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OSHA Fines Verizon in Fatality

April 21, 2008

After a five-month investigation into the death of a Verizon technician in Plymouth, Mass., the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued three citations and proposed $13,500 in fines for "serious" violations of federal occupational safety and health laws.

Gary Gibbons, a 53-year-old splice service technician, was killed on the job last October while attempting to repair a problem on Verizon lines.  He was electrocuted while working in an elevated bucket near high voltage electrical wires.  He was a member of Middleboro Local 2322 and had worked 34 years for Verizon. 

Gibbons' death -- the fifth Verizon workplace fatality in two years – follows safety concerns raised by workers at the huge telecommunications company.  Two of the fatalities were in Massachusetts and one was in Rhode Island.
          

"It's no surprise there has been so many serious accidents and fatalities," said Gene McLaughlin, business manager of Local 2322 and chairman of System Council T-6 which covers Verizon's New England operations.  "Management has begun stressing productivity over safety. This is just the tip of the iceberg."

OSHA cited Verizon on April 9 for not ensuring that Gibbons maintained a safe working distance from overhead energized power lines. Verizon was also cited for failing to deploy traffic warning signs and improper inspection of personal protective gear, tools and equipment.

"These tragedies were preventable.  Yet management continues to maximize profit at the expense of safety to satisfy the corporate greed of the top brass and their Wall Street investors," added McLaughlin.  "We are doing everything we can to educate our members about safety so that this never happens again."

Just days after Gibbons' death, Verizon fired five IBEW FiOS technicians for failing to meet production quotas.  The "FiOS Five" were new hires with less than 12 months on the job, just short of the one-year service requirement that would have called for a neutral arbitrator to decide on the merits of their dismissals.

Each year, thousands of workers are killed and millions more are injured or diseased because of unsafe working conditions. Local 2322 and the System Council T-6 will participate in Workers Memorial Day on Tuesday, April 29 on the stairs of the State House in Boston to honor Massachusetts workers who lost their lives in 2007.