Vezér says it’s actually his workers that are in danger. I think their feathers probably went up a little bit," he says.Įastman says workers would have gotten over it if they weren’t in danger at the job site.įrank Vezér didn’t outright call it racism, but he said some workers are probably not comfortable with the “diversification that you see within our company.” He says "our team includes senior crew members, both male and female, with various heritages, from African-American to Hispanic and Indian, including my own background of Portuguese-Hungarian descent." "I think probably what really revved it up and fueled the fire so to speak is, you know, when they start showing up and the guys saw who they were and what they were. Eastman says there could be some deep-rooted racism at play. He says that’s not a union thing it’s a local tradesman thing. "The Hispanics from the south and possibly even south of the border are up here doing work that tradesmen from Michigan can be doing." "You know, I’m just gonna say it," says Eastman. Marys job site is particularly unsafe because some of the Vezer workers aren't properly trained. Marys Cement Plant in Charlevoix, Michigan.Īt the picket line many union workers said they thought the St. He says union tradesmen have worked alongside plenty of non-union contractors in the past without complaint because the job site was safe. "But if they were doing things right we wouldn’t have a reason to be out there picketing." "I can see how somebody on the outside looking in would say, ‘oh that’s just a bunch of union guys that are butt hurt because their guys didn’t get the job,'" says Travis Eastman, the union president at Northern Michigan Building Trades. Vezer hires non-union workers and Frank Vezér, the company CEO, said in an email that the problem has "an aggressive union undertone." Union workers still contend the job is less safe since a California company called Vezer Industrial Professionals, Inc. He said from December to May the number of citations per hours worked actually decreased by nearly 38 percent. Marys parent company Votorantim Cimentos says that increase can be connected to an increase in hours spent on the job site. That’s a more than 40 percent increase.Ī spokesperson for St. MSHA declined to comment for this story, but public documents indicate the recorded number of safety citations went up from 39 last December to 67 this May. MSHA inspects the site unannounced at least twice a year. The cement plant is monitored by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA. Randy Pryor is the operations manager at St Marys Cement Plant. When asked if a crane tipping over is a normal occurrence on a job site, Angeloff just laughs. One worker broke his leg and then the crane tipped over in early May. "I’m probably one of the people out here that was the closest to getting killed," he says.Īngeloff says he heard someone did lose their job because of it. "It probably weighed about 50 pounds and that probably dropped from about 30 to 40 feet above me," says Angeloff. This is his first time picketing in his almost 30-year career, and that’s because recently, a big piece of metal fell six feet behind him.
"This is the most unsafe job I’ve been to in my 20 years of construction work" he says.ĭoug Angeloff, an electrician from Alabama, agrees. Pierce says construction work is inherently risky, but this job is different. I want to go home at the end of the day." "I mean I’ve been on job sites where people died and didn’t go home," Pierce says. He says he worries about his safety every day.
Jamie Pierce is a union electrician taking a pay hit for the day to picket. It’s a huge rebuild with more than 400 workers. 31 in Charlevoix, holding up signs that say, "honk for workplace safety." Most of them are working on a construction project at St. In May, a group of 30 union workers picketed on the side of U.S. No one was hurt, but a disagreement has unfolded between people who think the incident is a fluke and people who say it’s one of many safety issues. Last month, a crane tipped over at a large construction project at St.
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