On Nov. 4, North Carolinians will decide the face they see in elevators for the next four years.
In addition to voting for governor and filling one U.S. Senate seat, ballots will be open for a number of state and local positions, including commissioner of labor.
In the race for the office charged with enforcing workplace safety regulations and ensuring “the health, safety and general well-being of North Carolina’s citizens,” two-term incumbent Cherie K. Berry, a republican from Newton, faces Democratic candidate Mary Fant Donnan of Winston-Salem.
Of issue in the election are concerns raised by an Oct. 6 article from the Charlotte Observer. The Observer’s study found that companies whose executives and managers have collectively donated more than half of Berry’s $76,392 in campaign contributions for the current election cycle have been inspected by the Department of Labor since 2001, when Berry’s first term began.
Of these companies, some received reductions in proposed fines for safety violations by as much as 93 percent, with an overall cut of more than 70 percent.
In particular, the Observer highlighted Pike Electric, an electrical contracting company whose employees and political action committee, it said, had donated approximately $80,000 to Berry’s three campaigns, and had seen a case where proposed fines dropped from $56,700 to $3,200. The actual figure on contributions, according to North Carolina State Board of Elections records, is $81,100, contributed in 43 individual donations.
The total contributed by Pike in the current election cycle, which began in 2005, is $3,500 from seven donations. The company declined to comment on this story.
Also mentioned was House of Raeford Farms, whose representatives have donated at least $10,750 to Berry’s campaigns since 2000, through 11 individual contributions. Fines for the company on one occasion dropped from $117,000 to $26,500.
“A lot of that information was misconstrued,” said Dolores Quesenberry, communications director for the state Department of Labor. “Commissioner Berry has only ever been present for one settlement negotiation, and that was in the case involving West Pharmaceuticals. She wanted to make sure part of the settlement would be paid to the emergency responders at the scene, and others in the community who helped that day.”
The incident Quesenberry referred to is the Jan. 29, 2003, explosion at the West Pharmaceutical Plant in Kinston, North Carolina, which destroyed half of the 150,000-square-foot facility. Six people were killed, 36 were injured, windows shattered as far as half a mile away, and the blast could be heard as many as 25 miles into the distance.
West Pharmaceuticals paid $100,000 in fines for the 86 violations the Department of Labor found in its investigation, and an additional $300,000 as part of a settlement to be distributed amongst local fire, rescue and other aid services.
“That was my participation in the negotiations,” Berry said. “Jaycee Burn Center got $75,000. One fire department got $25,000. I wanted to make sure that money got to those who needed it and were entitled to it.
“Another thing that’s been reported but is misleading is the settlement with Pike Electric. It was reached before I took office. I merely enforced what had already been agreed upon.”
Berry feels that media coverage of her activities has cherry-picked details to be highlighted or suppressed, she said. “I just try not to make a big deal of it. They’re going to print the stories they want to print. Something I’ve yet to see the coverage bring up is that, by statute, there are reductions for fines written into the law. One of them is in the size of the company: how many employees it has. Another, the gravity of the incident. Another, the cooperation of the company. Also, do they have a safety and health committee in place? There are so many things they can get a reduction for.”
Something else that’s been left out, Berry said, is that those reductions are performed by the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) compliance officer who investigated the company. Berry described the OSHA official on a case as the person “who has a relationship with that employer and understands the situation.
“I’m not part of that process,” she said.
Of media outlets she believes are unfavorable toward her, Berry said, “They’re fine reporting that fines for workplace violations in North Carolina are less than half the national average, but they don’t mention that we are one of 26 states that run our own OSHA program. Our reasons for reduction mirror those at the federal level, while we have higher percentages for those reductions.
“The dollar amount of fines are not arbitrary numbers,” Berry added. “They come from a standardized system based in legislation, not in my campaign.”
“We didn’t actually put forth any suggested interpretation for the reader,” Rick Thames, editor of the Charlotte Observer, said of the article. “What we did with the article was put forth a set of facts and leave the reader with the opportunity to use their own good judgment to decide if there’s something there to be concerned about.”
With regard to settlement negotiations, Thames said, “We even said in the article that Berry mentioned not being involved.” He then added, “I would also suggest that not being in the room when negotiations occur doesn’t mean the effect you have on the department … ends at those walls.”
Berry acknowledged that there likely is a degree of subjectivity involved in fine assessments, but added that this is all part of the compliance officers’ investigation. “If the compliance officer says that the employer was cooperative, went overboard in doing everything we asked, welcomed us into their place; then that has an influence on them,” she said. “As I mentioned, there can be a reduction for cooperation. I’m not there, so I don’t know what the relationship was. I rely on my safety and health professionals to make those judgments. So far, they haven’t let me down.”
Asked whether campaign contributions might influence those conducting the investigations, Berry responded, “My compliance officers have no idea who contributes to my campaign, unless, as individuals, they choose to look it up themselves.”
“The current commissioner has a lot of political experience and should have known this would be an issue,” said Mary Fant Donnan, Berry’s opponent in the upcoming election. “It’s true that those things are supposed to be handled largely by the investigators, but I have to ask: If she’s never involved in any of that, what is she actually doing when she’s at the office? … what are we paying you for?”
Donnan also questioned Berry’s past claims that workplace injuries and fatalities have been reduced since her time in office began. Specifically, she suggested that companies that have received reductions have been repeat offenders, and that a decrease in fatalities is more likely due to changes in industry rather than an effect of leadership at the Department of Labor.
“What about all the other things that have happened in the last seven years? If there’s less industry in North Carolina, there’s less workers. If there’s less workers, there would be less fatalities even if nothing had changed in the quality of safety.”
UNCC Student Body President Tim Ernst offered neither support nor condemnation of Berry. He commented, however, that he feels “this situation highlights the sad state of American politics.” Ernst’s vice president, Jacob Pierce, declined to comment on the basis of being unfamiliar with the Oct. 6 Observer article.
For more information on the North Carolina Department of Labor, visit NC Labor.
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