Link: Inside Alabama's auto boom - low wages, little training, crushed limbs

[Displaced Bama Fan]

Sounds like Norma Rae needs to rise up again.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mark...-training-crushed-limbs/ar-BByCt0v?li=BBnb7Kz

On June 18, Elsea was working the day shift when a computer flashed “Stud Fault” on Robot 23. Bolts often got stuck in that machine, which mounted pillars for sideview mirrors onto dashboard frames. Elsea was at the adjacent workstation when the assembly line stopped. Her team called maintenance to clear the fault, but no one showed up. A video obtained by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration shows Elsea and three co-workers waiting impatiently. The team had a quota of 420 dashboard frames per shift but seldom made more than 350, says Amber Meadows, 23, who worked beside Elsea on the line. “We were always trying to make our numbers so we could go home,” Meadows says. “Everybody was always tired.”

After several minutes, Elsea grabbed a tool—on the video it looks like a screwdriver—and entered the screened-off area around the robot to clear the fault herself. Whatever she did to Robot 23, it surged back to life, crushing Elsea against a steel dashboard frame and impaling her upper body with a pair of welding tips. A co-worker hit the line’s emergency shut-off. Elsea was trapped in the machine—hunched over, eyes open, conscious but speechless.

No one knew how to make the robot release her. The team leader jumped on a forklift and raced across the factory floor to the break room, where he grabbed a maintenance man and drove him back on his lap. The technician, from a different part of the plant, had no idea what to do.

Tempers erupted as Elsea’s co-workers shoved the frightened man, who was Korean and barely spoke English, toward the robot, demanding he make it retract. He fought them off and ran away, Meadows says. When emergency crews arrived several minutes later, Elsea was still stuck. The rescue workers finally did what Elsea had failed to do: locked out the machine’s emergency power switch so it couldn’t reenergize again—a basic precaution that all factory workers are supposed to take before troubleshooting any industrial robot. Ajin, according to OSHA, had never given the workers their own safety locks and training on how to use them, as required by federal law. Ajin is contesting that finding.

An ambulance took Elsea to a nearby hospital; from there she was flown by helicopter to a trauma center in Birmingham. She died the next day. Her mom still hasn’t heard a word from Ajin’s owners or senior executives. They sent a single artificial flower to her funeral.

 

[92tide]

meh, not to worry, the invisible hand will re-attach the severed limbs. what we don't need is more job killing regulations.

 

[Displaced Bama Fan]

meh, not to worry, the invisible hand will re-attach the severed limbs. what we don't need is more job killing regulations.

I make more money an hour umping baseball than those poor souls...and that's just a p/t gig for me and all I have to worry about is the occasional foul tip that hits me when I'm behind the plate.

 

[92tide]

I make more money an hour umping baseball than those poor souls...and that's just a p/t gig for me and all I have to worry about is the occasional foul tip that hits me when I'm behind the plate.

i can't wait to see how awesome all of those new coal mining jobs are going to be once the shackles of mine safety regulations are removed

 

[Displaced Bama Fan]

i can't wait to see how awesome all of those new coal mining jobs are going to be once the shackles of mine safety regulations are removed

Black lung for everybody!

 

[Displaced Bama Fan]

i can't wait to see how awesome all of those new coal mining jobs are going to be once the shackles of mine safety regulations are removed

WV new slogan (stealing from Wedding Crashers) - Black lung and drug overdoses! That's what West Virginia does!

 

[GreatMarch]

This article does not seem to jive with the reality that my family sees. We have family members, friends and neighbors who work for Mercedes (they showed the Mercedes line in an article photo)or a supplier, and everyone we know that works there live in $185,000 plus homes in nice neighborhoods and no one that we know has a complaint about working there. That is not to say there may not be issues (employee safety and compensation but I have been told that training is never ending) but these people have been there for a minimum of 5 years (of the people we know) and all of them have yearly vacations and no one has had any foreclosure issues. Granted, we do not know every detail of their personal finances but I have yet to hear a negative word by anyone working at Mercedes.

Now, as far as Kia and Hyundai, which are built in different regions of the state, I have heard that they have many issues with getting quality employees. For example, Hyundai will bring large numbers of prospective employees in for two weeks of training and introduction to work in their plant (as does many of the suppliers). At the end of the two weeks they notify many, if not all, of the prospective employees that the want to offer employment to them and that they must go to a local lab for a urinalysis test and that is where the problem comes in. Probably 95% of the prospective employees never show back up and never stop by the lab for the drug test. It does seem that the training program of the Korean automakers (even beyond the training this girl should have received) in this state is not as intensive as Mercedes or even Honda in east Alabama.

 

[Jon]

My first job out of college was at MBUSI, the Mercedes Plant in Vance. It was prior to their going live and actually producing vehicles but the attention to detail and safety were quintessentially Mercedes. I never felt like it would be a problem there (and I believe this article confirms that)

One of the more interesting aspects of that job, at that time is that they hired a bunch of industry old timers from both Detroit and Germany so hanging out with those guys always involved interesting and often terrifying stories. One that has stuck with me more than 20 years later came from a guy we brought down from Detroit who was retired after 30 years from a GM Stamping facility in MI. He told a story of a of a laborer slipping into a steel stamping machine and getting his chest crushed and stuck. The paramedics came and quickly determined that as soon as they pulled the press back they were going to lose him, so rather than allowing him to die on the spot without saying goodbye to his family they drugged him and went and got his wife and parents so he could say goodbye. I've toured dozens of factories since then, selling manufacturing IT Systems around SAP early in my career and it is always top of mind when they discuss safety on the tours.

Manufacturing is a dangerous business

 

[Displaced Bama Fan]

The paramedics came and quickly determined that as soon as they pulled the press back they were going to lose him, so rather than allowing him to die on the spot without saying goodbye to his family they drugged him and went and got his wife and parents so he could say goodbye.

Sounds vaguely familiar to the scene in "Signs" when Mel Gibson goes to see his wife who is pinned between a tree and a car. Ugh!

 

[Jon]

Sounds vaguely familiar to the scene in "Signs" when Mel Gibson goes to see his wife who is pinned between a tree and a car. Ugh!

that scene gave me a flashback

 

[GreatMarch]

My first job out of college was at MBUSI, the Mercedes Plant in Vance. It was prior to their going live and actually producing vehicles but the attention to detail and safety were quintessentially Mercedes. I never felt like it would be a problem there (and I believe this article confirms that)

One of the more interesting aspects of that job, at that time is that they hired a bunch of industry old timers from both Detroit and Germany so hanging out with those guys always involved interesting and often terrifying stories. One that has stuck with me more than 20 years later came from a guy we brought down from Detroit who was retired after 30 years from a GM Stamping facility in MI. He told a story of a of a laborer slipping into a steel stamping machine and getting his chest crushed and stuck. The paramedics came and quickly determined that as soon as they pulled the press back they were going to lose him, so rather than allowing him to die on the spot without saying goodbye to his family they drugged him and went and got his wife and parents so he could say goodbye. I've toured dozens of factories since then, selling manufacturing IT Systems around SAP early in my career and it is always top of mind when they discuss safety on the tours.

Manufacturing is a dangerous business

This story is also told in the Navy about an Airframer and the landing gear of a P-3. Had to bring the guy's wife to the hangar to say goodbye to him before they removed him from the landing gear because he was going to die once it was removed. I kid you not, same exact details to the story about bringing the guy's loved ones in.

 

[Jon]

This story is also told in the Navy about an Airframer and the landing gear of a P-3. Had to bring the guy's wife to the hangar to say goodbye to him before they removed him from the landing gear because he was going to die once it was removed. I kid you not, same exact details to the story about bringing the guy's loved ones in.

i wonder if they are both true or both false

 

[Wilson Monroe]

This is the area I used to work in. Industrial Safety. Sad to say this, but the lady wasn't trained to lock out equipment or know inherent dangers in working on it. She crossed a safety barrier. Safety professionals fight this all the time. People get impatient and try to perform a task that they are not trained to do and sometimes it proves fatal. She should not have been issued a LOTO (lock-out/tag-out) lock and tag since she was not trained to the task. Only people that are trained to the task are issued locks since they are authorized to perform the work.

Everyone that works on a line is supposed to be told this all the time to pound it into their head. I sincerely hope that the safety professionals at this site were doing that and someone went rogue. You can't prevent rogue, only warn against it.

I'm not trying to be cold to this lady and her family. I promise. I'm glad I don't work in a plant any longer.

 

[Jon]

This is the area I used to work in. Industrial Safety. Sad to say this, but the lady wasn't trained to lock out equipment or know inherent dangers in working on it. She crossed a safety barrier. Safety professionals fight this all the time. People get impatient and try to perform a task that they are not trained to do and sometimes it proves fatal. She should not have been issued a LOTO (lock-out/tag-out) lock and tag since she was not trained to the task. Only people that are trained to the task are issued locks since they are authorized to perform the work.

Everyone that works on a line is supposed to be told this all the time to pound it into their head. I sincerely hope that the safety professionals at this site were doing that and someone went rogue. You can't prevent rogue, only warn against it.

I'm not trying to be cold to this lady and her family. I promise. I'm glad I don't work in a plant any longer.

the story implied that the management of the plant pressured them so much that they knew if they waited for the right people to come fix it that they would be slammed by management for under delivering on their production quota.

 

[Wilson Monroe]

Safety professionals compete against production in every location that I have ever been to. Some more than others, but to some degree everywhere. So many of the management folks I have dealt with look at safety as a burden on hitting production numbers. I've had more than one tell me that without production there would be no plant and no safety jobs. As part of the training I received becoming a safety professional we were told how to convince management on the production side that safety has monetary value.

 

[TrampLineman]

It seems Mercedes is the exception to the poor habits of the auto-makers here in state. The state has let Honda run roughshod over Talladega County, basically just throwing people away once they are wore out and fight tooth and nail to not give them workers comp or even time to recuperate and come back to work. They have even bought out a good bit of the full time Honda employed workers so they can replace them with a temp worker from NSE, Voith and others employed by Elwood Staffing, Omni Staffing and Allegiance Staffing. First time your kid is sick and you don't have Mom & Dad to watch them, you better kiss your tail goodbye because you'll be near the chopping block. Yet the state government wants us to bow down to them because they are keeping jobs here, if you want to call them that. Truly a shame and this is just an example of Honda in Lincoln.

 

[TrampLineman]

the story implied that the management of the plant pressured them so much that they knew if they waited for the right people to come fix it that they would be slammed by management for under delivering on their production quota.

I can see that angle too, but some plants like Honda make them stay over whether you like it or not to hit a number they are happy with. That can lead people to do things they shouldn't in the first place.

Just like in my trade, we've seen non-union contractors run crews into the ground and only care about making money on a job they severely underbid. So then you have "linemen" who chances are not true linemen, getting burnt and/or dying (generally your first mistake is your last here) because they were pushed into cutting a corner and it getting caught in the aftermath having a new wife bury the bread winner, while they company blames the linemen for screwing up (but never for lack of training they never get).

Now granted that doesn't happen for every contractor nor am I saying non-union linemen are not true linemen, but it happens believe it or not.

And these days, OSHA is about worthless. They'll fine a company $500,000 then after the company appeals it's generally dropped to $500. They could care less about hurting companies in the pocketbook that are fiscally responsible. I can only think of a few cases where foremen were actually charged in deaths, that kind of got folks into line for a while but once they realized OSHA is too scared to continue, they went back to the old ways.

 

[Jon]

I can see that angle too, but some plants like Honda make them stay over whether you like it or not to hit a number they are happy with. That can lead people to do things they shouldn't in the first place.

Just like in my trade, we've seen non-union contractors run crews into the ground and only care about making money on a job they severely underbid. So then you have "linemen" who chances are not true linemen, getting burnt and/or dying (generally your first mistake is your last here) because they were pushed into cutting a corner and it getting caught in the aftermath having a new wife bury the bread winner, while they company blames the linemen for screwing up (but never for lack of training they never get).

Now granted that doesn't happen for every contractor nor am I saying non-union linemen are not true linemen, but it happens believe it or not.

And these days, OSHA is about worthless. They'll fine a company $500,000 then after the company appeals it's generally dropped to $500. They could care less about hurting companies in the pocketbook that are fiscally responsible. I can only think of a few cases where foremen were actually charged in deaths, that kind of got folks into line for a while but once they realized OSHA is too scared to continue, they went back to the old ways.

Sad to hear

In my business it's never life or death but I've seen laws broken too for a dollar. Without knowing statutes of limitations I will stop right there

 

[92tide]

Safety professionals compete against production in every location that I have ever been to. Some more than others, but to some degree everywhere. So many of the management folks I have dealt with look at safety as a burden on hitting production numbers. I've had more than one tell me that without production there would be no plant and no safety jobs. As part of the training I received becoming a safety professional we were told how to convince management on the production side that safety has monetary value.

did it involve hitting their foot with a sledge hammer?

 

[92tide]

It seems Mercedes is the exception to the poor habits of the auto-makers here in state. The state has let Honda run roughshod over Talladega County, basically just throwing people away once they are wore out and fight tooth and nail to not give them workers comp or even time to recuperate and come back to work. They have even bought out a good bit of the full time Honda employed workers so they can replace them with a temp worker from NSE, Voith and others employed by Elwood Staffing, Omni Staffing and Allegiance Staffing. First time your kid is sick and you don't have Mom & Dad to watch them, you better kiss your tail goodbye because you'll be near the chopping block. Yet the state government wants us to bow down to them because they are keeping jobs here, if you want to call them that. Truly a shame and this is just an example of Honda in Lincoln.

as much as people like to diss unions, they serve a very needed purpose.