Escanaba Shipyard Fined By OSHA

Escanaba’s Basic Marine Shipyard has been fined $243,000 for 18 safety violations.

Scott Allen of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration says that the company has a repeated poor safety record, and does not care about the safety of its workers. The OSHA Region Five office in Chicago conducted the inspections a few months ago.

Amongst the violations: not meeting respiratory protection standards, “struck-by” hazards, and falls from trips from unguarded manholes.

Allen says that crane slings were not inspected every three months as required, and inspection records were not properly maintained. He says Basic Marine was cited in 2011 for safety problems and a worker lost an arm in 2008 after an accident there.

Besides the fines, OSHA is putting Basic Marine in the agency’s “Severe Violator Enforcement Program”. That will mean more unannounced inspections of the facility in the future.

Basic Marine spokesperson Terrie Peters said in a statement that they believe the findings in the report are inaccurate and are being contested as allowed per OSHA’s procedures.