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posted by martyb on Tuesday July 04 2017, @03:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the ever-decreasing-state-of-workplace-safety dept.

The World Socialist Web Site reports

On Thursday [July 29], two workers at an electrical plant near Tampa, Florida were killed horrifically when a tank spilled molten slag onto them. Four others were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The plant is operated by Tampa Electric Company (TECO), the Tampa Bay area's largest electrical utility service. The company was purchased exactly one year ago to the day by Canadian energy company Emera Inc.

Christopher Irvin, 40, and Michael McCory, 60, were both killed, while Gary Marine Jr., 32, Antonio Navarrete, 21, Frank Lee Jones, 55, and Armando J. Perez, 56, all sustained life-threatening injuries. Only one of the men was a TECO employee while the other five were employees of Gaffin Industrial Services who were contracted to work at the plant.

[...] A TECO spokesperson reported that at the time of the incident workers were performing routine maintenance on a slag tank--a container which houses coal waste after it has been burned. Slag is a glass-like substance that forms when hot coal mixes with water; the slag tank catches leftover by-product that drips down from a coal-fired furnace into water.

The crystallized slag is still molten hot when it forms, and it was slag spillover that killed and injured the workers in question. An expert compared the gushing slag to "what comes out of a volcano".

Workers were reportedly trying to unplug a hole in the slag tank when the material spilled out. A spokesperson from TECO stated that slag filled a large part of the floor in the plant, "6 inches deep and 40 feet in diameter".

[...] An OSHA spokesperson stated in response to the incident, "It's the employer's responsibility to provide a safe and healthful workplace." Apparently, OSHA was already investigating a chemical exposure that happened at the same plant on May 24. This incident involved the release of anhydrous ammonia that caused four employees to be hospitalized.

TECO has a long history of similar incidents.

[...] [A statement from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 108] notes that the incident was entirely avoidable. "It's time to listen to the employees", it reads. "It's time to stop using contractors to do 'routine maintenance' when the safety of this maintenance has been questioned by employees. It's time to stop putting profit before safety. It's time to truly put safety first."


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by jmorris on Tuesday July 04 2017, @05:34PM (4 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday July 04 2017, @05:34PM (#534850)

    Industrial accidents happen. Thankfully they happen a lot less often these days in the 1st World, but that is mostly because we learned from the past. Lots of good people died horrible deaths as we painfully learned how to safely tame the science that makes our lifestyles possible. But it still isn't safe. That is part of why some jobs pay so much, it takes a hefty risk premium to get people to be willing to risk life and limb to keep our lights on. And when things go wrong the lawyers feast while the engineers study the accident report and try to prevent it from happening again.

    This article is pretty transparent though, beyond the obviously corrupt source, it is plain this is just union thugs grandstanding on the barely buried corpses of good hard working men to push for more union membership dues to steal.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @06:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @06:54PM (#534884)

    Tactful as ever.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Tuesday July 04 2017, @07:38PM

    by sjames (2882) on Tuesday July 04 2017, @07:38PM (#534899) Journal

    Funny you say that considering that workplace safety wasn't even a thing until unions demanded it.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 04 2017, @09:28PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday July 04 2017, @09:28PM (#534938) Journal

    If it weren't for unions, many of them indeed actual hardcore socialists, the reforms in workplace safety would never have happened in the first place.

    When you get to Hell there will be a big pot of molten slag waiting for you.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 04 2017, @10:45PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday July 04 2017, @10:45PM (#534961) Journal

    Huh?

    beyond the obviously corrupt source,

    jmorris. Nuf said.

    it is plain this is just union thugs

    Yeah, those darn thugs, trying to save people from being burned alive the the flaming greed of Power Companies!

    grandstanding on the barely buried corpses of good hard working men

    jmorris would not know a good hard-working person even if they were dead. The entire concept is foreign to jmorris. In fact, jmorris may be foreign.

    to push for more union membership due to steal

    You idiot, jmorris! This was at a TECO coal-fired power plant, not a steel foundry! Where is your reading comprehension, jmorris? This may be a case for the SJW "Special" Squad.