E-Mail from the USA shows need for time consuming crane inspections

This is a good example of why tower cranes should be thoroughly examined, and more then just once or twice a year. Tower crane examinations require time and contractors are going to have to get used to it. – anonymous crane operator

A story for Scott

This crane operator, who after the deadly crane collapse in New York on May 30th., decided when he climbed his 450ft. tower crane that the first thing he was going to do was to check out the bolting system, what he found was distressing, heres part of the story, from Vertikal.net (6/2/08):

Don’t put off till tomorrow, what you should do today

Before going to work at 5:15am I watched the news on the most recent NY crane accident and it was immediately apparent to me that the Slew-ring assembly had failed.

The first thing I did when I got to the top of the 450ft (136m) of 2003, tower crane was check the slew-ring bolts with a 2lb beater using minimum force. There are two rows of bolts, each row having 59.

With the crane balanced off, I started with the top row (slew bearing) and when I struck the third bolt it moved (loose), I continued checking and when I came to the 28th bolt it broke in two! I then went back to the bolt that had movement and decided to remove it for inspection, which revealed a severe crack at the same location as the one that sheared off.

Because of finding two bolts with a similar failure and the likelihood that there could be many more, I immediately put the crane out of operation. The manufacturer has been contacted and we’re trying to arrange for a “Factory Engineer” to come out and thoroughly examine ALL the bolts, and if needed oversee the replacement of ALL slew-ring bolts. Which is the only certain solution!

I will admit that if not for this most recent event, I would not have gone through the extra effort/procedure needed to properly inspect a slew-ring. The typical way it’s done by operators and inspectors is either just a “visual” while climbing through the slew-ring, or just a tap with a carpenters hammer, relying on your sense of sound to hear a difference between bolts.

The problem with this is that without balancing off the crane to ensure that the load on the bearing is distributed equally, you can’t get a true sense that the bolts are equally tightened and torqued to the proper specifications. And that goes for mast bolts too!

Bottom line, it just doesn’t tell the whole story, especially considering the potential for loss of life and property damage. These common, time-saving methods are just not enough for what’s at risk. Like the old saying goes,” don’t put off till tomorrow, what you should do today”!

This is a good example of why tower cranes should be thoroughly examined, and more then just once or twice a year. Tower crane examinations require time and contractors are going to have to get used to it.

I was recently talking to a third party tower crane Inspector and he boasted that he can inspect a crane in three hours, easy money! In general a good tower crane thorough inspection should take at “least” six to eight hours (depending on configuration). And with all due respect to OSHA and others, “they are the Jack of all trades and master at none”, and cannot be expected to have detailed knowledge of tower cranes.

NY: City’s Top Crane Inspector Is Arrested

“this is what happens when u have someone making $50,000 in charge of handing out licenses worth millions to ventures worth billions.”- Posted by atruh, in the comments

From The New York Times blog (6/6/08):

City’s Top Crane Inspector Is Arrested
By William K. Rashbaum

The city’s chief crane inspector was arrested on Friday and charged with taking bribes to approve cranes under his review and for taking money from crane operators who sought to ensure that they would pass the required licensing exam, an official involved in the case said.

James Delayo, the acting chief inspector for cranes and derricks at the city Department of Buildings, was in charge of overseeing the issuance of city licenses for crane operators. He is also facing charges that he provided a copy of the crane operator’s exam and the test answers to a crane company in exchange for $3,000, the official said.

Mr. Delayo, who is being prosecuted by the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, surrendered this morning to investigators from the city’s Department of Investigation, the official said. The city investigators developed the case.

The charges against Mr. Delayo will likely include receiving an unlawful gratuity and offering a false instrument for filing, the official said, and come just a week after the city’s second fatal tower crane collapse in 10 weeks.

The accusations, however, do not involve the inspections of the large tower cranes, like those that collapsed last Friday and March 15, but smaller machines, known as Class C cranes, the official said.

Investigators believe that Mr. Delayo, since at least 2002, signed off on the annual inspection of between 20 and 30 Class C cranes without conducting any examination in exchange for “several hundred dollars” apiece, the official said.

Check out the blog, some of the comments are right on the money

It’s amazing that after every high-profile construction accident, they find someone to arrest. It’s sad to think that there is no justice in the low-profile construction deaths. Somehow, I don’t think they will find anyone culpable in the most recent death, which took place at a construction site on St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights.
— Posted by harriet

Amazing reply, I hinted that in my article on the most recent NY disaster “Crane collapse in New York, 2 dead, 2 critical“, and heres something I was speaking about recently:

this is what happens when u have someone making $50,000 in charge of handing out licenses worth millions to ventures worth billions.
— Posted by atruh

*Image by Sheldon at Picasaweb

CT: New law created to protect highway workers

Mugford, a state Department of Transportation employee, died after being struck by a limousine while working on Route 7 in Norwalk. Three years later, Kathy Mugford just wants to spare one family the pain that her family suffered.

And, thanks to a bill recently signed into law by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, it’s a prayer that might be answered.

From ConnPost.com (excerpted 6/5/08):

This week, Rell announced that she’d signed off on legislation that creates stiffer penalties for drivers who speed and commit other traffic violations in work zones. The new law also creates a Highway Work Zone Safety Advisory Council, which will make ongoing recommendations to improve safety in work zones. The law takes effect October 1. Kathy Mugford has long known the dangers that DOT workers like her husband face from speeding traffic, and has been pushing for the legislation for nearly a year. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was,” she said when she learned that the struggle was finally over. “If it helps if one person, it will be worth it.”

The highway safety bill was drafted last summer by the Connecticut Employees Union Independent and the Legislature’s Transportation Committee. The employees union represents 4,500 state maintenance workers and about 1,500 of them work for the DOT. The law creates two new offenses — endangerment of a highway worker and aggravated endangerment of a highway worker.

Offenses that would fall under the category of endangerment include speeding in a work zone and failure to obey traffic signals in a work zone. The aggravated endangerment charge applies to offenses in which a worker is seriously injured or killed.

A conviction of endangerment of a highway worker carries a fine of up to $1,000 and an aggravated endangerment conviction would result in a $5,000 fine, if the worker is injured, and $10,000 if the worker is killed. The fines are in addition to any other penalty authorized by law.

Lets see that spread to all street workers in every state. Nice job Gov. Rell.

Check out “NY: Jackass ignores safety ‘flaggers’ and hits a construction worker at the Verrazano Bridge” for a good reason to have a law like that in New York.

Quick post- 60 minutes on combustable dust this Sunday, Tammy Miser from Weekly Toll will appear

“Shawn’s back was towards the furnace when they were picking up their tools and there was a blast. Some say Shawn got up and started walking towards the door and then there was a second, more intense blast. Shawn didn’t die instantly. He laid on building floor while the aluminum dust burnt through his flesh and muscle tissue. The breaths that he took burnt his internal organs, and the blast took his eyesight. Shawn was still conscious and asking for help… And the two things that I can always remember and that never leave are his last words, ‘I’m in a world of hurt,’ and his last breaths.” Tammy Miser Congressional hearing on combustible dust

Please excuse the commercial, I have no control of that

Tammy Miser has created a tremendous amount of awareness to the senseless deaths that occur due to the absence of OSHA standards with regard to explosive dust, the petition on the right hand side of this site is her idea. She runs the blog Weekly Toll and the USMWF.ORG – United Support & Memorial For Workplace Fatalities and she has testified in front of Congress. Word is that Tammy will be appearing this Sunday night on 60 Minutes lead story, “Is Enough Done To Stop Explosive Dust?“, the show will feature Carolyn Merritt, former CSB chair, Ed Foulke (OSHA) and Rep. George Miller

At least 13 people might still be alive today if industry and the government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration did more to stop dust explosions in America’s factories, says a former government safety official.

Carolyn Merritt, former head of the government’s Chemical Safety Board, talks to 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley about the deadly problem of combustible dust this Sunday, June 8, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

On 4/30/08, the House , with a lot of support by Education and Labor Chairman George Miller and many others, passed the Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Act, H.R. 5522 by a vote of 247-165

From The Gavel

This bill would require the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue rules regulating combustible industrial dusts, like sugar dust, that can build up to hazardous levels and explode. In early February the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, exploded, killing 13 workers and severely injuring many more. OSHA and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which have launched a major investigation into the Imperial Sugar explosion, have concluded that the explosion was caused by combustible sugar dust. In 2006, following a series of fatal combustible dust explosions, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board conducted a major study of combustible dust hazards. It identified 281 combustible dust incidents between 1980 and 2005 that killed 119 workers, injured 718 others, and extensively damaged industrial facilities. OSHA has known about these dangers for years, but has failed to act. Even after the Chemical Safety Board urged OSHA in 2006 to issue rules controlling dust hazards, OSHA has never offered any indication that it is planning to issue such rules without being required to do so by law.

Learn more in our current legislation section >>

The Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on March 12 with testimony from Tammy Miser, sister of a victim of a 2003 combustible dust explosion in Huntington, IN:

Take a look at the other stories I have done on this (I know for a fact that OSHA, The Dept. Of Labor, Senate and Congress have read them), a lot of sites and bloggers have helped spread the word and raise awareness. Please forgive me for not mentioning them all right now, I need sleep too.

Tammy Miser is helping workers, I admire her commitment and it shows the power of bloggers to change the world.

You can help, sign the petition on the right.

Las Vegas: Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades win strike for better safety

“We’ll fix it. We’ll fix it.” But nothing ever happens. They’re pushing to get stuff done. They’re more interested in the money, than keeping the job safe.-Fred Medina, a member of Plasterers and Cement Masons Local 797

I was in the middle of writing this up last night, I got a ton of information from Gangbox: Construction Workers News Service, after 11 construction deaths in 18 months, and failure to negotiate a positive safety plan between the unions and Perini, the General Contractor, the Nevada Building and Construction Trades membership walked off the job late Monday night, a general strike, today I noticed at the AFL-CIO Blog that the workers have ended the strike, details below.

Heres a few links from Gangbox, in reverse order, oldest to newest.

• LAS VEGAS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS STRIKE OVER SAFETY… MGM Mirage CityCenter job shut down

Shortly after midnight Monday, construction workers picket MGM Mirage’s CityCenter to protest safety conditions at the project after talks between leaders from local building trades unions and the site’s general contractor, Perini Building Co., broke off earlier that night.

• Las Vegas construction safety strike spreads – from MGM Mirage CityCenter to the Cosmopolitan
• Las Vegas construction unions end safety strike at MGM Mirage Citycenter and Cosmopolitan

And todays news from the AFL-CIO Web Blog (6/4/08):

Las Vegas Construction Workers Win Safety Demands

Some 6,000 construction workers are back on the job today at MGM Mirage’s CityCenter in Las Vegas, after the project’s general contractor agreed to the workers’ demands to improve safety on a job site where six workers have been killed in the past 18 months.

The workers, members of the unions of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council (SNBCTC), walked off the construction site for a $9.2 billion hotel, casino, condominium, retail and entertainment complex Monday night, when talks with Perini Building Co. to improve safety broke down.

Steve Ross, the building council’s executive secretary-treasurer says the agreement is

…quite significant, not only for union construction workers but for construction workers in general. We want them all to be safe….We want this to resonate up and down Las Vegas Boulevard. The important thing is for these men and women to come to work in the morning and regardless of what shift they’re working, go home and be with their families.

Perini agreed to a three-point job safety outline that includes:

• An immediate worksite safety assessment by the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department’s (BCTD’s) Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR).

• Conducting and paying for on-site safety training for all workers administered by the center.

• Full job site access to union and safety officials.

The latest death occurred Saturday when Dustin Tarter, 39, a crane oiler, was killed when he was crushed between the crane’s counterweight system and the crane track. Five other workers have been killed at the CityCenter. Overall, 11 construction workers have been killed on Las Vegas Strip job sites in the past 18 months.

In March, a Las Vegas Sun investigative series reported a pattern of dangerous safety problems on city construction sites, including inadequate training, faulty equipment, job speed-ups, worker fatigue from excessive overtime and more.

Yesterday, Fred Medina, a member of Plasterers and Cement Masons (OP&CMIA) Local 797 told the paper:

We’re trying to make a statement that life is important. When you make a complaint about safety to safety managers, they keep saying, “We’ll fix it. We’ll fix it.” But nothing ever happens. They’re pushing to get stuff done. They’re more interested in the money, than keeping the job safe.

Ross said the agreement was a good first step in addressing the job safety problems in the estimated $32 billion building boom in the city.

I want to make this very clear, this isn’t the solution to the entire problem.

Statement: Mark H. Ayers, President of the Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Regarding Recent Fatalities In Construction Industry

Construction workers deserve to come home after a hard day’s work, healthy and alive.-Mark H. Ayers, President of the Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

From PR Newswire (5/30/08) :

WASHINGTON, May 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The recent spate of construction worksite fatalities – including a fatal tower crane collapse in New York City today and a disturbing trend of construction fatalities in Las Vegas, NV – have raised public awareness of the real dangers faced daily by those who work in the construction industry. Our hearts go out to the grieving families, friends and neighbors who loved and cherished those workers and bystanders killed in these accidents. All of us who work within the construction trades mourn with them.

Yet tomorrow, another three or four workers could be killed working in the construction industry. And two the next day. And four the next. The sad fact is an average of four construction workers die on the job every day in our nation. In 2006, 1,282 construction workers died from injuries they sustained on the job.

Yet, almost every death on a construction site is preventable.

For those of us working in the construction safety and health field, there is no such thing as an accident, only a preventable injury. Hazards abound on construction sites, but many hazards can be reduced or eliminated. Workers in a trench can be buried alive – if the walls of the trench are not properly supported. An ironworker, so comfortable walking on a steel beam 100 feet above ground that he treats it like a sidewalk, can slip on a thin patch of dried mud or a stray bolt and fall to his death – if he is not secured with a safety harness. Even a housepainter on a ladder 10 feet above the ground can just as easily suffer a fatal fall – if he or she is carrying tools up the ladder, is using a broken ladder, or one that will not support their weight. Electrocutions, being crushed by equipment or struck by an object are just some of the other dangers.

Construction workers suffer more than 22 percent of all work-related deaths, but these workers make up only 8 percent of the workforce.

Of course, every worker who is injured does not die. More than 400,000 construction workers are injured annually; some result in a career-ending or even permanent disability. But not every injury is obvious. Wet cement, which burns the skin of a worker who doesn’t have protective clothing, can go unnoticed because the caustic agents eat away at skin with little pain. A cement burn damages muscle tissue and can even require amputation of limbs.

Injuries aren’t the only hazards. Occupational illnesses, usually from exposure to hazardous compounds, make take years to develop, but they have long-term health consequences. Dust from cutting bricks or concrete block, welding fumes, and paint vapors contain all the components necessary for numerous lung ailments and lung cancer. Even the guy cutting your granite countertop is at risk for inhaling silica, which causes the lung disease silicosis.

The Governing Board of Presidents of the Building & Construction Trades Department will meet next week to examine this issue in greater detail and formulate recommendations designed to effectively improve jobsite safety in the construction industry.

Training and education of workers in safety and health measures is crucial. So is training and educating the supervisory personnel and employers who control the site to ensure that safety does not fall off the daily checklist. And OSHA must step up its enforcement of job safety rules and regulations.

Thousands of families are depending on industry stakeholders, as well as employers and well-trained workers, to look out for each other. Construction workers deserve to come home after a hard day’s work, healthy and alive.

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House passes Combustible Dust protections

With work from the labor federations, bloggers and the unfortunate accident at the Imperial Sugar facility, The US House has passed the Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Act, H.R. 5522 by a vote of 247-165.

According to The Gavel ( 4/30/08) :

This bill would require the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue rules regulating combustible industrial dusts, like sugar dust, that can build up to hazardous levels and explode. In early February the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, exploded, killing 13 workers and severely injuring many more. OSHA and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which have launched a major investigation into the Imperial Sugar explosion, have concluded that the explosion was caused by combustible sugar dust. In 2006, following a series of fatal combustible dust explosions, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board conducted a major study of combustible dust hazards. It identified 281 combustible dust incidents between 1980 and 2005 that killed 119 workers, injured 718 others, and extensively damaged industrial facilities. OSHA has known about these dangers for years, but has failed to act. Even after the Chemical Safety Board urged OSHA in 2006 to issue rules controlling dust hazards, OSHA has never offered any indication that it is planning to issue such rules without being required to do so by law.

Learn more in our current legislation section >>

The Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on March 12 with testimony from Tammy Miser, sister of a victim of a 2003 combustible dust explosion in Huntington, IN:

Tammy Miser: “Shawn’s back was towards the furnace when they were picking up their tools and there was a blast. Some say Shawn got up and started walking towards the door and then there was a second, more intense blast. Shawn didn’t die instantly. He laid on building floor while the aluminum dust burnt through his flesh and muscle tissue. The breaths that he took burnt his internal organs, and the blast took his eyesight. Shawn was still conscious and asking for help… And the two things that I can always remember and that never leave are his last words, ‘I’m in a world of hurt,’ and his last breaths.”

Thank you Tammy for your hard work to memorialize workers who die on the job.

Through your persistence you have helped to change the world for the next worker.

Please sign the Combustible Dust Petition

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From the pages of USMWF.ORG – United Support & Memorial For Workplace Fatalities, a petition now being sponsored by the Change to Win Federation, please sign it, end the massacre that is the lackadaisical OSHA voluntary standard. Enough is enough, please sign the petition.

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<br> <p align=”center”>[ Your browser does not support inline frames. ] H.R. 5522: Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Prevention Act of 2008>>> You can view the entire hearing here: Click here to watch archived hearing webcast » It is long about a little over 2 hours but if your really interested in how the system works, what some of our congress men think about OSHA as of lately or combustible dust it is a must see. You can also see individual parts here

<<<Give Us Combustible Dust Standards Between 1980 and 2005, 119 workers were killed and more than 700 injured in combustible dust explosions. These explosions were preventable — but even though the U.S. Chemical Safety Board recommended in 2006 that regulations needed to be put in place to protect workers from death or injury from combustible dust accidents, OSHA chose instead to maintain its program of voluntary corporate compliance. But as Former CSB Chairman Carolyn W. Merritt put it, “the problem with voluntary standards is not everyone volunteers.” This petition calls on OSHA and the Department of Labor to stop relying on voluntary compliance and issue a general industry standard for preventing combustible dust accidents in the workplace. Tell me more

To read more about the plight to change the way OSHA deals with industries that explosive dust is a factor, and the multi-tiered campaigning by labor and social advocacy groups who would like to see this changed, please check out Imperial Sugar explosion death toll rises to 13, OSHA backs lack of standard before Congress, Ga. creates own standard, and we need more signatures from 3/16/08

Doctors come forward to Congress explaining how they are coerced to mistreat and under treat injured workers

Wow, it’s about time, while there are some who screw the system, the majority of workplace injuries are sincere

A group representing 5,000 doctors, some who treat workers referred by employers and others working directly for companies, has come forward to speak out. According to Dr. Robert McLellan, president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine “Our members feel they are being methodically pressured … to under-treat and mistreat,” and adds “…This is a grave ethical concern for our members. It’s a grave medical concern.”.

I couldn’t agree more, when I worked in a warehouse, the “company’ got a new doctor for workplace injuries, the first red flag was that he had a Doberman pinscher in his office, the second was when he sent a fella back to work with a broken leg. It’s about time.

From The Charlotte Observer (4/19/08) :

Doctors feel push to downplay injuries
by Ames Alexander aalexander@charlotteobserver.com

Group tells OSHA of pressure by companies
NEW YORK -A leading group of occupational doctors is taking the unusual step of speaking out publicly against pressure from companies to downplay workplace injuries.

To outline their concerns, the physicians have sent a letter to federal workplace safety regulators and held a conference session in New York City on Monday. They’re also planning to testify before Congress.

If successful, their campaign could affect the treatment of injured workers and might help change how the government assesses workplace safety.

“Our members feel they are being methodically pressured … to under-treat and mistreat,” said Dr. Robert McLellan, president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. “…This is a grave ethical concern for our members. It’s a grave medical concern.”

His group represents 5,000 doctors; some treat workers referred to them by employers, while others work directly for companies.

Employers are supposed to record all injuries requiring time off work or medical treatment beyond first aid. It’s an honor system, and the injury logs are used by regulators and others to gauge plant safety. Low injury rates allow companies to avoid scrutiny from workplace safety regulators and may help managers earn four-figure bonuses.

In a hotel meeting room in New York, doctors said this helps explain why some employers urge them not to treat injuries in a way that would make them reportable. A cut, for instance, must be recorded if the worker gets stitches, one doctor told the room of more than 60 colleagues. But if the doctor simply covers the cut with a bandage, it doesn’t have to be reported.

Workplace injury and illness rates — a key factor in determining whether regulators inspect a company — have been declining nationwide in recent years. But some experts suspect that’s partly because employers aren’t reporting all on-the-job injuries.

McLellan, an associate professor at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire, says he thinks employers are “vastly underreporting” the extent of workplace injuries.

“Players in the system may willfully produce records that don’t reflect reality,” he said in an interview.

He said he grew more concerned about corporate pressures on doctors in September, during a conference in the Carolinas. Since then, he said, he has heard from dozens of doctors.

That led him to contact the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and he expects to discuss his concerns with top agency officials next month. His group will likely propose that OSHA more vigorously investigate the accuracy of company injury logs. It may also ask regulators to rely on a broader array of workplace safety measures — and to rewrite rules so that companies have fewer incentives to underreport.

McLellan also wants occupational doctors to testify before congressional committees examining workplace safety.

Ethical physicians sometimes lose business to those who bend to the wishes of employers, some doctors and workers’ compensation lawyers say.

In the Carolinas and some other states, injured workers generally must visit doctors approved by their employers if they want workers’ compensation to pay for the treatment. Companies incur higher costs for compensating workers for medical care and lost wages when they’re injured on the job.

Employers tend to send workers to doctors who can help them keep costs low and productivity high, according to attorneys who represent injured workers. Doctors become popular with companies if they rarely order time off work for injured employees, or if they seldom recommend costly treatments or conclude injuries are work-related, those lawyers say.

“If you get past the infirmary and sent to a doctor, you’re getting sent to a doctor that lives on the plant,” said lawyer David Davila, who until recently worked in Columbia, S.C.

Atlanta lawyer Bruce Carraway has represented more than 400 injured poultry workers and says that in more than half of those cases, independent physicians gave different assessments than the company doctors.

Dr. Josephus Bloem, an orthopedic surgeon from Rocky Mount, said he used to get referrals from Perdue Farms. But in the 1990s, the company became unhappy that he usually recommended surgery for workers with carpal tunnel syndrome.

“Their top doctor once visited me and complained that I was too expensive, which I took as pressure to review my approach,” Bloem said. Not long afterward, the referrals stopped.

Dr. Roger Merrill, Perdue’s chief medical officer, said the company had discovered that many workers who got less invasive treatment — such as splinting, exercise and ibuprofen — fared better than those who got surgery. “We had a better way to treat folks,” he said.

But Bloem wondered whether health concerns were the only factor. “In the end,” he said, “the money wins.”

In their quest to keep injuries off logs, company officials without medical training sometimes provide inappropriate treatment, doctors at the New York conference said.

Dr. Peggy Geimer, corporate medical director for a chemical company in Connecticut, spoke of the “tremendous amount of pressure” on company staff to provide treatment beyond their level of expertise.

She recalled how one supervisor dealt with an injured worker who spilled an acidic chemical on his arm: He applied potash, which is sometimes used to clean up chemical spills — unaware that it would only make the burn worse.

McLellan said he doesn’t recall his group ever before taking such a strong stance on the issue. As one doctor at Monday’s conference put it: “We need to treat the patient. Not the log.” — Staff Writers Karen Garloch and Franco Ordonez contributed.

The Charlotte Observer also adds at the bottom of the story a piece in which they speak about the poultry industry, in which they had an in depth investigation and report on about 2 months back, you can see more news on that in the related links below.

Many injuries unreported in poultry industry

In a recent investigation of working conditions in the poultry industry, the Observer found that many on-the-job injuries aren’t being reported.

One N.C. poultry company, House of Raeford Farms, has repeatedly failed to record injuries on government safety logs. The newspaper also found that some company first-aid attendants have prevented poultry workers from receiving care that would cost the company money.

House of Raeford says it follows the law, provides good care and strives to protect workers.

A record-keeping expert for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration told the Observer that his agency is allowing employers nationwide to vastly underreport the number of workplace injuries. The true rate for some industries, including poultry processors, is likely two to three times higher than government numbers suggest, Bob Whitmore said.

Al Jazeera writes on safety in NY sweatshop construction industry

Other workers say they are discouraged from going to see a doctor when injured. “He tell my friend, if you go to the hospital, tell them you hurt your foot playing soccer,”

In deepest sympathy of the worker who fell to his death today, while trying to find news on the story, I stumbled across this piece from AlJazeera.net (4/7/08):

Workers pay price of NYC boom
By Kristen Saloomey in New York

Activists are concerned that many construction workers in New York do not know their rights

New Yorkers who live next to construction sites – and there are thousands of active sites in the city – have been a little uneasy lately.

A few weeks ago, a crane 60 metres long tipped over, crushing a nearby building and killing seven people.

Four of them were construction workers. *Three of them were just hanging out on a Saturday afternoon.

And it was not an isolated incident. There has been a string of highrise construction accidents in recent months, including two window washers who plunged more than 40 floors to what should have been certain death.

Miraculously, one survived.

Further victims

The fact is, on average one construction worker dies a week in New York City – and for every one killed many more are injured.

Latinos make up the largest, and fastest growing, group of victims, like “Juan”, 35, who fell and split his head open on the job three years ago.

Juan had been thrilled to make as much as $130 a day at building sites, enough to take care of himself and his wife and four children back in Mexico.

He could make more money and work fewer hours in construction than he did washing dishes.

Then he fell through a hole in the floor, landing on his back in the cement basement. He lost a lot of blood and was unconscious in the hospital for a week.

Most construction fatalities are the result of falls. Of the 43 incidents that took place in New York in 2006, almost half of them involved Latinos, according to the Department of Labour Statistics.

Fatalities rose 87 per cent that year, the most recent for which numbers are available.

Luzdary Giraldo, an outreach worker for the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, says the construction industry targets immigrants who do not speak English well.

“They know they don’t know about their rights. And they know they will do their job, regardless,” Giraldo told Al Jazeera.

“If confronted with dangerous conditions the worker will go and do [the work] because it is the only option he has.”

Immigrant issue

Undocumented workers are easy to find. Every morning they group along 69th street in Queens, at a community centre on Staten Island, and in many other New York neighbourhoods where recent immigrants live.

Contractors in vans or pick-up trucks drive up looking for cheap labour. Typically, the workers swarm and there is a brief period of negotiation, then a few men jump in and are whisked off to job sites.

They have been in high demand. Spending on construction climbed seven per cent in 2007 to $26.2 billion, according to the New York Building Congress, a trade organisation.

According to New York Construction Workers United, about 64 per cent of the city’s 250,000 construction workers are immigrants who do the vast majority of non-union work.

Basic security equipment like harnesses and – in Juan’s case – hard hats are often lacking from job sites.

Those who do receive safety equipment are often forced to pay for it themselves. Many are afraid to complain because they do not want to be blacklisted or risk being deported if they are illegal.

No rights

This man said many injured workers
are too afraid to seek medical help

After two week in the hospital, Juan’s boss showed up and took him home.

“He told me it was nothing, I should go back to work the next week,” Juan told Al Jazeera through an interpreter. He never went back.

Other workers say they are discouraged from going to see a doctor when injured.

“He tell my friend, if you go to the hospital, tell them you hurt your foot playing soccer,” one man told Al Jazeera.

The friend too was afraid to seek medical help.

Giraldo says even undocumented workers have rights in the US, but many do not know it.

The employer is required to pay for on-the-job injuries, and they may also qualify for workers compensation.

Juan remembers being alone in his apartment and barely having the strength to call his wife, two weeks after the accident.

He stayed in bed for months before hiring a lawyer to help him get compensation. He still suffers from dizzy spells, hearing loss and headaches.

Economic pressures

Contractors pick up workers for jobs every
day in New York’s Queens neighborhood

Three years later, he has been offered a one-time workers compensation settlement of $35,000, but he does not think it is enough.

He says his two brothers in Wisconsin have been supporting him and his family and he needs more money to pay for his children’s education, so they can have a better life in Mexico.

“Like everybody, I come to this country for economic reasons,” Juan said.

Now his wife is planning to spend $3,000 to be smuggled across the Mexican border so she can join him in New York and work as a domestic while a grandmother raises the children back home.

Juan has never met his six year-old son, who was born after he left Mexico.

The crane accident has prompted municipalities from cities such as Philadelphia to Dallas to review the regulations governing construction sites – and many have found them lacking.

Advocates like Giraldo feel more has to be done to ensure undocumented workers receive the same treatment as others.

“They are responsible for building the economy,” she said.

And one thing is clear after the March crane accident that killed seven people – dangerous construction sites can put the entire public at risk.

*6 workers, 1 pedestrian