Roslindale company to blame for its workers dying in a South End trench, feds say

Read your history. Abuses like this and worse were what led to the labor movement. For just one example, read about the Triangle Shirt Factory fire.

nothing new about it. Greed has always been a part of the bedrock of America.

Read about Boss Tweed and the fun filled days of when he ruled New York City.

"Greed. The new American status quo."

Or maybe criminally stupid incompetence.

This guy has been cited before. The OSHA report cited has numerous repeat violations. They involve lack of helmets and eye protection. These are things that are basic safety 101. The Comm of Mass Dept of Labor Standards sets the rules for stuff like this, most of what they have is piggybacked on the Federal standards. Where they differ, in Mass, you got to play by Mass rules because of waivers granted by the Feds. Most of these waivers (that I have seen) are about reporting and record keeping.

This guy could have easily cleaned up his act. a 12 foot trench requires shoring, period. The rule is anything over five feet, I think. He's been cited for ladder violations before. That's a no-brainer. Helmets. Really? Helmets?

I dunno. Maybe they were afraid to report him because they would lose their job for being a whistleblower.

OSHA has filed two whistleblower lawsuits already:

"The first two safety whistle-blower lawsuits filed by OSHA under the Trump administration are in the books. And in both cases, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is suing two employers for allegedly firing workers after filing safety complaints with the agency. The Occupational Safety and Health Act’s Section 11(c) makes it illegal to dismiss workers for raising safety concerns with supervisors or OSHA. "
(https://www.bna.com/trump-osha-files-n57982084018/#!)

for insufficient laddering. Amazing.

EDIT: I don't know that it was pulled out of the trench.. It might have been too short and hidden by the water. The standard is three feet above the top of the trench.

They could easily take an OSHA 10 (or longer) coursework. Make one requirement to be a detail officer be that they are OSHA certified. It's a standard requirement by some construction firms and owners that anyone on the jobsite have OSHA 10 training at a minimum.

Seems like the detail cops are usually pretty chummy with the guys doing the digging (which is usually not a bad thing.) Still, if the detail cop started making safety "suggestions" like, "Hey can you put a ladder in that trench in case it floods" I would think the workers might get a little upset. And from the officer's standpoint, it's not really his job to micromanage the worksite. Should he call OSHA every time someone does something unsafe? Hard to tell if adding that role would be good or not.

I walk by detail cops everyday. They are usually tapping their phone or chatting with people. When they could put the graft pay to actual use in directing traffic when vehicles are severely backed up, or dealing with other obvious quality of life situations (boom boom cars audible a block away,) they instead continue to do their usual $50/hour job of do nothing work.

Even when detail cops have an opportunity to actually act as a flag person I've seen them standing around acting self-important while a construction worker does the actual work of directing traffic around a construction site.

Training cops to watch out for safety hazards will most likely result in nothing. Why would they do anything with training if they refuse to enforce laws which they're already trained to enforce?

What might work is if an employee would feel safe complaining about the unsafe conditions of a workplace. But government agencies meant to protect people have been cut down so far that they often can not respond with enough speed. If either of these guys had gone to a local OSHA office would there have been a fast enough response?

Presumably these fellows did not realize the risks and so did not demand any safety equipment such as a ladder. It is nevertheless the responsibility of anyone to look around and focus on safety. When working with power saws and the like how many people refuse to wear safety glasses? The number of bikers who refuse to wear helmets. All situations where individual's refuse to act upon their own responsibility to care for themselves.

But that means not only regulations but funding government agencies with enough money to do their jobs well. When lower taxes are the daily mantra of politicians who win office, and whose best friends are the wealthy and powerful, situations such as this or the man who was violently dragged off a United jet may wind up being more and more frequent.

I cannot fathom it. My only thought is they had a ladder that was too short to reach above the top of the trench.