U.S. Chamber of Commerce says: "America Needs More Jobs," Even if it Kills You!

Did you see the recent television ad demanding tort reform, showing a closed down factory and the devastated workers?  Blame those frivolous lawsuits. If we don't let business off the hook for injuring or killing consumers, then we may see the end of manufacturing in America.

Lawsuits are job killers. Take a look at why we need to stop picking on these poor innocent companies:



Here's the real story from Protect Consumer Justice. Wanna know just how far corporate America is willing to go to push their deadly for profit agenda:

Blame the lawsuits for shutting down Blitz USA…or blame Blitz USA’s products for causing the lawsuits?: From an article by Steve Miller, National Editor, Let America Know-

Blitz USA, America’s largest plastic gas-can maker, recently closed its manufacturing plant in Miami, Okla., after nearly 50 years of operation, laid off 117 employees in the process, and put the blame on product liability lawsuits against the company. “We have been operating under extremely litigious environment [sic],” company officials said in a 2011 letter to customers .

The “increased litigation” stemmed from more than 75 known incidents of people severely burned or killed when a Blitz gas can exploded. Fourteen people were burned to death, six of them children. And with millions of these gas cans still in use around the country, the injuries and deaths will continue.

Three-year-old Landon Beadore knocked over a Blitz gas can while putting away his sister’s tricycle  and the vapors were ignited by a water heater, then flashed back into the can, causing an explosion that severely burned nearly half Landon’s body. A flame arrestor would have prevented the explosion. Firefighter Chad Funchess was filling up his chain saw  when his Blitz gas can exploded. He spent more than four months in a coma. William Melvin, a member of a Porsche racing team pit crew who certainly knew how to handle gasoline, was filling up his lawnmower  when the Blitz gas can exploded and threw him through his barn. None of these sound like examples of Yosemite Sam or the Three Stooges.

The company ignored overwhelming test results – including their own tests – that their gas cans are exploding because of a manufacturing defect, transforming them into flamethrowers that are torching innocent people ... the company knew about the problem but chose to save money rather than install a simple fix ... with a 50-cent fix.

The consumer gas cans manufactured by Blitz USA are lacking something called a “flame arrestor.” It’s a simple thing: just a piece of mesh that goes over the nozzle and contains the fumes in the can while the gasoline pours. Professional-grade gas cans have them. Flame arrestors , which are used on everything from charcoal lighter fluid bottles to motor boats to metal gas cans to bottles of Bacardi 151-proof rum, were removed by Blitz when they began making cheap plastic cans. But Blitz and other makers have not been installing them on the plastic gas cans they sell to consumers. That’s the real story.

And yet apologists for the business lobby in the media would paint those seeking justice from Blitz USA as the ones to blame for the company’s demise. Ultimately, Blitz was sanctioned by a federal court in Texas for abusing the civil justice process by destroying documents and providing inaccurate testimony. Television reporter Dan Rather did two special reports on exploding gas cans, one in 2008 and another in 2011.