WIPP Workers Raise Serious Safety Concerns

WIPP Workers Raise Serious Safety Concerns

Safety at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is once again at the forefront for members of USW Local 12-9477 following recent events involving the site’s hoisting systems and other concerns raised by workers.

For Local 12-9477, these concerns are not about creating conflict. They are about making sure the people who work at WIPP return home safely after every shift.

Recent events involving the Air Intake Shaft (AIS) hoisting system have brought renewed attention to hoisting safety across the site. During testing of the AIS system, a serious event occurred involving the conveyance and hoisting equipment. Fortunately, workers were not riding the conveyance when the event occurred.

For the Union, however, the fact that nobody was injured does not make a serious event less important.

A near miss is a warning. It gives us an opportunity to correct a problem before someone gets hurt or killed.

The AIS event also intensified concerns Local 12-9477 has raised regarding 5 Shaft and the protections in place to prevent a similar catastrophic event. Union members have used established safety processes, including stop-work authority, when they believed conditions presented an unacceptable risk.

More Than One Safety Concern

Hoisting systems are not the Union’s only concern.

Local 12-9477 has also raised concerns regarding emergency egress from the underground, particularly during periods when hoisting systems have been unavailable or access to normal escape routes has been limited.

When people are working underground, having a reliable means of getting them out during a fire or other emergency is not optional. When members believed adequate emergency egress was not available, stop-work authority was exercised so those concerns could be addressed.

The Union has also raised concerns regarding working conditions, equipment, training, and the manner in which reported safety issues are evaluated and corrected.

These concerns have been brought forward through established channels. The Union has requested information, participated in meetings, filed grievances when appropriate, raised issues with management, and supported workers who exercise their safety rights.

Workers Should Be Heard Before Someone Gets Hurt

The men and women performing these jobs see the equipment and conditions every day. Their experience can identify problems that may not be obvious from an office, a procedure, or a report.

When those workers say something does not look right, they deserve to be heard.

Local 12-9477 believes a strong safety culture requires more than policies and slogans. It requires management and oversight organizations to listen to workers, investigate incidents thoroughly, identify root causes, and correct hazards before another worker is exposed.

The measure of a successful safety program should not simply be whether an accident resulted in an injury. Sometimes the difference between a near miss and a fatal accident is only a few feet, a few seconds, or the fact that nobody happened to be standing in the wrong place.

Production Never Comes Before People

WIPP performs an important national mission, and our members are proud of the work they perform.

But that mission depends on the workers who carry it out.

USW Local 12-9477 will continue raising concerns, asking difficult questions, requesting information, using established safety and contractual processes, and standing behind workers who speak up when they believe something is unsafe.

This is not about stopping the mission.

It is about making sure the mission is performed safely.

And our position remains simple:

Production never comes before people.

Every worker at WIPP deserves to go home safely at the end of every shift