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An Overview
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The American Steel Industry has a long history of hazardous jobs, corporate safety programs, and active union involvement since the 1940s. The United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO, (USW), represents over 80,000 workers in basic steel facilities – the majority of workers in the steel industry. USW-represented facilities in basic steel generally have 8 to over 5,000 employees. The USW represents members at a total of 126 different employers in Standard Industry Code (SIC) 331 in 29 states including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
The steel industry has seen rapid changes in technology and in the ways work is organized.
Changes in the industry have had a dramatic impact on industry safety programs. Experienced managers and workers have left the industry. Many haven’t been replaced. Both workers and managers have seen their job duties increased and combined.
Corporate safety and health programs have been cut back. After large voluntary retirement programs in 2002, the steel industry has seen an increase in production, leading to the hiring of young and inexperienced workers. These workers need extensive job training, which they do not always receive. Many workers are currently working schedules that involve extended hours and days.
MODULE ON WORK ORGANIZATION
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Accidents Rise in Steel Sector, Sparking Closer Look at Safety",
U.S. BUSINESS NEWS,
by Paul Gladder, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, January 26, 2005
Steelmakers and union officials are concerned about the increasing number of fatalities and accidents in North America that have coincided with the rise of production and demand and reversed a decade long decline in injuries and deaths.
Over the years, steelmakers have greatly improved safety records by automating dangerous processes once handled by workers and replacing old equipment with more-efficient machines. Productivity, as well as safety, improved in the process. In 2003, the global industry made about 600 tons of steel per employee, up from 200 tons per employee in the 1980s.
New labor pacts provide more flexibility, allowing companies to reduce the number of job classifications and move workers around to areas where they might not be as experienced. Moreover, many experienced workers took early-retirement packages offered by companies to help reduce costs. "With the turnover in the steel industry, there are a lot of people doing jobs they have never done before," says Mike Wright, Director of Safety and Health for the Steelworkers Union.
Those less-experienced workers arrived just as steel demand picked up, prompting steelmakers to ramp up production quickly. U.S. steel production rose 7% in 2004 to 104 million tons, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute Economists say higher production means more hours worked and more chances for accidents and fatalities.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. USW has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is USW endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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THE ONE THING THAT REMAINS CONSTANT IS THE USW.
The steel industry is heavily unionized, and almost all union workers are represented by the USW. The union has a highly active Health, Safety and Environment Department and more than a thousand local union safety and health committee members throughout all segments of the industry. Many large steel plants have had full-time union safety and health representatives since the 1980s. The 2003-2004 Labor Agreements with several large producers gave the USW new rights and responsibilities in the area of health and safety training.
Fatalities, Injuries and Illnesses in Basic Steel
The steel industry has historically been, and continues to be a dangerous industry.
Of the total number of fatalities documented by the USW, the most frequent job categories/areas were: maintenance, followed by transportation, steelmaking, blast furnace, coke plant and melt shop (see Figure 2).
The majority of fatalities were associated with incidents involving cranes, in-plant railroads, maintenance personnel, or failure in fall protection systems. Workers employed in basic steel facilities are at greater risk for non-fatal injuries and illnesses than workers in other general industry jobs.
For example, as indicated in Figure 3, the 2002 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) total recordable case rate for basic steel products is 62% greater than the total recordable injuries for private industry. In addition, the more severe days away from work (cases with lost workdays) for basic steel is 70% higher than the private industry rate for lost workdays.
From a review of recent OSHA 300 logs from USW-represented facilities in basic steel, injuries and illnesses included (but were not limited to) heat stress; burns; strains and sprains; hearing loss; eye injuries; cuts, lacerations and contusions; and fractures.
UNDERLYING CAUSES OF INJURY IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY & IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH & SAFETY
The USW Health, Safety and Environmental Department manage a database of fatalities dating from 1980,that has information on 813 fatalities. Three hundred and thirty-six (336) of these fatalities occurred in the steel industry.
An analysis of the majority of fatalities in the database shows that:
· Most of the fatalities were not caused by a direct violation of OSHA, MSHA, or equivalent Canadian standards.
· OSHA frequently cites the General Duty Clause, in fatal accidents, and violations of standards sometimes are contributing factors. But, in most cases, the most important factors were not addressed by specific OSHA standards. Two conclusions can be drawn from this finding: 1) OSHA standards are effective in reducing fatal accidents, and (2) a safety program that focuses only on OSHA compliance will miss the most important causes of death – and probably injury as well – in the steel and other industries.
· A large number of fatalities occurred under unusual conditions such as process upsets, equipment failures, and non-routine maintenance and repair operations. A periodic walk-around inspection by safety personnel would almost never have spotted those unusual conditions. In many cases, the plant safety department and the joint union-management safety and health committee did not know about the unusual condition until after the fact. The only people who knew the conditions on the job were the workers doing it. Therefore, an effective training program should give all workers the intellectual “tools” they need to analyze the safety and “what-if” situations of any job they are asked to do and a procedure for challenging unsafe conditions on the spot.
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"Steelworkers perform myriad of tasks: Consolidation forces workers to learn different tasks",
News-Democrat, by Will Buss, April 5, 2005
Downsizing in many companies has also meant that workers are doing a variety of new jobs that they may not have been trained for. Take for example, the story of Dave Triplo, a pipe fitter at U.S. Steel Corp.-Granite City Works plant.
The downsizing meant steelworkers would each have to assume additional duties to fill the void. Which is why Triplo was not only working as a pipe fitter, but he also joined the millwrights in performing mechanical work overnight. "It's all hands-on when you work with another guy," he said. "That's when you learn."
The casting machine Triplo was told to clean back in December 2003 was a metal-sorting machine that forms steel into 9-inch thick and 6-foot wide slab of varying lengths. The only way to get inside to clean the 20-foot-tall machine's water sprayers is to enter atop the apparatus' 6-foot-long, 9-inch-wide opening. Triplo was given the task after he and fellow steelworkers were given a "fit test." Because he could fit his 5-foot-7, 160-pound body through the entry, Triplo was assigned to clean the machine. "He told me that if I fit in that mold, I (would have to go in)," he said. "No 'ifs,' 'ands' or 'buts.'
Triplo decided to go inside, but almost inside he said he could not stabilize himself. The machine has a series of about a dozen steel rolls. He was supposed to use them as a ladder to get down inside and climb back out. But he said his large leather steel-toed boots kept him from standing on the rolls and he felt that he would fallen the rest of the way -- about 16 feet -- if he went in all the way. Triplo climbed out and refused to go back in. He was fired on the spot.
Another theme of past articles, illustrated by Triplo's experience, is that workers are being disciplined and fired for complaining about unsafe conditions or reporting accidents:
In Granite City, United Steelworkers of America Local 1899 financial secretary Gary Gaines said it is understood that those reporting accidents on the job will be blamed for being careless, "not paying attention" or "not following procedures."
As a result, workers face suspension, or as in Triplo's case, termination.
Triplo eventually got his job back along with $38,000 in back pay. But the main problems are still there: Wright said the steel industry and others need to do a better job of designing safety procedures and make sure workers are properly trained.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. USW has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is USW endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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The USW has tracked fatalities in factories from the Standard Industrial Classification code 331 (steel works, blast furnaces, and rolling and finishing mills) since 1980. To date (1980-June, 2004) we have identified 336 workers who have died from severe traumatic injuries while performing their jobs. As Figure 1 indicates, the USW has identified seven facilities represented by different USW Local Unions that have had the largest number of fatalities since 1980.
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