April 27, 1978

[Omaha Steve]

http://nhlabornews.com/2014/04/april-27-1978/



A concrete cooling tower under construction at a power station at Willow Island, West Virginia, collapses. All of the 51 construction workers on the scaffolding fell to their deaths. OSHA and the contractor agreed to settle the case for $85,500 (or about $1,700 per dead worker); no criminal charges were ever filed. The final OSHA rule on concrete and masonry construction was not issued for another 10 years and improved scaffolding rules, not until 1990.


Source: Today In Labor History (Union Review)

If you liked this post consider subscribing to the NH Labor News via email. There are more great articles to come.

About Today In Labor History

The NHLN has joined with multiple other websites to help highlight some of the struggles that workers have faced throughout our history. We want everyone to know what the workers of the past had to endure for the rights we take for granted now. If you do not learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

1. K and R

That was the year I was born.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. ,

,

[RVN VET]

3. Jimmy Carter was our Chief Exec at the time.

Were his hands tied or was he just kept out of the loop and uninformed about this?

[Demeter]

8. It didn't get much press

Even back when the M$M was more diverse, their attention thresholds and attention spans were no better. After Vietnam, the press went to hell, and after Watergate, it went into hiding.

Actually, the consolidation process was probably going on already at that time...to prevent any more Jimmy Carter surprise presidencies.

[daleanime]

4. K&R....

[hfojvt]

5. the headline says that the scaffolding collapsed

then your first line says that the concrete collapsed.

I am not sure we need criminal charges every time there is an accident.

Like those 51 people will come back to life, if only someone can be found to take the blame and goto prison.

[Omaha Steve]

6. First news reports are often wrong, here is the scoop

http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/30-years-ago-51-workers-die-at-willow-island/

30 Years Ago: 51 Workers Die at Willow Island

April 27, 2008 in Confined Space @ TPH, Occupational Health & Safety, Regulation, Safety

On the eve of international Workers’ Memorial Day (4/28), Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette displays again his journalist acumen, particularly on health and safety issues for workers. Thirty years ago today, at the construction of the cooling towers at the Pleasants Power Station at Willow Island, West Virginia, workers were hoisting up a massive bucket of concrete. As Ward writes:

“The cable hoisting that bucket of concrete went slack. The crane that was pulling it up fell toward the inside of the tower. Scaffolding followed. The previous day’s concrete, Lift 28, started to collapse. Concrete began to unwrap off the top of the tower. First it peeled counter-clockwise, and then in both directions. A mess of concrete, wooden forms and metal scaffolding crumbled to the ground. 51 construction workers were on the scaffold at the time. They all plunged to their deaths.”

“Thirty years later, the Willow Island disaster is still considered the worst construction accident in U.S. history.”

A little more at link.

[hfojvt]

9. well one of the key scoops is this

"OSHA cited the Willow Island contractors for 10 willful and 10 serious violations ..."

But one thing I think I know from my own work - is that workers generally do things that are "officially unsafe" on a fairly regular basis.

And most of the time get away with it - unscathed.

[closeupready]

7. Was in 6th grade - scared about junior high!!

But looking forward to summer...

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. Reminds me of the 14 killed in the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas on the same day......

... that 3 people were killed at the marathon.

The Islamic terrorist narrative is a lot more attractive to M$M than expendable workers killed by greed, corruption and negligence of connected corporate hotshots.