I would like share some of my more recent thoughts and musings. There seems to be a sudden interest in promoting safety at Beta. It seems unfortunate that they choose to punish those who are not up to date on the latest safety issues. I am referring to the infamous Caster Turret incident, which happened recently on the melt shop side. A maintenance crew was sent home while performing a routine repair job.

It seems they violated a Cardinal Safety Rule, entering a confined space without getting a permit and monitor. There is a slight problem here, the area had no signs posted and a proper work order was never issued. But management in their rush to avert disaster quickly sent the workers home for 3 days. They did not take the time to consider that they may have been just as guilty by not following their own established procedures and failing to clearly identify a hazardous condition.

But what consequences did they incur. What supervisor was sent home and lost pay for his failure. The answer is none. Clearly the safety responsibilities are not shared here. Everyone is responsible for safety equally and should be held accountable equally.

But wait this is not the end of this story it seems that some production employees were violating the same nebulous rules yet did not get disciplined at all. There is something fundamentally wrong when safety isn't a concern for everybody. Please don't get me wrong, I am not in favor of more people being punished, it is my belief that no one should have been punished but instead reinstructed and informed of the current conditions with proper postings and training.

Now for something completely different!

As one literally at the bottom of the barrel (in seniority) I am now enjoying the latest installment of BEERFEST 2009 a.k.a layoff. This has been a period of stress for everyone. Rumors and speculation are rampant. This in and of itself is part of the process. But management is making things worse by posting schedules and revising them the next day after some had thought they may have escaped the axe for another week only to learn a day later they were hitting the bricks after all.

It has been my previous experience that once the schedule was posted on Thursday afternoon it could not be changed unless there was an extreme emergency. This is something that should be addressed by our union officials so that schedules should not be subject to ego trips by management.

This is just my humble opinion, it does not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors or staff of the Steel Barrel News.

Fraternally,

Joe "Old Skool" Zaragoza