This is a follow-up to a story we posted 6 years ago. We chose not
to name the company nor the workers. Why? Well our goal is never to place blame
on the company nor the worker but our hope that by bringing awareness to these
incidents will prevent future recurrence. It is an honorable goal. But after
reading this story we wonder if we should have listed the names of the
indicted. Here’s the story.
Two former Aluminum executives were federally indicted for
allegedly covering up circumstances in the death of one worker caused by unsafe
machinery.
The
plant’s former general manager at the time, and the former safety coordinator,
are both named in a four-count indictment handed up one day during the week of ,
according to a release from the U.S. Northern District Court.
The
indictment alleges the two men made false statements to investigators from the
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, withheld an email regarding
the machinery’s safety and persuaded other workers to recant their previous
email warnings about the machinery’s safety, “including by suggesting their
jobs might be in jeopardy.”
A worker only 21 years old was killed in October 2012 when racks
containing hot aluminum product weighing between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds that he
was pushing on a conveyor tipped over, crushing him. The Mahoning County
Coroner’s office ruled the worker’s death by “mechanical asphyxiation” was an
accident.
Another worker also pushing the racks, was hospitalized for
severe burns but survived.
The
indictment states the two men and several other plant workers were aware the
conveyor system was in need of maintenance as early as 2009, and it cites
numerous emails wherein employees stress the importance of the repairs, though
they ultimately never happened.
“Someone
is seriously going to get hurt or even killed because of this,” reads an email
sent from one employee on Oct. 26, 2012, just four days before worker’s death.
During
an OSHA investigation launched the day after worker’s death, The two men provided
numerous investigators several emails but allegedly withheld a June 2012 email
in which (the former plant manager) stated he personally witnessed the conveyor
rollers failing and wrote, “[w]e are going to wait until someone gets seriously
[injured] or possibly killed when a rack falls on them.”
The
former plant manager and former safety manager allegedly coerced employees
included in those email chains to draft statements recanting their previous
emails about the conveyor’s safety concerns, in an effort to receive a lesser
OSHA violation and avoid certain penalties, including the company’s publication
in OSHA’s “Severe Violator” list, the indictment states.
“There
was nothing no one or (aluminium company) could have done to prevent this
anymore than what we did,” wrote a shipping supervisor who later told investigators
they wrote the statement because they feared losing their job.
The
two men each face three counts for allegedly obstructing justice and OSHA
proceedings and for conspiring to obstruct justice. The former safety officer
faces an additional count of making false statements, for allegedly telling
investigators he was unaware of any instances in which the conveyors failed. An
attorney representing the aluminium company, said neither of the two managers remained
with the company after the worker’s death. No other plant employees were
terminated, he said.
“The
company has cooperated with the investigation and continues to cooperate with
the investigation,” he said.
We remember this incident in detail. We have
spoken to thousands of workers about this incident. We talked about the
horrific death of that young worker. While he was being asphyxiated the worker was being
burned by extrusions that came out of the furnace. In the future we will
address this incident to plant managers and department managers. To emphasize
to them the moral obligation of doing what is right. No doubt this incident was
going to occur. The former plant manager even predicted it. For unknown reasons
they never fixed the problem(s) and a young worker died a horrible death and
another suffered serious burns.
We pray that the injured
worker has recovered fully from his burns and is leaving a productive life
today. We pray that the deceased worker’s family finally resolve some sort of
closure with this criminal case.
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