CONSTRUCTION WORKER DEATHS ON THE STRIP:

OSHA oversight in question

House committee testimony ‘raises very, very serious’ concern at state, federal levels

MAISIE CROW / SPECIAL TO THE SUN

Retired ironworker George Cole, brother-in-law of Harold Billingsley, testifies Tuesday before a U.S. House committee investigating enforcement of safety regulations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Billingsley died last year after falling 59 feet at the CityCenter construction site in Las Vegas.

By Alexandra Berzon (contact), Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Federal Hearing Focuses on Vegas

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The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee took aim at OSHA on Tuesday, citing the recent fatalities at construction sites on the Las Vegas Strip. After hearing testimony from OSHA's Assistant Secretary of Labor, Edwin Foulke and Las Vegas resident George Cole, among others, the committee took OSHA policy to task and was joined by Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley who also expressed concerns.

Retired ironworker, federal OSHA chief respond to lawmakers (06-25-2008)
For family, hearing provides some comfort (06-25-2008)

Construction Deaths

Five minutes to save lives (6-24-2008)
High-rise death mystifies family, officials (6-21-2008)
Worker injuries being suppressed, report finds (6-20-2008)

Washington — Witnesses and lawmakers at a House hearing delivered a blistering portrayal Tuesday of construction safety oversight on the Las Vegas Strip.

“The project in Nevada looks a little like a test case here, in the sense that fatalities and injuries have taken place, yet they continue,” said Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

“The No. 1 tool in the arsenal — fines — continues to get waived,” Miller said, citing reporting by the Las Vegas Sun that found Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration originally levied fines against contractors after fatal accidents but withdrew those fines after contractors protested.

“This raises very, very serious questions about the state enforcement and what federal government ... has the ability to do under the current law,” Miller said. He was speaking specifically about fatalities at MGM Mirage’s CityCenter and the general contractor at that site, Perini Building Co.

The committee’s hearing came after 12 construction workers fell, were crushed or died in other kinds of accidents in less than 19 months on the Strip and following two deadly construction crane accidents in New York City. Lawmakers sought to assess whether federal OSHA is doing its job to protect workers.

Witnesses and lawmakers at the wide-ranging, lively hearing raised issues of deep concern and proposed a number of solutions.

The most compelling testimony came from George Cole of Las Vegas, brother-in-law of a worker who fell 59 feet to his death at CityCenter on Oct. 5. As his wife cried softly in a chair behind him, the retired Las Vegas ironworker told the packed hearing room that his brother-in-law, Harold “Rusty” Billingsley, might be alive today if OSHA had not diluted federal safety regulations.

In halting terms, Cole also spoke of his family’s pain after discovering that state regulators had withdrawn citations originally levied against Billingsley’s employer after his death.

“Rusty’s death was not his fault,” Cole said, despite Nevada OSHA’s ultimate finding that he alone was responsible and the contractor bore no responsibility. “The OSHA photos of his crushed and lifeless body will forever overshadow the energetic and fun-loving life of this kind and generous man.”

Democratic members dominated the proceedings, questioning federal OSHA chief Edwin Foulke about his agency’s performance. Federal OSHA has been under fire from Democrats throughout the Bush administration for failing to draw up more strict safety rules and to enforce regulations in place.

Foulke stumbled often throughout the roughly three-hour hearing and repeatedly said he did not know the answer to questions such as the total number of construction workers in the country.

Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley sat in on the hearing, though she is not a member of the committee. She told Foulke: “I don’t want to turn on the TV and find out more workers died at another site, so there’s a bit of urgency.”

Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO national Building and Construction Trades Department, testified that despite 20 years of improvements, “we suddenly find ourselves in the midst of a safety and health crisis” because of the number of deaths in Las Vegas and New York City. He welcomed the attention to a subject that, he says, is often given short shrift.

Ranking Republican Howard “Buck” McKeon spoke of a proposed federal crane standard. “This hearing is an important first step to examine safety protections for workers in the construction industry,” he said.

The committee repeatedly referenced reports in the Sun about the spate of deaths on the Las Vegas Strip. The Sun’s investigation found that more construction workers have died in nearly 19 months on the Strip than were reported during the entire 1990s building boom.

Miller ignited a lively exchange with Foulke over the Nevada agency’s practice of reducing or eliminating fines after meeting privately with contractors. After Billingsley’s death, for example, a fine of $13,500 against Perini was eliminated after the company appealed to OSHA officials in a private meeting.

Miller called that process a “secret handshake.”

As roughly half the states do, Nevada runs its own workplace safety regulatory agency. By law, a state OSHA must be at least as effective as the federal agency. Foulke explained that he did not have control over Nevada OSHA’s decisions to write down or eliminate fines, and was not aware of the details surrounding the Billingsley case.

Foulke also said settlements are often made to ensure contractors fix safety problems immediately rather than risk allowing them to go on while the case is appealed.

The Sun’s investigation found that Nevada OSHA had withdrawn citations following Strip fatalities even when contractors had fixed the safety problems found in the investigation.

Miller said Nevada OSHA’s practice appeared to diverge from the intent of federal regulations. “Somehow there’s a different view of the universe here in the role these fines play in the ability to diminish the accident rate and ability to enforce the law,” he said.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California expressed concern that profits had become more important than worker safety.

Woolsey and Miller said they wondered whether federal OSHA might need more teeth in policing states that run workplace safety agencies.

Foulke explained that the federal government audits and studies state agencies but does not get directly involved.

After the hearing, Miller elaborated on his comments.

Referring to Nevada OSHA and the construction industry, he said: “The relationship in Nevada does not appear like it’s a healthy one for workers.”

Referring specifically to Perini, whose various projects on the Strip have seen nine of the 12 recent deaths, Miller said: “You have a repeat offender, in this case — if I’m reading it right — a repeat offender on fatalities and you keep withdrawing the fines? Excuse me, I assume you’re going to correct the error that’s just killed somebody.”

The committee, prompted by Cole’s testimony, spent a great deal of time questioning OSHA’s use of “compliance directives,” which interpret regulations.

At issue in Billingsley’s death is a 2002 directive advising contractors that they did not have to follow a law requiring decking or flooring below employees as long as they require that employees use safety harnesses.

Nevada OSHA recently rescinded that directive in Nevada, saying it had weakened safety on construction sites by removing a redundant system that could save workers if their safety harnesses failed or were not attached.

The agency’s action came after the Ironworkers union explained to officials that several workers in Las Vegas, including Billingsley, might have been caught midfall had the flooring been in place.

Nevada OSHA last week sent a letter to Las Vegas contractors instructing them to provide decking or netting below employees, Ironworkers union representatives attending the hearing said. The union plans to send letters to state regulatory agencies across the country asking them to follow Nevada’s lead. But, more important, they want Foulke to withdraw the compliance directive at the federal level.

Cole told the committee that at one time in his career, he taught workers about OSHA safety standards. “I was surprised and amazed that the federal government would come out with a directive that would take safety away,” he said. “They took it out. It was there.”

Foulke, questioned publicly about the compliance directive issue for the first time at the hearing, defended OSHA’s decision and said that, contrary to the position of the Ironworkers, the compliance directive ensures more protection.

He pointed to the ceiling of the hearing room.

“That’s 30 feet,” said Foulke. “If I fell over backwards and landed on the floor my likelihood of surviving is low.” Better, he said, is for workers to have their safety harnesses attached at all times.

Miller questioned his logic.

“But you might tie off to something and then it’s faulty,” Miller said. “I like the idea of 100 percent fall protection, but there aren’t a lot of things in life that are 100 percent.”

Berkley asked Cole whether he thought his brother-in-law, who did not have his safety harness attached when he fell, would be alive today if the compliance directive had not been in place.

“Mrs. Berkley,” Cole said to the hushed room, “I know for a fact of an ironworker who is alive after a 30-foot fall. I don’t know one on a 60-foot fall.”

Like Berkley, other Nevada lawmakers have turned their attention to the Strip deaths.

Republican Rep. Jon Porter stopped by the hearing to tell the family that he was seeking additional federal funds for worker training in Nevada. “The safety concerns must be addressed by federal and state officials, as well as the contractors and workers carrying out construction,” he wrote in testimony submitted to the panel.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a staff member to the hearing and will continue to monitor what he called a “disturbing” situation.

“Today’s hearing clearly illustrated that OSHA can and should do more to protect workers, particularly by enforcing existing law and accelerating the time it takes to implement rules,” a representative for Reid said.

Lawmakers at the hearing appeared to agree on that point.

But even so, making changes to OSHA is not going to happen anytime soon, they acknowledged after the hearing.

Woolsey, who originally organized the hearing and has sponsored a modest OSHA reform bill, called Tuesday’s proceedings “a dress rehearsal” that could raise public awareness and bring out new ideas.

“I think OSHA needs a complete overhaul,” she said in an interview after the hearing.

Discussion: 16 comments so far…

By firedawg2000

6/25/08 at 5:24 a.m.

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So according to the article the iron worker who died did not have his safety harness tied off. The father inlaw suggests that a 30ft fall is less harmful than a 60ft fall. I believe they are equally as harmful and both will highly result in death. The guy who died at Echelon last week fell only 12ft. He landed on his head. When one falls one cant predict where and how they'll land. The safety harness and being tied off is the priority. That's the major problem on the construction site. Guys not tieing off when they know better.
By Felicity

6/25/08 at 6:53 a.m.

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To firedawg2000: My Uncle was working on a working floor at the City Center project. Let me inform you on the OSHA laws since you are not clear on them.....When you have a working floor on a construction site, which the floor was that my Uncle was on, you are NOT required to tie off there's no reason to. Because there are not suppose to be any exposed holes in the decking. Therefor if the decking had not been pulled back my Uncle would have never fallen and also since someone or some company pulled the decking back and exposed a hole in the floor there should have been a barrier around the hole to prevent people working on this working floor from falling through like my Uncle did. My dad was not saying that all who fall from 30ft will live he said I know a man who fell 30ft and is alive today!!!! Thats the problem with these jobsites no one knows the laws for their own safety sake how very sad.
By SPFPAUNIONYES

6/25/08 at 6:54 a.m.

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Las Vegas Construction Workers Memorial Site
In Memory of Those Las Vegas Construction Workers who Lost Their Lives

http://www.lvsecurityunion.org/SAFETYFIR...
By lvgirl

6/25/08 at 9:36 a.m.

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Mr. Cole speaking out on the behalf of Ironworkers and safety issues is a joke. He has owned companies in this town where men have died and been ripped off for pay and benefits. Most recently in 2005 an employee of his fell 60ft to his death at the South Coast project where he was not tied off and no fall protection was beneath him to protect him from falling 60ft. No one should go to work and lose their life. It's just sad there isn't a better representative to speak for all the voices that need to be heard.
By JayeTT

6/25/08 at 9:37 a.m.

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I wonder if the Sun is capable of writing a story on this issue without tooting its own horn in every other paragraph.

We get it, LV Sun, you reported on this in March and called the issue to the attention of lawmakers. That's your job as a newspaper; it's not like you went above and beyond your call of duty. You want praise for doing your job? Submit the story for a Pulitzer and stop rubbing it in readers' faces until you win one.
By Felicity

6/25/08 at 10:52 a.m.

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lvgirl: you want a better representative for the men and women in the construction trade other than my dad, he has never denied that he was a business owner and has had fines brought forth on him. However he has seen how corrupt the system is and is now speaking out to change the system and to save lives. Unlike everyone else in this whole ordeal he is not afraid to speak out and show his face and not hide behind a screen name like yourself. Felicity Lemmon George Cole's daughter
By HandymanSC

6/25/08 at 12:20 p.m.

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OSHA is a Joke, has always been and always will.
They are out to protect the business owner, not employees. They drop fines, and where i used to work, they would call and tell the company when they were coming in. Everything that they would look for ( nothing, but they had there free lunch ) was moved or covered up.And they ALWAYS find a way to Blame the employee.
By lvgirl

6/25/08 at 12:25 p.m.

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I am so very sorry that the truth hurts. If you only had any idea how your father conducted business you would be ashamed. I am also sorry it took the death of a family member to change his his morals and do something after years of putting ironworkers lives in jeapordy to save money and put an extra buck in his pocket. And as far a corrupt he wrote the book stealing money from ironworkers for years. Please talk to your father before you get upset with me. I am sure he wouldn't tell you the real truth.
By JayeTT

6/25/08 at 3:10 p.m.

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Real truth is redundant.
By spurdy

6/25/08 at 5:20 p.m.

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lvgirl: My brother in-law is not the only person who had a life changing experience which caused them to see things in a new perspective. We have all said and done things we are not proud of; however, not everyone is willing to step forward and be accountable. You may want a better representative, but to this day, I have not seen anyone with the balls to step forward and fight to protect the workers. These men are intimidated and threatened if they speak out, and fear losing their jobs. It is apparent by comments past and present, that this is an emotional topic which has ignited both productive and unproductive energy. The real goal here is to protect these men we send to these high risk occupations and to have confidence that OSHA and the contractors are partnering for a safe workplace, contrary to their current relationship plagued with a history of fine reductions and withdrawals. I am proud to have George represent my brother, my family and the workers. You will not find anyone more caring or passionate about helping change a failed system.
By lvgirl

6/25/08 at 8:07 p.m.

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Spurdy: I am sorry for your loss and I am glad that you have Mr. Cole to speak on the behalf of your family. My issue with him is maybe if he would have felt this way years ago when he lost men on his own jobsites and fought to change the laws instead of his fines maybe some of these present deaths could have been prevented. We can all keep pointing the finger at the contractors and at OSHA but the employees need to work safer too. The same men that go on the news saying they are forced to work long hours are the same men that drag up the minute you cut them back to 40 and head to the next overtime job. Between the unions, contractors & OSHA there is a lot of training and actions being taken to be safer but no one talks about that in the news. The workers are given all of the rules and tools to be safe and they have to take responsibility and use them. Think of this like getting a driver license. You are trained in both safety and operating a vehicle to acquire your license and once you pass the test you get your license. Now you hop in the car and get in a serious accident while you were not wearing your seat belt. Should the DMV be responsible after your were told never to operate a vehicle without a seat belt. These workers are told over and over that safety is the first priority yet they still ignore it until something tragic happens. I have seen how the contractors and OSHA have been stepping up and they are doing a great job. Instead of attacking them maybe we should back off so they can do their job before another tragic accident strikes. I have lost a friend to the construction industry and I do know how you feel. It's a dangerous profession and needs to be taken seriously by all in order to make it safer.
By spurdy

6/25/08 at 9:08 p.m.

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lvgirl: You're analogy is not relative to the situation unless I am actually working for the DMV at the time. For the sake of discussion, let's say I am working for the DMV and I am wearing my seat belt. I am leaving work and there is a huge sink hole in the parking lot that was not there before. I was not notified of this this unsecured opening, and there is nothing taped off or identifying the hole. I drive my car into it (with my seat belt on, my rule book memorized, and my training certificates nicely framed) and I am killed. My first line of defense (my seat belt,rule book and nicely framed certificates) did not save my life. Is it still my fault that I fell through a hole that never existed before and was not marked or taped off. There are two sides to every issue, and not necessarily a right or wrong one. These discussions are healthy and necessary because somewhere in the middle there will hopefully be a compromise that will benefit many in the end.
By lvgirl

6/25/08 at 9:44 p.m.

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I understand that probably hit a button with you and I am sorry for that. I was speaking from the side of a contractor. A contractor can not hold the hand of every employee and make sure they tie off. The fact is the only thing that could save someone from a fall whether it is 6 ft or 100ft is being tied off to a secure item. The distance of the fall doesn't really matter. Someone can fall 6 ft and still die if they land the wrong way. I am not arguing for the sake of an argument it's just there has only been one side told in the media. My friend I spoke of earlier died because he did something he probably should not have and the material that the law said was meant to hold the weight didn't hold up. The seat belt issue was an example of a safety issue that most people ignore all of the time and could ultimately cost them their life. Just like if you don't tie off. It's ashame that people pay for an oversight with their life. Mr. Cole mentioned he knew someone that fell 30ft and lived. I also know of someone that fell 12ft and died. It is going to be an on going battle through the years because when the next person falls 30ft and dies because they were not tied off then what are they going to blame that on? Again I just want everyone to see both sides of the issue. There is and has been a lot of safety training done over the years and no matter how much is done if someone doesn't follow procedures they can wind up seriously injured or hurt.
By firedawg2000

6/26/08 at 5:26 a.m.

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Spurdy - I understand the point you're making in regards to your brother in-laws unfortunate situation, but the only thing I'm trying to point out (I think SPURDY is too) is that the worker has to be held accountable as well. These rash of articles from the LV Sun have been great in the sense that they're bringing attention to a serious situation, but have been very one-sided. Deaths and other serious injuries are not always caused by the contractor. The majority of them are caused by the employee themselves. Its frustrating to train construction employees on safety and then they the ignore the rules and dont take the necessary precautions. Like the old saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make 'em drink." Like you said Spurdy, there are 2 sides to each issue. I hope the LVsun prints articles about unsafe workers so we can correct these problems from all sides of the equation.
By sisterAZ

6/26/08 at 12:05 p.m.

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Everyone needs to also remember that not all these men who have lost their lives fell. Some of them lost their lives to walls collapsing, elevator malfunctions, make-shift equipment and dangerous gases. I realize they need one story to focus on but that was not the only cause of death for some of the other men.

Some of those other deaths were preventable. OSHA and the contractors did fail them. Not holding those companies accountable is what continues to be the underlying problem. If you don't, where will it end?

No one deserves to have another life lost. No one deserves to not have their loved one come home at the end of the day. I will never see my brother again. Neither will his mother, fiance, or his children.

Stop making excuses and start fixing the problem!

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