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Locked-Out Workers Express Concerns About Plant Safety

Posted on: Friday, 5 May 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Lindsey Hilty, Middletown Journal, Ohio

May 5--MIDDLETOWN -- Although the locked-out workers picketing at the AK Steel gates did not know the circumstances surrounding the Thursday evening death of a replacement worker, many speculated it may have been partly due to a lack of experience.

"All of us did things by the book. These guys just don't know the book," said locked-out steel worker Jamie McNally, 30, of Franklin.

It is grueling and disorienting work at the AK Steel Corp.'s coke plant at Middletown Works, said AEIF member David Sallee, 32, of Carlisle.

Machinery at the plant struck a replacement worker, whose name has not been released. He died in a medical helicopter en route to Dayton's Miami Valley Hospital around 6:30 p.m., according to an AK spokesman.

The man who died may have been a lidman, said Mike Taulbee, 28, which is a worker who prepares the ovens to be charged -- a long and complicated process.

The machinery, which deposits fuel into the oven, has an alarm, bells and whistles on it, said workers picketing the Oxford State Road coke plant gates.

"The thing moves very slow," Sallee said of the "larry car" machinery that may have struck the man. "It's almost impossible to get hit even if you are new. This didn't have to happen." Taulbee said when AEIF workers would see someone doing anything unsafe, they call each other out on it. If someone is not feeling well, they make sure to assist him.

"We have a thing -- brother's keeper -- and we keep an eye on each other," the Eaton man said.

He said he doesn't know whether the temporary replacement workers have that same bond.

"We spend more time together than with our families," Taulbee said of his fellow workers who have been locked out of Middletown Works 66 days.

Although the picketers did not know the man who died and at times resent the workers who replaced them, AEIF members outside the coke plant gates said they are saddened by the situation and feel for the victim's friends and family.

"They're probably shocked and heartbroken," Sallee said.

Other replacement workers may be shaken up as well, he said.

"They probably won't come to work tomorrow. Is it worth risking your life for?"

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To see more of the Middletown Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.middletown.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Middletown Journal, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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AKS,

Source: Middletown Journal

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