USX - USS DIVISION

According to U.S. Department of Labor enforcement records, USX - USS DIVISION — a industry sector 00 facility located at 400 STATE STREET, CLAIRTON, PA 15025 — was the subject of a formal OSHA inspection that resulted in 7 citation(s) and cumulative proposed penalties of $65,000.00. The inspection case was opened on 1987-09-02.

Federal investigators determined that one or more violations at this facility were committed willfully — meaning the employer either knowingly failed to comply with OSHA standards or acted with plain indifference to employee safety. Willful violations carry the highest penalty multipliers under the OSH Act.

State Context: Within PA, this facility's penalty places it at the 100th percentile among 84,409 inspected facilities. The statewide average penalty is $3,015.83.

Citation Analysis: The inspection produced 7 citations spanning 1 distinct OSHA regulatory standards. The citation breakdown includes: 6 willful — The employer intentionally and knowingly committed the violation, demonstrating either an intentional disregard for the requirements of the OSH Act or plain indifference to employee safety and health. 1 other-than-serious — The violation has a direct relationship to job safety and health but is unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm.

Enforcement Timeline: Citations were issued beginning December 10, 1986 with the latest abatement deadline set for October 28, 1987. Of the 7 total citations, 7 (100%) have been marked as abated in DOL records, indicating substantial compliance with corrective action requirements.

Penalty Assessment: The cumulative penalty of $65,000.00 reflects OSHA's gravity-based penalty calculation methodology, which considers the severity of potential injury, the probability of occurrence, the employer's size, good faith, and violation history. The per-citation average of $9,285.71 falls within the standard penalty range.

The 1987 enforcement action against USX’s Clairton facility represents a classic application of OSHA’s "egregious" penalty policy, targeting systemic failures in injury and illness recordkeeping. The citation of multiple Willful violations under 29 CFR 1904.2(a) signifies that management demonstrated a plain indifference to federal mandates or an intentional disregard for the accuracy of the OSHA 200 logs. For the workforce, these failures were not merely clerical; they obscured the true prevalence of occupational hazards, effectively blinding both labor and management to emerging injury trends and preventing the implementation of targeted corrective actions. The $65,000 penalty—extremely high for the late 1980s—reflects a punitive approach to what OSHA identified