I worked for the same melt shop for over 35 years. Never had a workers compensation claim. Then one day, I was weighing up metal for a heat. I had 4 barrels of pure chrome banded together on a small skid. They each weighed 661 #, or 250 kg. I cut the metal band, put my cutters on a ledge, and turned around back to the chrome and the front board was missing on the skid. Two drums fell onto my legs, literally throwing me across a 4.5 foot tall tub, and knocking me onto the ground, naturally busting my legs up, with cuts and bruises. I crawled over to my desk and paged my supervisor. I was out of work for about a month, and still have nasty scars on both lower legs, which were stitched up, and the doctors at the time were worried about one of my calves being injured with a band around them, which left a balloon on each side of the indentation. Fortunately it healed up fine, with no damage to the muscle. The very night I came back, we had our monthly meeting with the big bosses. Since we had video cameras literally everywhere in the shop, they had me on video during the incident. They had been having a bad run of injuries at the time, so they decided to make an example out of me. They started the film, and stopped it within 3 seconds. Then asked the question "do you see what he was doing wrong"? Of course nobody did, since I was not doing anything wrong. They said I should have been standing off to the side, instead of in front of the skid when I cut the steel banding. It continued on in that vein, which later I learned that the company was using it in their shops all over the world as a "training tape." Some people who were in the lab had it on their computer as a screen saver, since it showed me standing there and suddenly I was gone. Over a half a ton hitting you in the lower legs tosses you far and fast. They kept it for their screen saver until one of the higher up bosses saw it, and they had to remove it. Needless to say, I was pretty angry, and having been there for a pretty long time, over 30 years at the time, I was not one to let myself be made a fool of for their own use. I spent another 5 years there, using FMLA for migraines and chronic kidney stones. I missed time, but there was no way that they could legally fire me, which they wanted to. I should say that I helped take the place from a job shop to the largest manufacture of medical grade implants for the whole world, from things like knee joints and hip sockets to the screws and plates that they use to fix badly broken legs and such. I had input on much of the processes and documentation used to gain approval from the governments medical people, like the FDA, etc. At a bit over 35 years, they sent me for a random drug test, and after being at work for over 7 hours, they said that I had alcohol in my system, and with a zero tolerance policy, they finally were able to fire me. It is of note that they would not give me the number that they said I had in my system, and they did not prove it to the state of Michigan, so I drew unemployment for the next 18 months. I ended up running an aluminum furnace at die cast place, then when it burned down on an off shift, I worked as a maintenance person at a trailer park, doing things from lawn upkeep, to fixing plumbing and replacing flooring in company owned trailers. After 3 years of trying, I finally got disability for both chronic, near daily migraines and a bad back, which I had broken at age 20 in a car accident, but continued to work in a labor job, until arthritis finally caught up to me. Now I cannot do much physical labor at all, save mowing my very small lawn.
4 comments:
Am I missing something?
I worked for the same melt shop for over 35 years. Never had a workers compensation claim.
Then one day, I was weighing up metal for a heat. I had 4 barrels of pure chrome banded together on a small skid. They each weighed 661 #, or 250 kg. I cut the metal band, put my cutters on a ledge, and turned around back to the chrome and the front board was missing on the skid. Two drums fell onto my legs, literally throwing me across a 4.5 foot tall tub, and knocking me onto the ground, naturally busting my legs up, with cuts and bruises. I crawled over to my desk and paged my supervisor.
I was out of work for about a month, and still have nasty scars on both lower legs, which were stitched up, and the doctors at the time were worried about one of my calves being injured with a band around them, which left a balloon on each side of the indentation. Fortunately it healed up fine, with no damage to the muscle.
The very night I came back, we had our monthly meeting with the big bosses. Since we had video cameras literally everywhere in the shop, they had me on video during the incident. They had been having a bad run of injuries at the time, so they decided to make an example out of me.
They started the film, and stopped it within 3 seconds. Then asked the question "do you see what he was doing wrong"? Of course nobody did, since I was not doing anything wrong. They said I should have been standing off to the side, instead of in front of the skid when I cut the steel banding.
It continued on in that vein, which later I learned that the company was using it in their shops all over the world as a "training tape."
Some people who were in the lab had it on their computer as a screen saver, since it showed me standing there and suddenly I was gone. Over a half a ton hitting you in the lower legs tosses you far and fast. They kept it for their screen saver until one of the higher up bosses saw it, and they had to remove it.
Needless to say, I was pretty angry, and having been there for a pretty long time, over 30 years at the time, I was not one to let myself be made a fool of for their own use. I spent another 5 years there, using FMLA for migraines and chronic kidney stones. I missed time, but there was no way that they could legally fire me, which they wanted to.
I should say that I helped take the place from a job shop to the largest manufacture of medical grade implants for the whole world, from things like knee joints and hip sockets to the screws and plates that they use to fix badly broken legs and such. I had input on much of the processes and documentation used to gain approval from the governments medical people, like the FDA, etc.
At a bit over 35 years, they sent me for a random drug test, and after being at work for over 7 hours, they said that I had alcohol in my system, and with a zero tolerance policy, they finally were able to fire me.
It is of note that they would not give me the number that they said I had in my system, and they did not prove it to the state of Michigan, so I drew unemployment for the next 18 months.
I ended up running an aluminum furnace at die cast place, then when it burned down on an off shift, I worked as a maintenance person at a trailer park, doing things from lawn upkeep, to fixing plumbing and replacing flooring in company owned trailers.
After 3 years of trying, I finally got disability for both chronic, near daily migraines and a bad back, which I had broken at age 20 in a car accident, but continued to work in a labor job, until arthritis finally caught up to me. Now I cannot do much physical labor at all, save mowing my very small lawn.
All I can say is 'Damn.'
Terry, no, small incident at work with two guys.
Way I put it was "You realize you make me look like the adult in the room?"
Post a Comment