Boy, I just noticed the date on my last post, and I didn't realize it had been so long since I had been here!!

So tonight I have another story about work to share here.

When the trucks are getting loaded at the shovels, there can be any number of "incidents" that damage a truck. The bucket of the shovel can trip open early and hit the bed of the truck, rocks can come off over the "headache rack" and break or damage something on the truck, the truck can back into the shovel. Just lots of things.

So tonight at work, a guy I'll call John was driving a truck and while loading at a shovel, a rock fell off the headache rack and knocked off part of the safety rail on the catwalk of the truck. The driver SHOULD have reported it right then, and had the foreman check it out. Instead, the driver waited until the end of the shift and then asked to go to the weld shop to have the rail fixed.

Ok, major problems here:

1. The rail is part of the safety of the driver on the truck. MSHA, which is the mining part of OSHA, says that if the safety equipment is damaged or absent the truck is not to be driven at all.

2. When there is an incident, no matter how minor the damage, it should be reported and checked out RIGHT THEN. If the equipment is safe to operate, the foreman says it's ok and life goes on as usual.

3. When an incident happens, the people involved need to give the foreman all the appropriate information in a businesslike manner.

So the driver of the truck, John, didn't report it right away, didn't have the safety rail replaced, and when asked what happened to the truck, his reply was "A meteorite hit the rail." His rationale for this remark was that a "rock fell from the sky" and hit the rail on the truck.

After work, the foreman was really pissed, and decided to do a drug and alcohol screen on the driver. The driver was really pissed until the "quick test" came back positive for THC. Of course, the quick tests aren't all that accurate, but it sure seemed fishy.

So as the Union Steward, I had to be present to make sure the test was done right. Then I had to be present when the foreman told the driver that he can't return to work until they get the test results back from the lab.

Yee Haw. I love being a shop steward. (NOT)