Project Censored Updates

On the surface this is a story about the untold daily horrors that still exist on today's assembly line. But this story is about more than a "bad-apple," runaway company abusing its workers -- though that, in and of itself, is a disturbingly commonplace scandal about which we hear little in the mainstream press. The broader significance is that firms like this can -- and do -- regularly get away with it, thanks to a remarkably anemic worker health and safety enforcement system. Companies can turn inspectors away and delay inspections for months. Fines are minimal and routinely reduced. And while business complains about government intervention in the workplace, the reality is that there are just 2,300 federal and state inspectors charged with monitoring 6.7 million work sites across the U.S. -- so firms like Titan can endanger workers with impunity.

Regrettably little has changed since this story appeared. The United Steelworkers of America continues to battle Titan, which has attempted to replace striking U.S. workers with laid-off workers from a Titan spin-off in Uruguay. On November 22, 2000, the Detroit city council declared the motor city a "Titan-free zone" to express its support for the workers.

The mainstream press has shown little interest in this story. I promoted the story to the Washington Post -- with local and national hooks -- to no avail.

There is a distressing lack of national groups focusing on injured workers. I encourage people interested in learning more to contact the United Steelworkers of America, Public Citizen, and the AFL-CIO, which studies worker injuries and deaths on the job, as well as government inspector per worker ratios.