Contractor dies in accident....

Over the past decade the number of contractors working in our plants has grown while the number of aluminium workers has decreased. Contractors have taken over numerous duties such as custodial, maintenance, security, etc. Here is a recent story involving a contractor:

A contractor was killed during the week June 22, 2014 while working in the recycling area of the aluminum plant in the United States, a company spokesperson said.

The contractor's name and details about the accident have not been released. The deceased had been working at the plant for over seven years.

"We are cooperating fully with the authorities in their ongoing investigation, and until it is complete, we are limited in what we can share," Aluminium company spokesperson wrote in an email.

The local sheriff's deputies, local ambulance service and aluminium company officials were called to the industrial accident around noon one day.

It was not immediately clear exactly what the contractor was doing when the accident occurred.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the contractor's family during this difficult time," aluminium company spokesperson wrote. "(Company name) takes seriously the safety of every person who comes into our plants, including employees, contractors and other visitors."

Update

Little information has been released about the death of a contractor at the aluminum plant in the United States, but the national agency for occupational safety is investigating. "We did begin an investigation on the accident on Monday," Occupational Safety and Health Administration Area Director said. "OSHA law requires that whenever there is a fatality, the employer has to notify OSHA within 8 hours of it happening." Results are expected to take up to four months.

Local sheriff's investigators said that the industrial accident occurred at the facility at in the early afternoon. The aluminium company spokesperson said that was working in the remelt and recycling area of the aluminum plant when he was fatally injured. The worker was employed by a temporary employment agency, as a metal resources operator, the spokesperson said. He worked in the plant over seven years, according to the aluminium company.

A statement from the company said that it would not share additional details of worker's death, citing an ongoing investigation.

Investigator of the sheriff's department, also citing an ongoing investigation, would not say how the worker died. Investigators have an idea of what he was doing and what happened, but have a reason to continue their investigation.

OSHA director said that typically, their investigations entail going to the accident site, taking photos and interviewing current and past employees.

Investigators are looking to determine if the employer has violated the OSHA Act, he said. If there are violations, OSHA will issue citations and at that point, the details of the investigation will become public, he said.

As a contractor, the worker was not represented by the union, local representative said.

Local union representative said he had spoken with several of the unionized employees who had worked alongside the deceased work, and they all had "absolutely nothing but honestly wonderful things to say about this kid. He was very popular, an excellent worker. It was a tragic accident."

The deceased co-workers described him as someone everybody liked, easygoing and a tremendous worker, local union representative said. "Anything he was asked to do or asked to help with, he was there." Local union representative said that the union was not involved in the investigation, but from everything he'd heard, worker’s death was a fluke accident.

"An aluminum plant is a dangerous place to work in general," Local union representative said. "Unfortunately in this business, these extreme type accidents do happen."

He said that he trusts OSHA will do a thorough investigation into the incident.

"Unions, plants, people always learn from accidents," he said. "OSHA will do a thorough and unbiased investigation. I would certainly imagine that the plant would follow each and everyone of their recommendations."

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog offers our sincere condolences to the deceased worker's friends, family, and coworkers. We hope that counseling services are offered for those who request it. 

Hopefully in the future the local union representative who was quoted in the news media article will choose their words more carefully or respectively. The APSB has issues with the “worker’s death was a fluke accident.” The dictionary lists the definition of fluke as unlikely chance occurrence, especially a surprising piece of luck. Neither of those definitions relate to this incident or any incident where a fatality occurs. The APSB would have chosen the word “tragic” instead of “fluke”. The dictionary lists the definition of tragic as causing or characterized by extreme distress or sorrow. The sorrow and extreme distress that this worker’s passing will not go away. It may ease overtime, but the family, friends and coworkers of the deceased will never forgot him nor the incident that took his life.

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