Johnson Brass & Machine Foundry Inc., in Saukville, Wisconsin suffered a catastrophic, machinery failure this week when equipment sprayed molten metal on workers’ legs and backs, sending four to the hospital and injuring another four.
What sets this workplace accident apart from the other thousands of accidents that occur every year is the fact that the Lance Johnson, the company president, claimed President Barack Obama’s workplace safety inspectors were killing jobs and overburdening his business.
“I’ve never been audited by more government agencies in my life than I have under Obama,” he said in a Wall Street Journal story covering Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign.
According to the article, a major portion of the business community was supporting Romney over the incumbent president because of Obama’s “aggressive regulators.” Johnson had said, “I would have spent that on more equipment. That would have created more jobs down the line.”
OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration whose job is to monitor workplace safety, was giving him double audits, and for good reason, apparently. According to OSHA’s records, Johnson Brass & Machine Foundry Inc. was slammed with proposed penalties amounting to $9,638 in 2011 because they were exposing workers to apparent hazards.
The office of the Wisconsin state fire marshal is assisting the local police force in its ongoing investigation of the machinery failure’s cause. Federal officials with OSHA were also on the scene of the accident, as well.
The Huffington Post tried to reach Johnson through a spokesperson to ask him if he still believed that the governmental regulatory agencies were still too burdensome, but there was no immediate response.