Precision Castparts was among Oregon’s biggest companies before its $37 billion sale to Warren Buffett’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, in 2015.Photo by Mark Graves/The Oregonian

A report issued earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found welders working at a Precision Castparts Corp. factory near Portland faced elevated risks of metals and noise exposure and hadn’t been properly trained in safety equipment and procedures.

The analysis, conducted at employees’ request amid a contentious effort to unionize the company’s welders, was limited in scope and did not attempt to determine whether Precision Castparts welders faced widespread health risks or specific illnesses resulting from their exposure. However, the analysis indicated that a number of welders may have experienced hearing loss as a result of their work.

Precision Castparts officials said the company voluntarily participated in the federal study, had already taken steps to improve welder safety before inspectors visited its Portland site, and made additional changes after reading the report. The company insisted its workplace is safe.

“Safety is the highest priority at PCC, and we communicate the importance of safety and our expectations to our people beginning on the first day of employment,” the Portland company said in a written statement.

Yet the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company 11 times in the past five years for workplace safety violations, with total penalties of nearly $50,000. None of the OSHA violations ranks among the largest penalties the agency has issued in recent years and the total includes violations in operations unrelated to welding. Some, though, echo the issues raised in the federal study.

The CDC study examined conditions inside the company’s buildings and did not address broader environmental concerns about Precision Castparts’ effects on surrounding neighborhoods.

Current and former welders told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Precision Castparts was slow to respond to their concerns and failed to notify them of potential exposure to hazardous materials. They say some welding supervisors hired from outside the industry lacked the knowledge and experience to safely manage the shop floor and assert relations with the company have grown more combative over the last decade.

“The culture there, it used to be great. It turned into us versus them,” said Josh Spair, 35, a former Precision Castparts welder whose complaints to the CDC helped trigger the inspection.

Precision Castparts was among Oregon’s biggest companies before its $37 billion sale to Warren Buffett’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, in 2015. It was Buffett’s largest deal ever and the largest sum ever paid for an Oregon company.

Precision Castparts makes metal components used in airplanes, generators, rockets and medical devices at facilities in the Portland area, and at affiliate companies all over the world – from the Czech Republic to China.

Welders asked the CDC to assess whether their work at a Precision Castparts’ facility on Johnson Creek Boulevard in Milwaukie was exposing them to unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium, a toxic compound associated with industrial metalwork.

The government inspection did not find unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium, but did find other issues:

“I would hope that anybody reading this report who works at that place would have some level of concern based on the sampling data,” said Karl Feldmann, who helped lead the federal study for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Of particular concern, he said, was potential nickel exposure and the risk of hearing loss from high noise levels. Feldmann characterized the issues as worrisome but not an emergency and said the primary takeaway is that there are fairly straightforward safety measures Precision Castparts could take to protect its workers.

“Am I really alarmed? Certainly not,” Feldmann said. “But there is room for improvement.”

Several current and former welders privately expressed concern to The Oregonian/OregonLive about the company’s safety practices, citing metals fumes, lack of communication, unsafe equipment and a perceived resistance from Precision Castparts to employees’ concerns.

Most welders asked not to be identified by name to protect their current jobs or future employment opportunities. Spair, who no longer works at Precision Castparts, said he became alarmed after developing rashes on his hands and sores inside his nose and mouth.

Looking back, Spair said he believes his ailments resulted from toxic dust he encountered while welding. He said Precision Castparts did not inform him that the metals he was welding could expose him to hexavalent chromium when heated and that dust was pervasive in his work environment.

In a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive, the company responded that it informs new employees of “potential exposures” and conducts “routine industrial hygiene testing” for welders, posting results in work areas for employees to see. The company again stressed that its welders’ exposure to metals falls below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.

The CDC report cites two levels of safety standards. One is established by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and derived from that agency’s policy recommendations. The other standard is used by the federal OSHA to enforce existing safety regulations.

In practice, the institute’s guidelines tend to be stricter than OSHA standards. The CDC report found Precision Castparts in compliance with OSHA standards but said that nickel and noise levels sometimes exceeded the separate NIOSH recommendations.

Spair also said air conditioning inside the welding area allowed dust to linger. And he said the company resisted introducing ventilation systems into individual welding booths despite complaints from the welders.

In its statement, Precision Castparts said it purchased ventilation systems in 2017 “in response to concerns raised by a few welders” and retrained workers on using them after the CDC report. The CDC report, though, says those ventilation systems were not available to workers at the time of its 2018 inspections and specifically recommended they be installed.

Welders told the CDC they were permitted to eat and drink in their work area, potentially raising their exposure risk to toxic materials. Spair, who worked at Precision Castparts intermittently from 2008 until 2018, said the company had long permitted food and liquids in the welding booths but eventually banned the practice. Precision Castparts said it’s against longstanding policy to eat or drink in welding booths.

Spair and other welders also said they believed their supervisors’ professional backgrounds hadn’t prepared them for the trade and its safety standards, noting one in particular who formerly managed acclaimed Portland food stand Pok Pok another who was a supervisor at Dave’s Killer Bread. Spair and others said the company repeatedly prioritized speed and spent little time on safety practices.

“It’s more about throughput than quality, than safety,” Spair said. “Get it done. Hopefully you don’t cut your finger off.”

In a prepared statement, Precision Castparts insisted that safety is the top priority for the company and its managers, adding that it regularly audits safety practices, informs new employees of “potential exposures”and gives employees the authority to stop work they believe is unsafe. The company said its injury rate is less than half the state average and one-third of the national rate.

In response to a question about supervisors from the food and restaurant sectors running welding operations, Precision Castparts acknowledged it does hire managers from other industries but only if they are qualified. The company did not specify what qualifications in seeks.

The CDC report focused only on potential hazards to employees inside the factory and made no effort to ascertain whether the company’s operations present any risk to nearby residents.

An analysis last year by The Oregonian/OregonLive found three Precision Castparts factories in the Portland area with emissions that could potentially raise cancer risks for nearby residents. The company said at the time that recently installed pollution controls would reduce the risk.

A 2016 state report found elevated levels of toxic metals near Precision Castparts’ Southeast Portland factory. But state officials did not link those pollutants directly to Precision Castparts and said the risk to the public was minimal.

The CDC conducted its workplace study amid a effort to unionize Precision Castparts welders, which the company stridently opposed. In 2017, Welders voted to form a union but bargaining over a contract has been held up while the company contested elements of the union drive to federal labor officials.

The union wasn’t directly involved in soliciting the CDC study. But Billy Anderson, organizer for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the report’s findings echo issues his organization has heard from prospective union members for some time.

“Safety and health has always been one of the main concerns out there,” Anderson said, “particularly with respect to the welders.

-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

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