Las Vegas Sun

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

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.

How noble of the MGM Mirage to finally speak. Again you can not enforce safety when Perini is being over looked by OSHA. Everyone knows this is going on. Stop pretending that you are trying to fix this problem when the problem lies with OSHA and Perini. Make an examples out of Perini as well as the "little" guys then maybe you will save lives.

Now that OSHA has decided to "Save Face" what about the prior deaths, where is their Justice. OSHA needs to re-evaluate their findings on those deaths, open up those cases again and give all of us and our loved ones the JUSTICE we deserve!!!!!!!

How can OSHA enforce violations and fines with the county, over stupid petty stuff, but yet turn a blind eye to places who really need the citations and fines. Jobsites are in desperate need for the attention you give to the people who need it the least. I guess the men and women who loose their lives are not as important to what is stored in county lockers. OSHA, do these county offices get to negotiate the fines like the contactors do or do they not fill your pockets enough for that?

Once again, if you have companies paying people to over see the safety on job sites do you actually think that it will be effective. It's like putting the Bank robber in charge of the Bank.............My Uncle Rusty should be ALIVE today. End of story..... Robbie and Chuck if you two have done nothing wrong then why did you spend so much time redirecting the attention to the people who "leaked" to the Sun. No one leaked they/we spoke out to let everyone know how corrupt the OSHA/Contractor/Union relationship really is. If you have the balls to say the things you've said then you better have even bigger ones to back it up. I think you all are a bunch of spineless cowards. If City Center is so safe then tell us all why and how a man got ran over by a forklift at that job just this week??????? OSHA should spend more time directing it's attention to what is going on at these sites and quit being bought to overlook violation after violation. After my Uncle was killed a man from the CITY CENTER job site called a public agency and told them that OSHA over looks all the violations on the job site for Perini. So tell me what you think is really going on. It's not just the ironworkers job to overlook safety for all who are invovled it starts with the Union, then OSHA then the Contractors, then Ironworkers. The job site has to be safe for the Ironworkers to start and continue safety......OSHA needs to leave their teeth in if they want to have their rules and regulations a bite to them and not gum the contractors!!!!!

5PM at the union hall

The system does not work and will not work if you have OSHA employees who have no back bones to stand up for what is right. Quit letting the contractors line the pockets of these "investigators" and do whats right. How can anyone go to bed at night knowing that men and women are being MURDERED at jobsites, at the neglegence of contractors and be okay with the decisions that they made for the day. They close their eyes and walk the other way. Have some guts, the only way lives can be saved is to shut the jobs down and fine the hell out the companies. ( Stick to the fines )Eventually companies would get tired of paying fines in the hundreds of thousands and make their jobs safe.

I am the husband of Felicity who made the first comment. When I read the comments from Chuck Lenhart I was totally in shock that a supposed union leader is making judgements against his own union brother before knowing all the facts. Even after the facts were in regarding the missing decking and the safety net he still blames Rusty. I can see that Mr. Lenhart is more concerned for the employers and not the union members. The comment "my contractors" clearly shows who pads his pockets and who he is a yes man for. So is Mr Lenhart a general contractor or is he union???
I would hate to have him as my union leader. He has no business being BA for the union. I hope the brothers of the union vote him out.
It is even worse that I thought he was seriously upset at Rusty's funeral, it was clearly a sham on his part. He told my wife and in-laws that those responsible will pay. It would appear, by his comments and lack of action, that they may have paid, straight into his pocket.
As others have stated in previous posts it is time that the union find someone with a spine to stand up to the employers and make these sights safe.
Finally once last comment to Mr. Lenhart, yes the job is as dangerous as it was in the 1980's if not more.

Kyle Lemmon
Local 1908

How can Chuck Lenhart call himself a man when he comes to my Uncle's funeral and tells us how sorry he is for our loss and what a great man Rusty was. Then he says it was my Uncle's fault for his death. How can he honestly say that job sites are safer than they were in the 1980's when Union Local 433(the Union for which he is the B.A) has more deaths than all the Ironworker Unions in the nation put together.