South Carolina fails to adequately inspect workplaces that are the most dangerous for employees and that employ the largest number of African Americans, according to a complaint filed Tuesday by a union leading a strike in Columbia.
An estimated 416,000 South Carolinians are employed in the state’s food and beverage, general merchandise, food service and warehouse industries, and a disproportionate number of them are Black, according to the complaint. But between 2018 and 2022, the agency responsible for those workers’ safety conducted only two scheduled inspections of facilities in those industries combined.
In contrast, during the same period, the S.C. Occupational Health and Safety Administration conducted 499 planned inspections of construction and specialty trade contracting industry, where Black South Carolinians are underrepresented, the union said.
This disparity prompted the Tuesday complaint with the federal Department of Labor by the Union of Southern Service Workers, who helped coordinate a three-state walkout Tuesday, which included a protest at a Columbia area warehouse owned by Ryder, a trucking and logistics company.
“There is a historic disrespect that Black communities have suffered when it comes to working conditions in the United States,” said Eric Frumin, the health and safety director at the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition formed by four national unions, who helped draft the complaint. “Bad working conditions for Black people didn’t end with the Emancipation Proclamation.”
The numbers contained in the complaint allege shortcomings by OSHA in South Carolina, which was the first state to receive federal approval to administer its own OSHA plan in 1972.
The complaint, which alleges violations of federal civil rights law, says that the majority of SC OSHA’s investigations are concentrated in the construction and specialty trades industry, which have lower rates of injury than all but one of the four industries that employ higher percentages of Black workers. The exception was the food service industry.
Where Black South Carolinians make up just 17 percent of the the construction and contracting industries’ workforce — compared to just under 27 percent of the state’s population — they make up almost 42 percent of the total labor force in the food and beverage, general merchandisers, food services and warehouse industries.
The complaint requests an investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in order to bring SC OSHA into “full compliance by requiring the agency to comprehensively revise its criteria for scheduling programmed inspections.”
A representative of South Carolina OSHA said the agency has received the complaint and was in the process of reviewing it.
South Carolina OSHA, a division of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, employs 18 inspectors, six of whom are still in training, to cover 2.3 million workers statewide, according to the agency.
This has allowed reports of alleged violations to slip through the cracks, according to Frumin. The complaint gives two examples of what the union calls inadequate responses to complaints filed by individual workers.
One worker at a Columbia McDonald’s described how she was required to work, while pregnant, in the kitchen without water breaks in August after the air conditioning went out. OSHA declined to visit the site after determining the worker’s complaint “failed to comply with technical requirements,” according to the complaint, which alleges violations of Title 6 of federal Civil Rights law.
In a separate incident, a worker at an Irmo Dollar General reported to S.C. OSHA that emergency exits were blocked and the store was infested with mold and rats, according to the union’s complaint. But S.C. OSHA closed the report after the company submitted a response with pictures of a different location.
The State has reached out to McDonald’s and Dollar General for comment.
By many standards, South Carolina’s OSHA has fallen behind federal inspectors, according to the complaint.
South Carolina inspectors found that 62.7% of the workplaces they inspected were in compliance, almost twice the rate found by federal inspectors. The union notes that an annual evaluation by federal OSHA inspectors urged South Carolina to ensure “inspection resources are spent in workplaces that are exposing workers to hazards by implementing corrective actions in the most hazardous worksites.”
Moreover, “SC OSHA’s neglect of these disproportionately black worker-staffed industries is not typical of other states,” according to the complaint.
In a comparison with six states, including North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, South Carolina OSHA was last in programmed inspections of food and beverage retail, general merchandise retail, food service, and warehousing. South Carolina only conducted two scheduled inspections in these industries — less than one inspection for every 100,000 employees in the four industries. In comparison, Tennessee, the next worst performer, conducted 34 programmed inspections, almost eight per 100,000 workers, in those industries.
Last summer, North Carolina increased its fines for OSHA violations. But in August, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, along with the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, announced that the agency was suing the federal government for requiring states to increase penalties for violations.
At the time, McMaster applauded the state’s plan for “consistently outperforming federally-run plans and helping to foster safe work environments for our people — all while maintaining our reputation as a state where companies want to do business.”
Safety leads worker concerns in walkout
The consequences of nearly absent enforcement have been felt throughout the industry as health and safety has emerged at the forefront of a recent one-day strike in Columbia.
At a rally Tuesday, striking employees at a Ryder warehouse and their supporters chanted “safe jobs now!” and called on OSHA to protect them in the workplace.
“South Carolina OSHA has to take accountability for our safety,” said Sersie Cobb, a Ryder employee who was participating in Tuesday’s walkout, which was organized by USSW. Like almost two-thirds of all warehouse workers, Cobb is Black, and he says he has experienced the impact of less scrutiny from regulators on his employer.
Workers at Ryder described blocked fire exits, being accidentally sprayed in the eyes with hydraulic fluid by equipment and a lack of safety equipment, with Ryder only providing workers with a high visibility vest and a voucher for steel toed shoes. Workers have to buy their own hard hats and safety goggles, Cobb said. He says that he has filed a complaint with OSHA but has not seen any changes from management.
“We are aware of the allegations and are working closely with OSHA. The health, safety, and security of our employees is a top priority,” said Amy Federman, vice president of corporate communications at Ryder.
At the walkout, Ryder workers were joined by workers from fast food and convenience stores around Columbia, among other establishments. Tuesday’s walkout also coincided with rallies and walkouts in Durham, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia.
While the construction industry is still South Carolina’s leading cause of work-related deaths — reporting 10 in 2021 — the industries represented at the walkout see more injuries per workers.
In 2021, employees in general merchandising were injured at a rate of 5.6 per 100,000 workers, warehouse workers at 5.5 and food and beverage workers at 4.5, according to the complaint. In comparison, 2.5 construction workers per 100,000 were injured along with 2.8 workers in the specialty trades.
A historically narrow understanding of job hazards can also have serious repercussions for workers, according to Frumin of the Strategic Organizing Center.
“There are hazards all of the time that can also be very serious, like a back injury, and that can throw a worker out of the workforce for life,” Frumin said.
In front of the plant, fast food workers said their stores were frequently understaffed, with blocked emergency exits and no first aid training or equipment.
Fast food workers showed their arms speckled with dozens of burns caused by grease fryers. They described how the equipment was regularly operated without splash guards, and the workers described being issued thin latex gloves that only covered their hands.
“It’s an incredible disservice to the people of SC, and the employers who are trying to do a good job,” Frumin said.