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Representative Mark DeSaulnier has publicly argued that corporate priorities can put workers and nearby communities at risk. The phrase “When profits matter more than safety, everyone loses” captures that argument, but it is not verified as a verbatim quote from him. His clearest related remarks came during a 2022 House hearing, where he described fatal refinery incidents in his district and criticized what he saw as a preference for investor returns over community and workforce safety.
What did Mark DeSaulnier say about profits and safety?
At a September 15, 2022 House hearing on fossil fuel industry profits, DeSaulnier said his district included five refineries. He recounted a constituent’s death after a refinery explosion and a separate incident in which four constituents died. Describing what he said a report found after a facility shutdown, he blamed the corporate culture and characterized its priority this way: “It is, in my view, the priority of return on investment to investors rather than the community and their work force.” Read the House hearing transcript.
That is DeSaulnier’s account and interpretation in a congressional hearing, not an independent investigation of the incidents or a finding that every company puts profits ahead of safety. The title’s wording is an editorial summary, not a verified quotation.
His broader criticism of corporate power
In a September 5, 2018 press release about a labor and wages initiative with Representatives Debbie Dingell, Mark Pocan, and Donald Norcross, DeSaulnier said: “Today’s culture of unchecked corporate power and maximizing profits has come at the expense of America’s workforce.” Read the press release. The statement reflects his policy position; it does not by itself establish a measured, universal relationship between profit-seeking and workplace harm.
What did DeSaulnier say about a local safety ordinance?
In the same 2022 hearing, DeSaulnier said that while serving on the county board he authored an industrial safety ordinance. He recalled that the county then went 22 years without another fatality or emergency-room incident. The transcript records his recollection and its implied connection to the ordinance; it does not independently evaluate the claim or establish that the ordinance alone caused that outcome. The hearing transcript is the source for his account.
What historical evidence says about safety enforcement
An archived U.S. Department of Labor exit memo offers a separate historical example from mining. It says that the Mine Safety and Health Administration found Massey Energy had promoted and enforced a workplace culture that valued production and profit over safety before the Upper Big Branch disaster, which killed 29 miners. The memo also reports that MSHA’s Pattern of Violations reforms were associated with a 40 percent reduction in violations among the 200 mines cited for the most serious violations between 2010 and 2015. Those figures describe the memo’s stated historical period and mining context; they are not current workplace statistics or proof that the same approach will produce the same result in every industry. Read the archived Department of Labor memo.
OSHA-era figures are historical comparisons
The same memo says that before OSHA was created in 1971, 14,000 workers were killed on the job annually—about 38 per day. By the memo’s reference period, workplace deaths had fallen by nearly two-thirds while the national workforce was almost twice as large as before OSHA. These are historical comparisons as the memo presents them, not current fatality rates. The memo’s heading, “Looking to the Future: Rejecting the False Choice of Profits or Safety,” expresses its view that safety and profitability need not be opposites.
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How to assess claims about profits and workplace safety
DeSaulnier’s remarks raise a practical policy question: how do organizations make sure production goals and investment decisions do not undermine hazard prevention? The sources support considering several parts of that question, but they do not establish one universally best policy or prove a single cause-and-effect relationship across industries.
Rank #3
- Gregory M. Anderson was formerly President of Intertek’s Consulting & Training division, which specializes in providing behavior-based safety, leadership, teambuilding and intercultural diplomacy for organizations operating in high-risk environments.
- Anderson is considered to be a leading authority on creating a culture of safety. A true internationalist, he has lived, worked and traveled to more than 50 countries. Some of the more interesting aspects of his career involved battling oil fires in Kuwait, providing infrastructure for the US military in Haiti and drilling for oil in Egypt.
- Robert L. Lorber, Ph.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Lorber Kamai Consulting Group. With extensive experience in the mining sector, Bob is focused on management effectiveness and has implemented productivity improvement systems at medium-size and Fortune 500 companies on five continents.
- Co-author of The New York Times bestseller Putting The One Minute Manager To Work, with Kenneth Blanchard, Bob has also co-authored One Minute Page Management with Riaz Khadem, as well as several other titles.
- Safety 24/7 was written to show you how incidents can be dramatically reduced, even eliminated, and help build a culture of safety.
- Prevention rules: Examine whether safety standards and local rules identify hazards before an incident, and how they apply to the specific industry and workplace.
- Inspection and enforcement: Consider whether regulators can inspect, require corrections, and impose consequences. The Department of Labor memo’s reported mining result concerns a particular enforcement reform and period.
- Worker and community input: Ask whether employees and nearby residents can report hazards and whether those concerns reach people empowered to respond. DeSaulnier’s refinery remarks center on both workers and the surrounding community.
- Production and investment incentives: Look at whether schedules, output targets, maintenance decisions, and management rewards leave room to stop work or fix hazards without penalizing those who raise concerns.
A 2005 Congressional Record debate documents historical disagreement over OSHA enforcement and proposed changes to workplace protections. It is useful as evidence that enforcement design has been contested, not as a guide to current law or agency practice. Read the 2005 Congressional Record.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the evidence supports—and what it does not
DeSaulnier has publicly linked industrial safety concerns to what he describes as corporate prioritization of investor returns. Historical federal materials also document serious safety failures and report a specific mining enforcement outcome. Together, these sources support scrutiny of how corporate incentives, prevention rules, worker input, and enforcement interact.
Rank #4
- Used Book in Good Condition
They do not verify the title phrase as DeSaulnier’s exact words, establish current workplace fatality levels, or prove that profit-seeking universally causes unsafe conditions. The strongest reading is narrower: safety outcomes warrant attention to organizational priorities and oversight, while claims about a particular company, policy, or trend need evidence specific to that case.
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