Essay: McWane

McWane operated under disciplined management which allowed them to cut costs, lay off workers and pressed those who remained to work harder, longer and more efficiently but at the risk of their safety (A Dangerous Business — PBS Frontline). Disciplined management is a practice of aggressive cost-cutting unilaterally across all components of production. McWane reduced the workforce by nearly two-thirds while demanding increased productivity. The plant managers lived by their patriarch’s motto, “Time equals pipe and pipe equals money.” Each line worker was evaluated based on meeting their daily quotas. If the individual’s daily quota was not met, the employee would receive a disciplinary action. If employees received many disciplinary actions, they were on the verge of being fired – “death row.” This practice of determined discipline was not only used to increase and squeeze out productivity, but also to quash union strife and discourage medical insurance claims due to injuries. Costs related to employees, safety gloves to medical insurance, and environmental regulations were considered budgetary encumbrances to McWane. The McWane way is to place the culpability of all plant accidents on the employee’s inability and inefficiency as opposed to their own greed. Mr. Rester said, ”If he steps in a hole, you know, it’s because he wasn’t watching where he was going, not because there was a hole there that should’ve had a cover on it” (Transcript: It’s A Dangerous Business.) Inhumane practices would occur as well by supervisors curtailing the most basic human needs as it would impede production. When they were denied a restroom break, the employees had no choice but to urinate in their pants. McWane treated their employees like robots and machines. This practice blatantly ignores and evades the law and government regulation. And, this practice was reinforced at all employee levels—so much so that employees started to believe this was the only way. From a financial perspective, unfortunately, this practice is extremely effective in the short-term. Because of the reduction in costs, an organization is able to gain profits above its competitors. In the long-term, this practice will result in large sums of fines and convictions, not to mention the extreme number of casualties.

McWane’s practice of latitude and lack of any inventiveness to act ethically makes them a menace to society at large regardless of how many people they employ or how much money they make. The sheer nature of their philosophy of cutting down expenses as much as possible in order to maximize profitability with no regard to the consequences leads to conflict with internal and external stakeholders as well as the natural environment. The unsafe facilities and inhumane treatment of employees is extremely unethical. Not caring about the safety of people and making them believe they are responsible for accidents that occur because there aren’t any safety precautions is not only unethical but a serious form of mistreatment. The constant threat of employee turnover and being remanded to menial tasks if one files a claim are all tactics which are unethical.

McWane is constantly contributing money to organizations in need or building and naming a park in the communities where they have a plant facility. McWane acts as a good neighbor and citizen as they support the initiatives that give value to the communities they do business in. As an example, McWane managers and line employees, spend many hours giving back to the community where they work and live. They also contributed millions of dollars to philanthropic causes in an effort to better the community (Corporate Responsibility.)

Also, McWane invested more than $300 million in capital improvements and operations related to environmental compliance. These monies went towards air pollution control systems, storm-water collection and treatment systems. This equipment is intended to protect the environment (Corporate Responsibility.)

Most of us do not know that the US is facing a severe crisis with our aging water and sewer infrastructure due to corrosion. In the next 30 years or so, our cities will have to replace their infrastructure with new pipes that will transport clean water to our homes, businesses, parks, people, etc. McWane will serve an essential role during this process as they are a manufacturer of ductile iron pipes which do not corrode. They are already working with cities and municipalities in order to correct this before it becomes an unmanageable issue (Corporate Responsibility.)

McWane sustains itself as the fines they pay are a drop in the bucket when comparing the profits earned by their unethical practices. Government fines and formal charges against McWane and its managers resulted in approximately $23M. The laws are very relaxed and are on the side of the employer. If a privately-owned company can get away with paying a few dollars in fines but make billions of dollars in profits, greed will overshadow ethics. In order to stay in the good graces of society, McWane participates in various activities, as outlined in Q3 above, which may look like acts of social responsibility but in essence are not. McWane takes advantage of the “good” that comes from being socially responsible to cloak the unethical damage they do to its stakeholders. Installing the safe guard equipment’s in an organization reduces the number of deaths and injuries.