Steelworker’s thoughts

The dangerous conditions that are a part of work in a steel mill have always make safety an important issue. Oftentimes the most difficult task in safety awareness came from trying to convince the workers themselves of its importance. There is a Union Safety representative, presently Jim Mulholland, and a Company Safety representative, presently Ed Breach. There is also a safety committee among the workers who actively support safety in the mill. These committees are trying to get workers to think about safety and how it affects themselves. They believe that this approach would be more effective than having someone else breathing down their throat. Occasionally, workers are willing to risk an accident in order to get the job done.

In the words of Michael Stubljar, a retired Steelworker,
“If safety interfered with production, then you threw safety out the window. Get the steel out, that’s the main thing. That’s what pays you, safety don’t pay you nothing.”
There are always small accidents that are taken for granted. Burns, scrapes, bruises, or even the loss of an appendage or one’s sight is not uncommon.

These accident victims oftentimes return to the same job that they were injured on, for example, Michael Bratina, another retired Steelworker.
“There are risks…I had to free up this shear, and the machine’s automatically supposed to shut off when this happens. I assumed it was off, but it wasn’t and it sliced my hand right off, just like that.”
He returned to the mill, working for twenty more years in the same department, maintenance and he still believes that there was a good push for safety in the mill even though the safety program is better today.

“Bethlehem Steel had a good safety program, they did you know. There were lapses in it, but they preached safety…with the new rules today, the kids would sue Bethlehem Steel to death. The dirt we would breath in on a good sunny day, you could look in the open hearth when the sun shone down, it was nothing but dust…A lot of the steelworkers didn’t live to see sixty-five. If they hadn’t worked there, they might have lived to see a hundred.”

Deaths in the Steel Mill

There is a plaque hanging in the Steelworker’s Union building as a memorial to the Steelworkers who have lost their lives while on the job and their families. Following are a sample of the type of obituaries on file in the Union for the Company:

  • Juro Sasa – January 2, 1912, Struck by cross beam of gantry crane in Rail Mill Yard.
  • Tomo Klobucar – October 28, 1925, Crane & draft of cars collided at cross-over. Crane upset and fell on him.
  • Jervey L. Brown – April 18, 1936, Attempting to put rosin on slipping conveyor belt at san grinding machine with small wooden wedge, wedge caught between belt and end pulley, pulling him into the machine.
  • Jeremiah J. O’Gorman – September 25, 1942, While shoveling dolomite to bank open door of #83 furnace, reaction of heat caused flames to shoot from furnace setting his clothing on fire.
  • James Lawyer – February 21, 1959, While attempting to extinguish a fire on the floor in vicinity of kerosene drums, the head of one of the drums blew off enveloping him and igniting his clothing. Second and third degree burns of entire body.
  • Zebdee P. Freeman – June 10, 1974, Deceased, a platform man, was last seen standing near his safety equipment locker in the Mold Yard by his foreman. Approximately fifteen minutes later his body was found 121 feet up-river in a depression at the No. 3 switch. Deceased had apparently been struck and run over by a Narrow Guage train which was operating in the area
  • Kyle Lehew – May 5, 1988, Fell distance of 50′ to rubble pit while attempting to avoid being splashed by hot metal from a continuous caster ladle. Climbed over railing on to some piping and fell from there
  • James G. Jones – February 1, 1990, Brother Jones was performing maintenance (welding)work approximately 30′ off the ground, in the area of the 207 Furnace. No safety belt was being used while he was standing on a piece of expanded metal decking which spanned an opening to the floor, which apparently collapsed under Brother Jones’s weight.
  • J. H. Hutchinson – February 14, 1996, When the 60′ spreader was slightly raised, the release of pressure from the magnet allowed the rail to fall and strike Mr. Hutchinson on his thighs. The rail, which weighed 3,690 lbs., came to rest on Mr. Hutchinson’s right foot, pinning him to the ground. A pry bar was used to free Mr. Hutchinson and he walked to the plant ambulance.

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