Death of Verizon Tech Prompts Electrical Safety Agreement

Under a settlement pushed by CWA after the electrocution death of a technician last year, Verizon in Maryland will train its 2,700 technicians – inside and outside workers – on a full array of electrical safety and health issues.

The agreement between Verizon and Maryland’s Occupational Safety and Health division requires the company to conduct training between now and Feb. 1, 2008, with future training for new hires. Topics include power line contact with vehicles and aerial lifts, identifying electrical hazards, health effects from exposure to electrical power and how to resolve hazards.

CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said the settlement doesn’t spell out the union’s role in the training, but District 2 and local leaders, working through the joint union-management committee at Verizon, will insist on being involved.

"No settlement agreement can begin to make up for the loss of our member, Marvin Benson, but by requiring training for all technicians, it honors his memory and will save other lives," District 2 President Pete Catucci said. "Our job now is to make sure that CWA has input into the training and that it's as effective as it can possibly be."

Benson, who was 36 and a member of CWA Local 2100, was electrocuted last October while working in an aerial bucket placing fiber optic cable near Baltimore-Washington Airport. The accident sent electricity through the bucket and to the truck.  Another technician inside the truck managed to escape injury.

District 2 Administrative Director Ron Collins and leaders of Benson’s local – Executive Vice President Mark Balsamo, also the safety and health chair, and President Steve Holland – were instrumental in getting the training into the settlement and will be working to ensure that the union has a voice in the training itself.

CWA leaders will also urge Verizon to expand the training throughout District 2 and ultimately throughout the country. Between CWA and the IBEW, four Verizon technicians have been killed in electrocution accidents over the last year and a half and others have been injured, and there have been several near-miss incidents.

LeGrande said CWA District 4 is working with OSHA in Indiana on a similar settlement in the death of technician and Local 4773 member Brent Cheney. Cheney, 35, was electrocuted in May 2006 while working on a mainframe to fix a customer’s cable problem.