Reference no: EM131099362

Environmental Evasion Collapse What Would You Do? Why is this happening to me, George Mackee wondered. Four years ago, George, along with his wife, Maria, with their two children, had moved from El Paso to Seguin, Texas, to take a management position at a small manufacturing facility. The plant, which manufactures plastic parts for small equipment, is owned by Ardnak Plastic, Inc. The plant employs several hundred workers, making it a major employer in the small town of Seguin. George was recently promoted to plant manager, and he has developed a good relationship with Jim Bob, his boss, in Houston, Texas. One of the problems George has faced as plant manager is that his plant’s smokestack emissions have regularly exceeded EPA limits. Several months ago, George received a call from Jim Bob, who told him that the EPA was threatening to levy fines because of the Seguin plant’s excessive emissions. George admitted the situation was a continual problem, but because headquarters would not invest in new smokestack scrubbers, he didn’t know what to do. Jim Bob told him that corporate margins were stretch to their limits, and there was simply no money for new scrubbers. Besides, Jim Bob commented, other Ardnak plants were in worse shape than George’s, and they were meeting EPA standards. George promised Jim Bob that he would look into the matter. He immediately began calling his counterparts at other Ardnak plants and learned that they were scheduling their heavy emissions work at night so that they appeared to be in compliance during the day when the EPA took its sporadic readings. George realized that others within the company were intentionally increasing air contamination levels. Another month went by, and George still had not found a solution when Jim Bob called. His boss let loose with a tirade over the EPA’s recent fines against the Seguin plant and reminded George that there were very few jobs out in the industry because of cutbacks. That’s when Jim Bob dropped the bombshell. He had been speaking with representatives of the Mexican government, from whom he received assurances that no such clean air restrictions would be imposed on Ardnak if it relocated the Seguin facility to Reynosa, Mexico, provided that the workers were Mexican. Jim Bob explained that the reason for relocating would be to eliminate the EPA problems. He gave George one week to decide whether to avoid further fines by "correcting" the plant’s current problems or relocating it to Mexico. George realized that relocating the plant to Mexico would devastate the town of Seguin’s economy. Moreover, a relocation across the Mexican border would continue to put contaminants into the air on the U.S. side. After discussing the situation with Maria, she reinforced his concerns and raised some additional ones. She did not want him to be responsible for the loss of jobs for their extended families and friends. What should George do?