
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280075
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

MEAT PACKER FINED $1 MILLION IN SAFETY PROBE

Monfort Inc., one of the nation's largest meat-packing companies, was fined $1 million Wednesday for "egregious" violations of federal safety laws at its Grand Island, Neb., plant.

The fine included the first major citation by the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for failing to comply with the government's new "lockout" regulations designed to prevent equipment from being turned on accidentally. The regulation went into effect last year.

Gene Meakins, vice president for Monfort, said Wednesday the company will contest the fines.

OSHA cited the death of a Monfort maintenance worker who was crushed in November when someone accidentally turned on a machine he was cleaning. Eighteen months earlier, another Monfort maintenance worker was killed when a conveyor belt he was repairing was accidentally turned on.

by CNB