SAFER IN A WAR ZONE!

(Safety-Security-Crazy.com, International Labour Organization, Health & Safety Executive)

(Peoples Vice, Canada, United States Department of Labor, Sean Smith, Suzanne Rutter)

(Erik Loomis, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I’m retired…..and damned glad to have lived long enough to be able to say as much, given the fact that regulations and my jobs didn’t really go hand in hand. With the exception of one job, I can’t recall employers worried about my safety, or my health or family. With little exception the people or organizations that I worked for had bottom line tattooed across their forehead.

 

And as I’ve said in the past, (I can’t blame business owners having that mentality), they have to, just to scrape by. However I have been directed to perform duties during my work life that I knew were dangerous as well as probably illegal. I recall one such situation back in the early 1970’s when I was instructed to use muriatic acid to remove mortar from a brick wall.

 

The stuff was nasty, stunk, fizzed and seemed to burn almost everything it touched…..in fact, as I recall, one co-worker did get burned. I learned quite by accident that muriatic acid can be lethal, and should be avoided at all costs. The stuff can burn your skin, eyes, vapors omitted can cause irritation in the respiration system, and anyone using the acid should do so with a breathing mask as well as special gloves.

 

Needless to say we, there were five of us were not told of the dangers of the crap, were not provided with breathing apparatus, or special gloves. How did we learn about the ills of this acid, and the perils of this particular job, an OSHA inspector shut the job down. Not only were we supposed to be briefed on the use of muriatic acid, we were supposed to be paid at a premium rate because the job was  state funded work.

 

Not only was the boss and owner reckless with what he told us…..which was nothing, he was underpaying us by $4 an hour, and pocketing the difference. I personally blew the whistle on the dink….it resulted in the termination of his license as a state certified cleaner; he shortly thereafter went completely out of business.

 

Needless to say most all of us do have some sort of work related horror story that can be recalled, in fact I can remember my dad as one of the work place culprits. My dad was a carpenter, and worked most of his life for himself. Working on roofs, rafters and other high places was nothing for us to work on and around; never a safety belt or a hard hat was used or offered. I think my dad thought the use of either would have been the sign of a sissy.

 

TO SOME IT’S FRUGAL, TO OTHERS GREED, YET SOME ACTS ARE MURDER

The history books are filled with accidents in the workplace that have taken latterly thousands of lives around the world. In the foreign gold, silver, iron and diamond mines multiple deaths have occurred almost on an annual basis. To some countries it has been basically the price of doing business, and I’m sure that they factor of training replacement workers in with the price of their product.

 

Let’s take a minute to ponder some of the most horrific workplace disasters ever recorded, the place of their origin, the immediate aftermath, and the resulting penalties or enacted laws that were put into place to protect workers:

 

 

Lawrence, Massachusetts, January 10, 1860, estimated 145 died, 166 injured when the Pemberton Mill, a cotton goods factory building collapsed.

 

Scofield, Utah, May 1, 1900, 200 die in a Pleasant Valley Coal Company explosion of 24 kegs of black powder.

Brockton, Massachusetts, March 20, 1902, 58 die at the Grove Company’s shoe factory when boiler explodes and entire building collapse.

Coal Creek, Tennessee, May 19, 1902, 184 men and boys die from an explosion of methane gas buildup.

Monongah, West Virginia, December 6, 1907, 362 of 380 men and boys die in explosion at coal mine.

Chicago, Illinois, January 20, 1909, 60 approximately die from powder magazine explosion at a water intake tunnel a mile offshore.

New York, New York, March, 25, 1911, 146 die at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, most jumps to their death from the 9^th and 10^th floors of the factory.

Boston, Massachusetts, January, 15, 1919, 21 deaths when storage tank bursts causing a great wave of molasses speeds through the streets of Boston.

Boulder City, Nevada, 1930’s, 96 approximately from construction related activity, though accurate records were never kept. Many deaths were from carbon monoxide poisoning in diversion tunnels.

Cleveland, Ohio, October 20, 1944, 120 people die when above ground liquefied natural gas leaks vapor, Lake Erie winds blow the vapor into residential area where it drops into the sewers. When the vapor ignites, it sends man-hole covers flying and the explosion kills 120.

Texas City, Texas, April, 16, 1947, 581 S.S. Grandcamp explodes from roughly 2300 ton of ammonium nitrate.

North Sea, 167 are killed when the Piper Alpha oil rig explodes killing 167 American workers.

Gulf of Mexico, April 20, 20, 2010, 11 die on Deepwater Horizon oil-well platform, resulting in worst oil spill in U.S. history.

 

There are many, many more domestic workplace disasters; I haven’t even stretched the surface, the Texas City, Texas blast two weeks ago, or the horrific workplace disasters on foreign soil which will be for a future blog.

 

NOBODY WANTS TO GO TO WORK AND NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN

No matter a workers station in life, or the financial or domestic problems a worker has at home, he still wants to walk through his front door after work. Absolutely nobody is paid enough to endanger himself in the work-place, and there are some state and federal rules and regulations that have been enacted so that a huge majority of American workers will do just that.

 

However in today’s work world here in the United States approximately 12 workers leave for work and are never seen again…..alive. The staggering figure of those people who do not return home after their shift amounts to 4,380 each and every year. In the past decade, the number of work related deaths has averaged 43,800.

 

With little exception these people did not strap on a side arm, or carry a rifle, their weapons usually involved slide rules, computer skills, truck driving competence, or a hammer and saw. These people were your average 7:00 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. ers. or your 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. ers. They weren’t heroes or some of the world’s great thinkers, they were just your average men and women who were trying to (stay high and get by.)

 

 

Nobody should die in the pursuit of hacking out a living from the tree of life, and there are labor rules and regulations that have been put into place to protect workers from unscrupulous business owners big, medium or small, no matter the size, business owners are all in business from one universal benefit…..money.

 

Suffice it to say that there is an undeclared war out there that ebbs and flows from year to year, and decade to decade. Victories aren’t declared by either side, although there numbers are kept, as is the list of casualties that are suffered by the workers.

 

LAST WEDNESDAY AT LEAST 350 DIE

Depending on which news service you read, between 300 and 400 workers have perished when a factory building that manufactured wearing apparel collapsed. This is just the latest in work place disasters in foreign countries that need to be addressed by the international community.

 

These garment makers make on average about $38 a month, despicable pay, in despicable surroundings, for despicable work. Nobody and I mean nobody should be paid an average $9 a week, unless they are working only one hour a week.

 

There needs to be some sort of universal protection for workers, no matter the country, the region, or the circumstance. A universal standard needs to be set, and followed by all nations of the world, those that do not adhere to the standard will be black-listed until the come into compliance with some sort of minimum work place and wage standard.

 

Work rules and regulations are easy to implement, if they are devised by non-connected individuals, in-other-words, no ties to either labor, or management. The safety issues, the poor pay, and the insane work hours suffered in foreign countries needs to be addressed and dealt with forthwith. How many more widows does there have to be, how many more orphaned kids will there be before we…..as a people react in a positive manner?

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!