Will Ford-Rouge Blast Expose
Cost-Cutting
on Maintenance ?
By Ron Lare
Detroit, February 6, 1999
At 1 pm on
Feb. 1, 1999, an explosion ripped through the Ford-Rouge Power House in Dearborn, near Detroit. 70-80
people normally staff the Power House. At least two dozen injured were sent to
hospitals in Dearborn, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Garden City and Toledo. Donald Harper, 58 years old, and Cody
Boatwright, 51, have died. Several
victims’ conditions are critical.
UAW Local 600 provided a gathering place, “hot line”
information, refreshments, counseling, and fresh clothing for those able to
come to the
nearby
union hall. The Local is hosting a
blood drive for burn victims. (Donations for families to “UAW Local 600 Crisis
Fund,” 10550 DixAve.Dearborn MI 48120.)
Topped by 8 large smokestacks, the Power House dominates
any view of the Rouge complex. Power
House boilers provide steam and electricity to run several Rouge plants. The power generated could run the city of
Boston. Ford is scrambling to get
alternative power to re-start production.
Michigan accidents are investigated by state rather than
federal inspectors. As of Feb. 5, a state inspector said boiler number six
exploded due to gas built up in the fire box.
One Millwright questioned whether alarms were maintained properly. Ford says it’s too early to determine the
cause and that damage is less than expected, making some equipment salvageable.
“Damage Control”
William Clay Ford, Jr., 42 years old and recently named
Ford Chairman, called Feb. 1 “The worst day of my life” and said everyone at
Ford is “family.” Many workers are impressed with his showing up at the plant,
hospitals, and thedeceased worker’s home.
The company has been largely successful in diverting criticism, saying
“The Power House is a well-oiled machine.”
UAW Local 600 President Jerry Sullivan intially seemed to
question whether Ford provided adequate maintenance resources, telling TV: “It’s a very dangerous place to work,”
listing hazardous power sources, and adding “You have to have tip-top
maintenance to keep it going.” But
later Sullivan seemed to let Ford off the hook, saying “Ford was maintaining it
properly, but it was a very old building”.
This bolstered site manager Art Janes’s claim: “The UAW understands that
things like this happen and we are family.”
A History of Explosions
Television reports revealed some history. Workers were burned in a 1986 incident. A 1989 explosion released asbestos, flooded
tunnels, and killed two non-Ford subcontract workers. In 1996 a Power House worker’s safety complaints about a turbine
explosion led to state safety citations and fines for Ford. According to a
Glass Plant worker, in Aug. 1998, a Power House Substation caused a Glass Plant fire, prematurely closing the
Float Line(Supervisors then argued it was an accident, not the Local 600 “Rouge
Viability” concessions agreement that closed the Line!).
A journeyman boiler operator, retired with over 40 years,
remembers “time- study men cutting jobs
in the Power House.” He describes a
valve removed for maintenance while supervision “thought the water seal would
hold.” The resulting explosion through
a locker room would have roasted workers there 20 minutes earlier. Supervisors said, “We had an angel on our
shoulders this time.” In the 1960’s
some workers were hospitalized by burns caused by a pulverizer malfunction.
Cost Cutting as “Job One”
Workers point to the failure to repair even the Miller Road
bridge to the Rouge, since it collapsed in a train accident last August. This
delayed some emergency vehicle response to the explosion.
Ford is conducting a multi-billion dollar cost-cutting
campaign. In a profitable period, jobs
are eliminated and maintenance overtime cut severely. This endangers even
machinery, but has pleased Wall Street and helped buy Volvo-auto for 6.5
billion dollars without seriously diminishing Ford’s 24 billion cash reserves.
There is a special reason to question Power House
maintenance funding: it was being replaced anyway. A new Consumers Power plant nearby will replace the Power House
for Ford and its 1989 spin-off, “Rouge Steel.”
Will the Lessons be Drawn?
Injured workers are frequently accused of violating safety
rules that upper management ignored for cost reasons. However, spotlights on this explosion could make a cover-up difficult. Angry workers and a few independent-minded
reporters are questioning Power House maintenance history. Workers’ stories can
demonstrate that it is not the workers but Ford management that is toblame for
Ford safety problems.
Answers to these questions will affect safety for all Ford
workers: “Will investigators hear and
act on workers’ stories about safety problems and inadequate staffing and
funding? Was cost-cutting especially
severe at a facility scheduled to close?”
Outsourcing
Ford is chopping up its empire, through outsourcing,
subcontracting, plant sales, spin-offs, joint ventures...some “family” that
puts its “children” up for sale! Ford
is counting on cheaper products and services, once they are outsourced (but
still largely under Ford’s control).
Any piece of today’s capital can be outsourced or spun-off
tomorrow. This cuts long-term
commitment to anything beyond next-quarter profits. Workforce and union become divided and weaker when confronting Ford
management around safety and other problems.
“Unprofitable” safety concerns fall through the cracks.
Cutting to the Bone
On Feb. 2, Fox-TV began airing me in front of Local 600
saying: “I think they ought to be
looking at preventive maintenance. My
heart goes out to my fellow workers who were injured or killed, but William
Clay Ford is being somehow made into a
hero on this, and I think that preventive maintenance has been drastically cut
over the last two, three, four years. They’re saving billions and billions of
dollars--which you guys have been reporting a lot. Well, how do you think they saved this money? It wasn’t on paper clips. They’ve cut preventive maintenance and
staffing and jobs to the bone and now the bones are starting to show.”
Put Ford on Trial?
In front of the Local, I proposed to workers that the UAW
hold its own investigation, promise protection against company retaliation,
call dozens of rank & file workers to the Local to testify publicly about
Ford’s safety record, and use that testimony to popularize strikeable demands
before and during the 1999 contract negotiations. The UAW once made militant demands like “30 for 40” to create
jobs, and “Open the books.” The UAW
needs to “Open the books” not only on
finances, but all company records, including safety,
engineering, management decision-making, etc. Our working lives and very survival are at
stake. No business secrets!