OSHA fining Ashley Furniture again, up to $1.8 million

Whitehall plant latest culprit, fined $431,000

Safety violation fines for Ashley Furniture are starting to turn into some real money.

OSHA has, once again, proposed fines for the furniture giant and cornerstone of manufacturing in western Wisconsin. Ashley’s upholstery plant in Whitehall, Wis., has been fined for $431,000 for failing to protect workers from moving machinery parts.

The feds say it found several instances where “workers risked injuries each time they serviced the machinery.”

The latest proposed penalty comes after another $1.8 million in fines levied issued this year after failed safety inspections at Ashley in Arcadia, Wis. Those came after the feds counted more than a thousand work-related injuries at Ashley over the past three and a half years. Ashley is fighting all of the fines.