Labor & Employment Law

Refinery Blast Claims Sixth Victim

By Mike Hall

A sixth worker has died after an April 2 explosion at a Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Wash., where five United Steelworkers members died in the blast. A seventh worker remains hospitalized.

Lew Janz, 41, died last night. He was a supervisor who had been a longtime union member. Union leaders say Janz was very well-liked by other union workers. Matt Gumbel, 34, a USW member, remains in the Seattle Harborview Medical Center burn unit in serious condition.

The other USW members killed in the blast were Matthew C. Bowen, 31; Darrin J. Hoines, 43; Daniel J. Aldridge, 50; Kathryn Powell, 29; and Donna Van Dreumel, 36.

According to the USW, Tesoro has a history of serious health and safety violations. The Associated Press reports that Washington State Department of Labor and Industries

fined the company $85,700 last April for 17 serious safety and health violations, defined as those with potential to cause death or serious physical injury. The fine was lowered in a settlement with the company, which required Tesoro to correct hazards and hire a third-party consultant to do a safety audit.

Also, inspectors found 150 instances of deficiencies and said the company did not ensure safe work practices and failed to update safety information when changes were made to equipment.

In a blog post yesterday calling for stronger new workplace safety laws, USW President Leo W. Gerard wrote that both the Tesoro refinery and the Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, where 29 coal miners were killed in an April 5 explosion, had long and troubling records of safety violations.

When an explosion occurs at a refinery or mine that has been repeatedly fined for heath and safety violations, one question that ought to be asked is just how unexpected was the event.

Answering this question is essential because less time plus less money spent on safety measures equals more profit for owners. America must introduce new factors into that computation to protect the lives and limbs of workers who produce the energy on which this country depends. One factor is larger safety violation penalties?fines and shutdowns costly enough to outstrip profitability. And when corporations consider fines just another cost of doing business, another crucial factor is the ability to charge CEOs with criminal negligence when their corporations flagrantly violate safety regulations?an important enforcement tool that other countries have written into law.

Click here to read his entire column.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 13, 2010 (boomark / email).