I am an employee at Wooden which is a large Factory in Littlebury and I have been presented with a difficult decision. One of my co-workers has told me about the ongoing situation regarding the enormous amount of wood dust at the factory and how she saw three quick sparks in the air while she was operating her machine. Now, she is new at the factory and has been working at the factory for only two weeks which makes her afraid to speak up about the situation with anyone past the Section Manager which she did report the incident to. The Section Manager did not pay too much attention to her and told her not to worry about it. Now, the pressure is on me to make a decision on whether or not to report this to someone who will take care of the problem.
I decide to speak to several people at the factory before I report the issues at the factory. I spoke to the Safety Coordinator and he basically told me to sit tight and wait until next month when he schedules a major clean up at the factory. I also speak to the Area manager which he tells me to not worry about anything since he has a plethora of experience in the field and recognizes a dangerous situation when he sees one. Speaking to Karen next provides me with a sense of urgency because she tells me she is nervous and how she saw a plant back in her hometown explode due to wood dust. Lastly, I speak to the owner of the factory and he tells me I cannot prove there is a real hazard in the company and that he will consider anything I say as slander to him and his company as well. He also tells me that he does take too well to disloyal employees which makes me hesitant to say anything.
After long and careful thinking I made my decision on how to approach this scenario. I strongly believe that reporting this situation to OSHA just as my co-worker suggested is the right thing to do. Despite what the Safety Coordinator, Area Manager and even the owner of the plant tells me