Problem with the job? Go kill yourselves: You’ve all heard the phrase “Your job of your life,” but Richland County, South Carolina, Administrator Kevin Bronson took that phrase a little too far last week telling EMS workers who had complaints about the job that if “it’s really that bad you can just kill yourself or leave.” After a firestorm of protest, Bronson resigned, admitting the things he said were a “horrible and terrible thing for me to say.” A former employee had sent Bronson an 8-page document of issues.
Dead Bodies In the Break Room: Unsanitary conditions in employee break rooms are a common complaint. Storing or using toxic chemicals in a room where employees eat is a violation of OSHA standards. The MTA which runs New York’s subways, seems to have gone a step further — storing dead bodies retrieved from New York City’s subway tracks in employees’ break rooms. “You have pieces, you have blood spatter,” Transit Workers Union (TWU) president Derek Echevarria tells Spectrum News 1. “It could be any contamination or disease.” The problems is the city’s failure to provide enough staffing for the Medical Examiner’s Office to quickly retrieve and remove bodies from the subway after these tragedies,” according to the union.
Fall Prevention Harnesses Are Not Just Fashion Accessories: OSHA has cited Great White Construction Inc., based in Jacksonville, FL, with 14 violations and proposed penalties totaling $1,523,710. Employees wore harnesses, but were not tied off to the rope grabs and roof anchors. Given the employer’s extensive prior history of violations and OSHA’s egregious citation policy, the agency issued 11 separate willful citations for failing to protect employees from fall hazards. As a result of these investigations and citations, Great White is now in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
Lucky Public Employees: North Carolina OSHA has issued three citations against the Davidson County Government for asbestos in the courthouse. Asbestos work was being conducted without using engineering controls, failing to use wet methods, local exhaust ventilation, impermeable dropcloths, mini-enclosures, glove bag systems and or plastic barriers. Davidson County Clerk of Superior Court Brian Shipwash said that he was “extremely disturbed and am concerned about the potential asbestos exposure to Citizens, my employees, and the county workers who have performed countless work projects in this old building over the course of the last 19 years.” Of course, being in North Carolina, those government workers were luckier than other public employees who work in the 24 states that don’t have OSHA coverage for public employees.
Slow Down, You Move Too Fast: Thirty-nine organizations, representing the civil rights, public health, consumer protection, labor, employer, nonprofit, and faith-based communities, today issued a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue urging him to oppose any increase in line speeds in U.S. poultry plants. The letter argues that the current rate of 140 birds per minute already exposes the nation’s 250,000 poultry workers to serious risk of injury. “Even at current speeds, poultry slaughter and processing workers face serious job hazards that result in debilitating illness, injury, or death. Indeed, workers in poultry plants are injured at almost twice the rate of workers in private industry. These workers face over seven times the national average of occupational illnesses, such as repetitive motion injuries. The letter responds to a request by Congressman Doug Collins (R-GA), that the USDA raise line speeds to 175 birds per minute—or three birds per second.” Particularly infuriating is Collins’ argument that current line speeds put US companies at a competitive disadvantage to European countries like German and Belgium which allow speeds up to 200 birds per minute. The letter points out, however, that Germany also “experiences particularly high levels of Salmonella and Camplylobacter contamination in poultry meats, which is largely attributed to the slaughter process.” And in any case, German and Belgian chickens are not welcome in the US: they “are not permitted to export their poultry to the United States, their industry standards have no impact in the U.S. market.”
First in the Nation — in Workplace Death: Amir Kaman, age 49, was crushed to death earlier this month at a work site in Austin, Texas. Texas leads the country in workplace deaths, and the construction industry, heavily populated by Hispanic workers, is one of the most dangerous industries in Texas. A construction worker dies in Texas once every three days. “Too many men and women are taken from their families due to the deadly working conditions of the Texas construction industry,” said Jose P. Garza, executive director of the Workers Defense Project. But the Project has a better way: its Better Builders Program where employers commit to “adhere to a variety of safeguards: Providing workers compensation to their labor forces; providing laborers with a living wage; provision of OSHA-10 training for employees; follow all applicable local, state and federal laws; agree to independent, on-site monitoring at work sites; and other safety-promoting measures.”
Scapegoating: I wrote last week about a company, Aluminum Shapes, that had laid off workers, blaming OSHA after receiving a large penalty for willful and repeat violations. I called it job blackmail. The South New Jersey Times agrees, accusing the company of “scapegoating OSHA for its job cutbacks.” The paper praises OSHA’s Regional office for doing its job well and notes that “The company’s whole effort could be intended for an audience of one: a president who says his role to create jobs, jobs, jobs.” The paper concludes that “We don’t know the motives behind the company’s strategy, but we do know that public relations campaigns are cheaper than making necessary corrections in equipment and training. OSHA should keep the Aluminum Shapes fines in force until it finds that the proper improvements have been made. Then, and only then, should it consider any reductions.”
Manufacturing Hell — for Workers: It was all celebration and cheers when Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the new Tesla Model 3 earlier this month. But in order to ramp up production, Musk warned that “We’re going to go through at least six months of manufacturing hell.” “Manufacturing hell” was not a reason to celebrate for Tesla workers who are already suffering a “total recordable incidence rate” that was 8.8 percent (8.8 injuries per 100 workers) in 2015, 31 percent more than the 6.7 percent total recordable incidence rate for the automobile industry as a whole, according to a Worksafe report , citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data. One worker, Jose Moran, wrote that “Unfortunately, however, I often feel like I am working for a company of the future under working conditions of the past.” Confined Space reviewed the Worksafe report here.