responded to ergonomic problems in the printing and distribution end of the newspaper business. Editorial workers and other front office personnel represented by The Newspaper Guild-CWA have called on OSHA previously, particularly since the computer invasion of newsrooms.
Bordonaro of Buffalo first alerted OSHA to the potential problems at the newspaper, owned by Warren Buffett, the billionaire investment mogul, late last summer. The local represents approximately 140 mailers at the newspaper.
After months of inspections and observations in the mailroom, David E. Boyes, the OSHA director in the Buffalo area, said that his inspectors found that problems at the paper originate when employees “use extended pinch grips with high finger force to place stacks of inserts into vertical feeders.”
Boyes notes, “This hazard is further increased by the current orientation of the employee in reference to the feeder which forces the employee to rotate the forearm and deviate the wrist while exerting finger force to hold and place the materials into the feeder.”
And, Boyes admits, in a detailed letter to management at the paper, the inspector uncovered a number of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) based on logs kept between 1994 and 1997. The logs show a high rate of MSDs, some of which were serious enough to require surgery.
Bordonaro says his own tabulations — backed up by an insurance company study commissioned by the newspaper, which later fired the insurance carrier — are that 18 workers suffered repetitive motion injuries over a six-month period. Four of them required surgeries.
However, since no OSHA standard applies, Boyes ultimately asked management to voluntarily eliminate or reduce the risk factors with progress reports to OSHA every 90 days until a comprehensive program has been implemented.
Bordonaro, however, says management has indicated it plans to ignore the recommendations and told him in one health and safety meeting, “We haven’t broken any laws.”
Bordonaro adds that in other instances where there were no injuries, OSHA has issued orders and fined management for violations. “Here we have injuries, yet compliance is on a voluntary basis. It doesn’t make sense,” the local president says.