Workplace Fatalities

Nine UAW members were killed by injuries at work during 1999 in five incidents. An additional victim was a supervisor who was formerly a UAW member. Since 1973, 440 fatalities have been reported to the UAW Health and Safety Department.

The 1999 experience was dominated by the explosion at the Rouge Powerhouse that resulted in the death of five UAW members and one supervisor. This was the worst single health and safety incident in the history of the UAW and the U.S. auto industry. By contrast the five fatality incidents in 1999 were the fewest since statistics have been kept. The previous low was eight incidents in 1985.

Eight of the nine victims were skilled trades workers, and four of the five incidents involved skilled trades workers. Since 1973, 185 of the victims were skilled trades workers, 42% of the total.

Six of the fatalities and two incidents occurred in the Big 3. This was the first year since 1991 that fatalities in auto exceeded fatalities in the rest of the UAW. Prior to 1992, fatalities in the auto sector exceeded the other sectors each year since 1973.

Key features of the incidents follow.

• The Rouge Powerhouse explosion occurred while a boiler was being shutdown for an annual inspection. The investigation revealed that a flame supervision safety that would have prevented the incident had been wired out for years. Contributing factors included the lack of a written procedure for shutdown, poor communication and confusion resulting from different methods and procedures used in the past to shutdown boilers. Deficiencies, including the flame supervision system, had been documented by several consultant and insurance reports that had not been made available to Union Health and Safety Representatives.

• A millwright died as a result of a fall while installing ductwork on a plant structure 12 feet off the ground. The area should have been recognized as requiring guard railing or personal fall protection equipment.

• A machine repairman was killed when an unstable and unsecured loaded cabinet raised off the ground by a powered hand truck tipped over and crushed him.

• A machine operator running a forging press was killed when an electrical motor had mechanical failure shattering the outer casting causing shrapnel to strike his head, chest and shoulder. Earlier reports of grinding and sparking from the motor had been reported.

• An electrician was killed when a billet loading mechanism on an extrusion press came down and crushed him. The equipment had been designed and laid out in a way that required workers to enter the hazardous area with power on during the equipment shutdown and lockout process. It is likely that he inadvertently made contact with a limit switch that caused the loader to come down onto him. He was following the established procedure.

Facility Incident Rate in UAW
Represented Bargaining Units
1975-1999

Analysis of Data

The chart above describes UAW fatality incident rates for the entire membership, Auto and non-Auto for 5-year periods. This data series treats the Rouge incident as a single incident, and groups spin-off incidents with Auto. The overall rate of fatal incidents for the total UAW has remained unchanged since 1975. The overall rate is about 1/3 the fatality rate for all American workers. At the start of observation, the fatal incident rate in Auto was higher than that for the smaller company, smaller plant sector. This can be attributed to higher concentrations of higher risk skilled trades jobs, higher automation, higher energy, higher production processes in the Auto sector. The rate of fatal incidents for Big 3 dropped gradually from 1975 to 1994, then drastically from 1994 through 1999. The Auto fatal incident rate has been reduced by 75% from 1975 to the present. The reduction can be attributed to targeted programs aimed at fatality causes, including lockout, fall prevention, confined space and powered industrial trucks. Unfortunately from 1980 to the present, the fatality incident rate for facilities other than Auto has steadily increased. The fatal incident rate in non-Auto is currently 3 times that of the Auto. The increasing trend can be attributed to an increased press for production and automation, and the general decline in OSHA enforcement over the 25 year period.

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