USW Engages Workers to Identify and Eliminate Workplace Hazards

摘要

There were no lockout tagout safeguards in place on the equipment that fatally crushed Ron Hackett as he worked in the melt shop of an IPSCO Koppel Tubulars Corp. steel plant. Hackett, 45, a father of two girls aged 12 and 14, was crushed last March by equipment that straightens steel product as it moves from a continuous caster. "This never should have happened," said Rick Galiano, president of Local 9305 in Koppel, Pa., his voice cracking with emotion as he spoke. "He was my friend." To make sure there is no repeat accident, Galiano and a dozen other Local 9305 members are participating in a unique pilot program that aims to train the plant's entire 680-member work force in hazard recognition and safety techniques, so they can act to prevent future disasters.