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corporate accountability

Mark DeSaulnier on Profits, Workplace Safety and Corporate Accountability

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Representative Mark DeSaulnier has argued that corporate priorities can put workers and communities at risk when investor returns take precedence over safety. The title’s wording is an editorial summary, not a verified quotation from him. In a 2022 House hearing, DeSaulnier connected that argument to fatal refinery incidents in his district; an archived Department of Labor memo offers separate historical examples of safety enforcement in mining.

What did DeSaulnier say about profits and safety?

At a September 15, 2022 House hearing about fossil-fuel industry profits, DeSaulnier said his district had five refineries and recounted fatal incidents involving constituents. He described one constituent’s death after a refinery explosion and a separate incident in which four constituents died. He said a report following a facility shutdown described the corporate culture as responsible, and offered his view of the underlying priority: “It is, in my view, the priority of return on investment to investors rather than the community and their work force.” Read the hearing transcript.

These are DeSaulnier’s recollections and characterization during a hearing, not an independent investigation of the incidents. The transcript also records his account of authoring an industrial safety ordinance while serving on the county board. He said that over the next 22 years the county had no further fatality or emergency-room incident. The excerpt does not independently assess the ordinance’s effects or establish that it alone caused that outcome.

A separate statement about the workforce

In a September 5, 2018 press release about a labor and wages initiative involving DeSaulnier, Representatives Debbie Dingell, Mark Pocan and Donald Norcross, DeSaulnier said: “Today’s culture of unchecked corporate power and maximizing profits has come at the expense of America’s workforce.” The statement expresses his broader political argument; it does not establish that every effort to increase profits reduces safety. Read the release.

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What historical safety evidence adds

An archived U.S. Department of Labor exit memo describes the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, which killed 29 miners. The memo reports that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) found Massey Energy had promoted and enforced a workplace culture that valued production and profit over safety before the disaster. That is the memo’s account of MSHA’s findings about this mine and company, not proof of a universal relationship between profit-seeking and unsafe work.

The same memo provides historical figures, each tied to its own period:

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  • It says 14,000 workers were killed on the job annually before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1971—about 38 per day.
  • By the memo’s reference period, workplace deaths had fallen by nearly two-thirds while the national workforce was almost twice as large as before OSHA. This is the memo’s historical comparison, not a current fatality rate.
  • For mining, the memo reports a 40 percent reduction in violations among the 200 mines cited for the most serious violations between 2010 and 2015, associated with MSHA’s Pattern of Violations reforms.

The memo presents enforcement as part of prevention and rejects the idea that safety and profits must be opposites. Its figures describe past periods, not current workplace conditions or a controlled comparison across industries. Read the archived Department of Labor memo.

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How to assess claims about corporate priorities

“Profits versus safety” is a useful way to frame a policy concern, but it can obscure the practical questions behind it. DeSaulnier’s refinery account, the DOL memo’s mining example and the historical debate over OSHA enforcement concern different industries, periods and kinds of evidence. The 2005 Congressional Record documents positions in a past debate; it is not a guide to current law or current agency practice. Read the 2005 Congressional Record.

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To evaluate a specific company, incident or proposed policy, consider four questions:

  • Prevention: What safety standards and site-specific rules are in place, and how are hazards identified before an incident?
  • Enforcement: Are inspections, corrective orders and penalties credible and timely? The DOL memo describes a specific mining enforcement outcome, not a result that can be assumed for every sector.
  • Worker and community input: Can employees and nearby residents raise concerns and get a meaningful response?
  • Production and investment decisions: Do schedules, staffing, maintenance budgets and performance targets leave room to stop work or address hazards?

These questions help identify how incentives and safeguards interact without assuming that every company, industry or regulation produces the same result. The sources cited here do not establish which approach works best in every workplace.

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