In the sprawling, smoke-choked landscape of the automotive industry, where the hum of engines and the stench of diesel fuel hang heavy in the air, there’s a dirty little secret that doesn’t get talked about enough. BorgWarner Inc., a titan of turbochargers and transmissions, supplies the guts of machines that power everything from your neighbour’s SUV to the lorries clogging the M1. They’re the backbone of Cummins, another giant with a closet full of skeletons. But behind the glossy brochures and the slick PR, BorgWarner’s history is a cesspool of environmental devastation, corporate negligence, and outright deceit. And it’s about time someone dragged it into the light.
Crystal Springs: A Town Left to Rot
Let’s start in Crystal Springs, Mississippi – a place that sounds like it should be postcard-pretty, but thanks to BorgWarner, it’s anything but. Back in 2005, the company coughed up $29 million to settle a lawsuit over environmental contamination so bad it turned the town’s water brown and the air thick with chemicals. This wasn’t some minor spill; this was a full-scale assault on a community’s health, courtesy of a plant BorgWarner inherited when they bought Kuhlman Electric Corporation. But inheritance doesn’t excuse ignorance. They knew what they were getting into, and they did fuck all about it until the lawyers came knocking. Twenty-nine million sounds like a lot, but what’s the price tag on poisoned wells and kids with asthma? You can’t put a number on that. And yet, BorgWarner walked away, cheque in hand, leaving Crystal Springs to choke on their legacy.
Asbestos: A Slow-Motion Massacre
But wait, there’s more. If you thought environmental negligence was the worst of it, buckle up. BorgWarner’s real speciality is asbestos – the kind of shit that makes your skin crawl just hearing the word. For over 50 years, they stuffed it into brakes, clutches, you name it, like it was going out of style. And when the lawsuits started rolling in – 23,000 of them by 2009 – they acted like it was just the cost of doing business. Take Susan M. Buttitta, for example. Her husband, Mark, worked in a General Motors warehouse, handling BorgWarner’s asbestos-laced products. He died of mesothelioma at 50, leaving her to pick up the pieces. In 2010, a jury hit BorgWarner and their co-defendants with a $30.3 million bill. That’s one family, one tragedy. Now multiply that by 23,000. That’s not a scandal; that’s a fucking epidemic. And BorgWarner? They’ve set aside $441 million for future claims, stretching all the way to 2067. That’s right – decades from now, people will still be paying the price for their greed. It’s a slow-motion disaster, and they’re still counting the bodies.
Cooking the Books: $700 Million Under the Rug
And if that wasn’t enough to make your blood boil, let’s talk about the money. From 2012 to 2016, BorgWarner “forgot” to mention over $700 million in liabilities tied to those asbestos claims. That’s not a rounding error; that’s a deliberate, calculated deception. They cooked the books, hid the truth from investors, and when the SEC finally caught up with them, they got a slap on the wrist – a $950,000 penalty. Nine hundred and fifty grand. For a company pulling in $14.2 billion a year, that’s less than pocket change. It’s an insult. The SEC called it a violation of “reporting, books and records, and internal accounting controls.” I call it fraud. And the worst part? They didn’t even have to admit guilt. They just paid the fine and moved on, like it was just another line item in the budget.
Cummins: Partners in Grime
Now, let’s connect the dots to Cummins, their loyal customer. BorgWarner supplies turbochargers and other critical components to Cummins, the diesel engine behemoth that’s no stranger to ethical shortcuts. Remember the emissions scandal? Cummins got fined $1.675 billion – yes, billion – for rigging their engines to cheat emissions tests. That’s the kind of company BorgWarner chooses to do business with. Birds of a feather, right? Both companies have a knack for prioritising profits over people, whether it’s poisoning the air or poisoning the water. It’s a match made in corporate hell, where the bottom line trumps basic human decency every single time.
The Rotten Core
So, what does this all mean? It means that behind the bluster of innovation and progress, there’s a foundation of greed and disregard for human life. BorgWarner’s legacy isn’t just in the parts they make; it’s in the communities they’ve ravaged, the lives they’ve shortened, and the lies they’ve told to cover it all up. And Cummins? They’re cut from the same cloth, happy to turn a blind eye as long as the supply chain keeps humming.
It’s time to stop letting these corporations off the hook. It’s time to demand accountability, to fight for the communities left in their wake, and to expose the ugly truth behind the glossy ads. Because if we don’t, the next Crystal Springs could be your town. And the next Mark Buttitta could be someone you love.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project
Sources
- Violation Tracker: BorgWarner Inc. – Environmental Contamination Settlement.
- Mesothelioma.com: BorgWarner Automotive Inc. – Asbestos Exposure and Lawsuits.
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: BorgWarner Inc. Settles Charges for Material Misstatements Concerning Asbestos Liability.
- U.S. Department of Justice: Cummins to Pay $1.675 Billion for Clean Air Act Violations.