JUDY WOODRUFF: As a candidate,
President Trump called for the
largest expansion of the Navy

since the Reagan administration,
but his latest budget proposal
contains more modest short-term

increases.

Still, it would boost business
in the U.S. shipbuilding
industry, which, despite serious

safety violations in the
past decade, continues
to win billions of
dollars in contracts to

build Navy and
Coast Guard vessels.

Aubrey Aden-Buie of Reveal, from
the Center for Investigative
Reporting, has the story.

JOHN WILLIAMS, Injured in
Accident: I love you, baby doll.

WANDA WILLIAMS, Wife of John
Williams: I love you, too.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE:
Wanda Williams' life
changed forever when her
sister-in-law rushed to her

house in 2014.

WANDA WILLIAMS: And she
got out of the car crying.

And she said that John got hurt
and he was hurt really bad.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Wanda's
husband, John, nearly died in an
accident at the shipyard where

he worked.

WANDA WILLIAMS: We would have
never thought that this would
have happened to him, because

this is things that he
did every single day.

He went to work as my husband,
and he came home as a child.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Wanda
now takes care of her
husband 24 hours a day.

The accident happened three
years ago at a VT Halter
Mississippi shipyard.

A surveillance camera recorded
as Williams' crane lost balance
and suddenly tipped over.

His co-worker, Willie
Horne, saw it happen.

WILLIE HORNE, Co-Worker: The
boom pulled back and it just
bounced back all kind of ways.

And he was just messed up.

His head was crushed.

That stuff like that, it's
just something that you
just can't forget like that.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: The
accident crushed Williams'
skull and left him blind.

For months before the accident,
he had complained about the
crane's broken load sensor.

VT Halter re-installed the
sensor two days earlier, but the
Occupational Safety and Health

Administration, or OSHA,
later determined it
wasn't fully operational.

There is a history of serious
accidents at VT Halter.

A few years earlier, two
workers were killed applying
paint thinner inside a tugboat.

In this crawlspace, while
working with insufficient
ventilation and without
explosion-proof lights,

vapors built up over 600
times the legal limit,
igniting in a flash fire.

Joey Pettey barely
escaped the blast.

JOEY PETTEY, Accident Survivor:
The explosion, when it happened,
it blew doors and hatches

and electrical panels,
boom, boom, boom.

When that third one
hit, it blew it out.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: OSHA
investigated and called
that accident horrific
and preventable, and

fined the company over $800,000.

But a month following
the explosion, the Navy
awarded VT Halter the
contract to build this

ship, worth $87 million.

JOEY PETTEY: The contracts
are pretty hefty amounts,
and the fines is really low.

It seems like a slap on the
wrist when you got that kind
of money rolling around.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: We repeatedly
reached out to VT Halter,
but they declined to comment

or to be interviewed.

They're one of seven major
U.S. shipbuilders that contract
with the Navy and Coast Guard.

Our review of federal contracts,
court records, and OSHA files
found that, since 2008, the

federal government has awarded
more than $100 billion to these
companies, despite serious

safety lapses that have
endangered and killed workers.

In neighboring Mobile, Alabama,
Austal USA is building some
of the country's newest naval

vessels.

Huge aluminum modules are
assembled into warships on
the banks of the Mobile River.

But dozens of its workers have
been injured by a power tool
used to cut through metal.

Their own top safety manager
dubbed it the widow maker.

MARTIN OSBORN, Injured
in Accident: The day
of my accident, I was
using the miller, as

it is called at Austal.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Martin
Osborn is a welder at Austal.

MARTIN OSBORN: I was up in a
boom lift, as we call it, or a
man lift, up in the air about

40 feet, cutting a lifting
lug off the side of a module,
and had a violent kickback.

It kicked out of my hands
and went across my left
hand, cutting me pretty bad.

I didn't take my glove off,
because, I knew if I did that,
I would have blood everywhere.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Before
Osborn's accident, Austal
modified the Metabo
grinder by replacing

the standard disc with
a sawtooth blade made
by an outside company.

This made the tool more
versatile, able to cut
through aluminum more quickly.

But the manufacturer of
the grinder specifically
warned against using
these blades, saying

they cause frequent kickback
and loss of control.

MARTIN OSBORN: I have seen
pictures of people getting cut
in their face, in their necks,

in their thighs.

It's the most dangerous tool
I have ever put in my hands.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Does
Austal know that the tool
is as dangerous as it is?

MARTIN OSBORN: Yes,
ma'am, they do.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Company
e-mails among Austal's
managers obtained by
Reveal show that, even

before Osborn's accident, they
called the modification lethal,
and the grinders an accident

waiting to happen.

Yet, according to Osborn,
Austal workers still
use the grinder daily.

MARTIN OSBORN: I have
had numerous supervisors
tell me that, you
know, if you don't want

to use the tool, go get
a job at Burger King.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Despite
repeated requests,
Austal declined to
comment for this story.

The company has received
more than $6 billion in
Navy contracts since 2008.

But when OSHA concluded the saw
exposed workers to amputations,
severe lacerations, and other

injuries, they fined the
shipyard just over $4,000.

Austal's own records show at
least 50 workers were injured
by the tool in four years.

BRIAN DUNCAN, Attorney:
Why would any manufacturer
or any company continue
to use a tool after

dozens and dozens of
people have been injured?

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Attorney
Brian Duncan is representing
Osborn, along with eight others,

in a lawsuit which he
hopes will bring more
than just compensation.

BRIAN DUNCAN: I hope, when there
are companies out there that
have intentionally, knowingly

violated safety standards, that
somebody will come in, in that
scenario and will hold those

people accountable.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: David
Michaels, the head of OSHA under
former President Obama, was

until recently in charge of
enforcing workplace safety laws.

He acknowledges that
OSHA's maximum penalties
are insufficient,
capped by federal law.

DAVID MICHAELS, Former OSHA
Director: They're tiny compared
to the contracts that many of

these companies get
from the government and
from the private sector.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: He says
that the real power the
government holds is in
awarding the contracts

themselves.

DAVID MICHAELS: The biggest
fine is a million dollars,
two million dollars.

That is petty cash for these
companies that get $100 million,
$200 million, $300 million

contracts from the Defense
Department to build
ships that are protecting
the United States.

We need to be protecting
our workers as much as
protecting our shores.

MATTHEW PAXTON, President,
Shipbuilders Council of America:
I know Navy puts a high priority

on safety, as do our shipyards
that are building those ships.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: President
of the Shipbuilders
Council of America,
Matthew Paxton, says the

government does consider safety
records when awarding contracts.

MATTHEW PAXTON: I think they
take that into a whole lot of
considerations that they have

to figure out on
their contracting end.

And there's many requirements
that go into that beyond safety.

But safety's in there.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Yet,
the Navy's history of
awarding contracts to
companies with repeated

violations suggests that
it places little emphasis
on safety records.

NAVSEA, the Naval command
responsible for shipbuilding
contracts, declined an on-camera

interview, but a spokesperson
said in an e-mail that
it's up to OSHA, not
the Navy, to enforce

federal safety laws.

They added: "We are not
the overlords of private
shipyards when it comes
to workplace safety."

DAVID MICHAELS: The
Navy has the power.

They can easily say, if
workers are hurt, if you don't
follow the basic commonsense

safety rules, you don't
get any more contracts.

That would have a huge impact.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Former
President Obama signed
an executive order
that required companies

to disclose three years of
safety violations when vying
for large federal contracts.

But a federal court
blocked that order.

And, this spring, Congress
drafted a resolution to
overturn it altogether.

SEN.

MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY),
Majority Leader: The regulations
aren't issued in a vacuum.

They have real economic
consequences that can
harm the middle class.

They can kill jobs, raise
prices, depress wages
and lower opportunities.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: President
Trump signed the resolution into
law, meaning companies don't

have to disclose their
safety records when
competing for contracts.

That same month, Senator
Elizabeth Warren asked
the Justice Department
to open a criminal

investigation into VT Halter.

SEN.

ELIZABETH WARREN (D),
Massachusetts: We want
to get to the bottom
of why people have died

and what kind of responsibility
the company itself has.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: Warren wants
the Navy to scrutinize safety
records when granting contracts

to all shipbuilders.

SEN.

ELIZABETH WARREN: And in the
same way that they look at
how much is it going to cost,

they also need to look
at whether or not this is
a contractor who injures
and kills employees.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: At Austal's
shipyard, Martin Osborn still
frequently uses a sawtooth blade

like the one that
cost him his finger.

He says nothing will change
unless shipyards are made to
pay a price for putting workers

at risk.

MARTIN OSBORN: We're not
worried about if you get cut
or the next guy gets cut.

We just put another guy in your
place and move on down the road.

AUBREY ADEN-BUIE: For the
"PBS NewsHour," I'm Aubrey
Aden-Buie in Mobile, Alabama.