Henderson history: Two fatalities began a bad period for Tyson Foods

Few deaths would be more horrible than falling into a quicksand-like slurry of pulverized chicken guts.

But that isn’t what killed James A. Dame Jr., 40, of Slaughters July 22, 1999, at the Tyson Foods complex near Robards. He was smothered by methane gas in the pit where the guts were kept. He had been trying to retrieve a fork-lift scoop that had fallen in.

Co-worker Michael B. Hallum, 24, of Madisonville attempted to rescue him. A crane was lowering him into the pit when he was overcome by fumes and fell.

Robards fire chief Tom Sandefur told The Gleaner that firefighter Gregg Bland tried to climb a ladder down into the pit to pull the men out but “we had to get him out of there because of the fumes.”

The bodies were later recovered by personnel from American Enviro-Services Inc. of Newburgh, who were equipped with hazmat suits and respirators.

Company spokesman Ed Nicholson told The Gleaner in its July 28 edition that respirators and safety harnesses were available, but the men had not used them.

The place where the accident took place was the protein processing portion, which is separate from the main Tyson plant, and is where chicken parts not suitable for human consumption are processed for inclusion in animal feed.

The Gleaner of Aug. 7 reported plant manager Doug Hester was being replaced by Jeff Power, but a company spokesman said that had no connection with the fatal accident. In fact, he said, the reassignment “occurred before the recent accident.”

The headline on the top story in The Gleaner of Aug. 19 blared that Tyson officials had turned away a half-dozen state inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Program. That prompted court action in Frankfort, and the inspectors returned once they had gotten search warrants.

More bad news for Tyson followed, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 1. Keith Welch, a worker from Providence, was hospitalized after being struck by a descending elevator.

The Gleaner of Sept. 2 reported the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represented about 600 workers at the complex, was repeating its call for a federal investigation into the two deaths in July.

Tyson held a pep rally to promote employee safety, according to the Sept. 24 Gleaner, led by company president Donald “Buddy” Wray. He was overshadowed, however, by line worker Alexis Price, a safety committee member, who had a crowd of about 700 hollering encouragements for her spirited talk.

“What you say does make a difference,” she said. “We do have a voice; we are important. If you have a question (about safety), you have a right to an answer. It is our duty to watch out for one another.”

Wray denied he was visiting in response to the fatal accident. “That is the furthest from the truth. Our culture has always been to stay in touch with our people.”

The Gleaner of Oct. 29 carried a brief Associated Press story about how a Maryland activist group was calling for a federal investigation of Tyson, which nationally had seen seven employee deaths in a five-month period.

Chuck Stinnett’s column of Nov. 14 noted Tyson employed about 1,500 people here, which accounted for more than a third of the county’s job growth in the 1990s. Henderson County had 16,789 jobs in 1990 and by early 1999 that had grown to 21,082.

The Gleaner of Dec. 1 reported Tyson had filed a motion in Franklin Circuit Court to exclude evidence gathered by state OSHA inspectors on Aug. 19. “When OSHA showed up with six inspectors, we believed they failed to follow due process” because they did not have a warrant, said Ed Nicholson, corporate public relations manager for Tyson. The company did not have enough safety officers available to chaperone each inspector and answer questions, he explained.

Bruce Finley, organizer for United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 227, said he didn’t understand Tyson’s unwillingness to cooperate. “If the company were truly interested in workers’ safety … they would have welcomed OSHA with open arms. They certainly would not be throwing up legal roadblocks.”

Two weeks later, on Dec. 15, The Gleaner reported the Labor Department’s occupational safety program had uncovered a dozen “willful serious” safety violations and recommended $139,500 in fines. The agency said Tyson had failed to evaluate conditions in the pit before Dame and Hallum entered; didn’t inform workers of the potential risks; failed to ensure workers were using proper safety harnesses and respiratory equipment; and didn’t equip the access ramp to the pit with a top railing.

A Tyson statement disputed the allegations. “We vehemently disagree with the characterization inherent in the alleged ‘willful’ status of the violations, which implies that the people managing the rendering facility have shown a reckless and deliberate disregard for human life. Therefore, we fully intend to contest the citations.” That took more than five years to resolve.

Union official Finley said he didn’t think the proposed fine was a sufficient deterrent. “I don’t think it’s enough for a company of this size with its history.” A Louisville Courier-Journal editorial, reprinted in The Gleaner of Dec. 18, agreed, comparing the practices of companies like Tyson to the worst safety practices of the coal industry.

“As is true when big fines are assessed against coal companies, the $139,500 state penalty levied against Tyson probably will not be a real deterrent.

“Shutting down outlaw operations is more effective.”

Families of the two dead men filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against Tyson in 2000, which asked for $20 million in punitive damages. That was settled in mid-2003 but details of the settlement were sealed.

Resolution of Tyson’s appeal of the $139,500 fine appeared in The Gleaner of May 22, 2005. That settlement included not only the incident at Robards, but also violations at five other Tyson plants.

The number and degree of violations were reduced as part of the settlement; Tyson was not hit with any willful violations. Furthermore, Tyson said in a statement that “new safety precautions were put in place years ago, and we continue to work on further improvements to our safety programs every day.” (The local Tyson facility has had no other fatal accidents.)

The original recommended fines for all six plants totaled $441,460; the settlement agreed to was $184,525. That portion of the fine related to the Robards deaths was $60,000, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The Kentucky Department of Labor said it was the largest settlement of an occupational safety and health case in the state’s history.

“I don’t believe we caved,” Labor Commissioner Phil Anderson told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “We wanted to get it out of the way and get it settled because it was an ongoing drain of our time and effort.”

Labor organizer Finley, who was retired by that point, characterized the settlement as “a slap on the wrist and not a penalty that would modify a corporation’s behavior.”

Tyson’s profits in 2004 were $403 million, according to its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

100 YEARS AGO

Ollie Gibbons was doing a great job playing organ for church services at the state penitentiary, according to The Gleaner of July 25, 1924.

Gibbons had murdered Gus Noffsinger, the popular manager of the Southland Coal Co., with a hammer on the last day of 1922. That was the culmination of a lovers’ triangle involving Noffsinger\'s wife, Lurlie. Gibbons was sentenced to life in prison but was pardoned at the end of 1935.

Lurlie was found not guilty in her trial. All told, it was one of Henderson’s most lurid murder cases.

75 YEARS AGO

The switchboard at the city’s power plant exploded, knocking out electric service over large segments of town, but was restored in some areas in about an hour, according to The Gleaner of July 22, 1949. The problems caused the city to

ask major manufacturers to close until full repairs could be made. Three men narrowly escaped death.

The next day’s edition, however, said power wasn’t fully restored until about eight hours later.

50 YEARS AGO

Here is most of a letter to the editor by Vicki Kloke that appeared in The Gleaner of July 24, 1974:

“I wish to take this opportunity to thank an individual who has brought a lot of love and joy to many Hendersonians. Mrs. Marlin (Nannie) Woodring, better known as the Bubble Gum Lady.

“For quite some time she has been giving free gum to everyone she meets, checkout personnel at stores, bank tellers, gas station attendants, and the many children who know and love her….

“The sad part is that when her present box of gum is gone there will be no more. Inflation has doubled the price of bubble gum and forced the Bubble Gum Lady into unwanted retirement. The box will be gone by the time this letter reaches you, but the love will never run out.”

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Henderson history: Two fatalities began a bad period for Tyson Foods