I was at a customer's today that makes large fiberglass tubing and flanges, up to 36in. in diameter and larger. The fumes and dust is usually atrocious but I noticed that the plant seemed almost empty of people and only 3 or 4 people were working on making pipe, usually this plant has more than 30 people busily mixing resins and grinding on flanges, gluing pipe, etc. The owner had a meeting last week and scheduled the bulk of people to be at the sub-plant down the street (that OSHA doesn't know about) and cut production down to %15 of the norm for the duration of OSHA's visit. A huge cleanup of the plant ensued, mopping and washing, hiding buckets of materials, etc. I couldn't believe the difference. So OSHA shows up this week and has no idea what the real working conditions are. They make a few employees wear air quality sensors as they perform their inspection, but it'll prove nothing about "normal" working conditions. The older employees were upset as they know the conditions are unhealthy and would like the plant conditions improved but are afraid to say anything. The younger employees seemed to think it was cool fooling "the man" and being in on the scam.
Is this unusual for a plant to fool an organization that's purpose is to protect the working man?
Bart