John Dick is one of the few small-business owners who wants the government to get more involved with his company affairs.
There’s a cardboard cutout of Barack Obama in his Bellevue shop, Golden Steer Choice Meats, but his stance has nothing to do with politics. This is about awareness.
One of Dick’s four full-time employees, Robert Frye, lost his arm in a meat grinder two years ago.
Dick has become a stickler about safety since then. He even holds monthly safety meetings with his workers.
Prior to the accident:
“I never had a safety meeting, and I never saw a safety officer,” he said.
Dick claims the state Department of Labor and Industries, known as L&I, never inspected Golden Steer between the time his father opened the market in 1968 and the time of Frye’s accident.
“The only contact they have with our employees is through safety posters,” he said.
Dick would eventually embark on a crusade against L&I, hounding the agency to do more in the way of monitoring and teaching workplace safety.
A FATEFUL DAY
Frye lost his arm during the notorious Hanukkah Eve wind storm of 2006. He broke an old butchers’ rule and paid for it.
The accident happened while he was operating a 1960’s-era meat grinder. The machine had a detachable hopper guard, something that became obsolete when manufacturing regulations started requiring fixed shields.
The proper way to use a grinder is to jam the meat toward an auger with a blunt plunger – one that fits through slots in the guard.
Dick didn’t have that shield on his machine, but he had a rule: use the plunger or lose your job.
Frye couldn’t find the plunger, so he used his hand – something that’s only possible when the guard is missing. His hand plunged into the hopper as he was trying to unclog a blockage.
Once the hand went in, there was no pulling out. The auger grabbed hold and continued spinning the way machine parts always do, with indifference.
“I heard him yell, and I thought it was a joke,” Dick said. “He came walking toward me with what was left of his arm. It looked like a ham hock.”
Frye remembers feeling little pain, but he worried out loud that he would never work as a butcher again.
“I love the meat industry,” he said. “I love the work, and I love helping customers.”
Frye would lose his left hand and most of his forearm. He spent three days in the hospital and walked away with a prosthesis, stopping on his way home to face the meat grinder.
“I wanted to see it again,” he said. “It was just something I had to get over.”
That act started the emotional healing process for both Frye and his boss. Dick’s eyes well when he talks about it.
“It still gets me,” he said.
The regulars at Golden Steer raised around $10,000 to help Frye pay for his medical bills and recovery. He returned to his job six weeks after the incident and started working with the machines on his first day.
“I wasn’t afraid,” he said.
Frye still does all the work he did before, but he has to adjust his technique now because of the prosthesis.
“It’s challenging, but it comes down to the motions,” he said. “I just do it. I try to stay positive and do the best I can.”
BLAME TO GO AROUND
L&I officers showed up at Golden Steer on the night of Frye’s accident. Dick says they carried dictionary-size rule books, but knew little about the meat industry. They couldn’t even identify much of his equipment, he said.
Dick was cited for numerous safety violations and fined $7,300. He took it upon himself to upgrade his machines at a cost of around $25,000.
There was a time when Dick faulted only himself for the accident, but now he says there’s plenty of blame to go around.
“I understand the responsibility of the employer, but I also recognize the promises that L&I has made to employees,” he said. “If I had been visited once for a safety inspection, that accident could have been avoided.”
Dick suggests L&I should be more proactive in its approach to doing business.
“There’s no prevention involved,” he said. “L&I is reactive instead of being out there promulgating safety.
“I believe this is an agency that has no accountability to the people it serves.”
L&I disagrees with that assessment.
“Ultimately it’s the employer’s responsibility to know the rules and have a safe workplace,” said Elaine Fischer, a spokeswoman for the agency. “The system isn’t designed for L&I to be in there managing everyone’s safety programs.
“We’d like to go to every workplace, but with 170,000 employers in this state, it just isn’t possible. We try to focus our efforts on the industries where the most injuries occur.”
L&I focuses most on construction. Around half of the agency’s 6,000 inspections last year took place within that sector.
Fischer says the best bet for other types of businesses is to request a consultation visit, which works like an inspection without any risk of penalties.
L&I performed 2,268 consultations last year, recommending 28,000 hazard corrections.
“We know that’s making a difference to the workers in our state,” Fischer said. “We need to be there before anyone gets hurt. Our consultation program is the best for that.”
MOVING FORWARD
Since Frye’s accident, L&I has targeted the meat industry with new measures aimed at increasing safety awareness.
The agency worked with the meat-cutters union to develop a safety-training program for apprentices, and also created a new hazard bulletin for the workplace that tells the story of Frye’s accident.
Fischer says it’s important to note that L&I makes additional resources like videos and literature available for anyone who requests them.
Dick says that isn’t enough. He has reigned in his efforts to change L&I, but still claims the agency should be doing more to promote safety, particularly outside of the building sector.
“I think he’s trying to set a statement,” Frye said. “It’s a good one. I back him up all the way.”
(More information about L&I workplace safety consultations is available here)
