After killing 15 people, injuring at least 170 more, and reportedly paying out a total of more than $1.6 billion in compensation to victims and their families for its negligence in causing the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion, BP is being slapped with a fine of $50 million by OSHA.  Well, it started with a somewhat larger fine for its numerous safety violations that led to the fatal blast, but $50 million is what BP agreed to in a federal court settlement.

They must be celebrating in London.

For a company that, due to continued disregard for safety, went on to cause an oil spill that is the greatest environmental catastrophe on record, has cost the company $33 billion to date, caused damage to others that may eclipse that number, and contaminated the Gulf of Mexico for generations, $50 million is chump change.

But, BP and other safety-mindless companies have even more reason to celebrate.  In April of 2009, in what can only be called a dazzling dance of judicial activism, the Supreme Court of Texas held, in a case called Entergy v. Summers, that the Texas Worker’s Compensation law does not say what our courts have held it says for over 100 years.

Worker’s compensation is a system that shield employers from lawsuits for on-the-job injuries by their employees, if the employer carries worker’s compensation insurance or is an approved “subscriber” to the worker’s compensation system.  If the employer does not offer worker’s compensation benefits to its employees, the employer becomes liable for lawsuits for damages by injured employees and the families of employees killed on the job due to the employer’s negligence.

That protection from lawsuits has never extended to “third parties,” meaning companies other than employers.  For example, the reported $1.6 billion BP paid in compensation to victims of the 2005 BP Texas City explosion was, for the most part, paid to employees of third parties and their families.

Entergy changed all that.  In that decision, the Supreme Court of Texas provided companies like BP with a loophole, and a road map to steer through that loophole, which enables them to avoid third party liability to all employees of contractors (like most of those injured or killed in the Texas City incident) forever and ever.

So, the next time BP or some other company blows up a refinery and kills or maims the employees of contractors, it will skate away with only OSHA to answer to.  Compared to $1.7 billion, a $50 million fine looks pretty good.

The Texas Legislature is currently debating a bill that will overturn Entergy and restore the worker’s compensation law to the way it was written.  BP and its brethren are working very hard to make sure that legislation fails.  Certainly, the BPs of the world and their cronies will blame lawyers for wanting to kill jobs by overturning Entergy, as if Texas was never a good place to do business before the decision.  YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.  Anyone who works in a dangerous job, or cares about those who work in dangerous jobs, or values the work done by the men and women, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, who go into harm’s way to make sure we can drive cars, have plastic water bottles and all the other products and benefits of the petrochemical industry, should call, write or email his or her state representative and senator and tell them to vote for the bill that will unplug Entergy.

This is not a partisan issue.  This is an issue of putting Texas workers ahead of multinational corporate greed, which as we have learned, was the reason behind all of BP’s bad behavior.