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Topic: HISTORIC MOMENTS IN WORKPLACE SAFETY
The Gauley Bridge Tunnel Disaster
October 28, 2008
It happened in 1930-1931 at the start of the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce. About 5,000 workers came with their families to the mountains of southern West Virginia to build a railroad bridge. The pay was low and the working conditions appalling.
The workers were ordered to pulverize rocks containing high concentrations of silica - up to 99.44 percent in some cases. Company officials who visited the worksite were given masks to wear. But workers were not.
By the time work ended, 476 workers had died of silicosis. Another 1,500 contracted the disease within a year or two. The Gauley Bridge Tunnel affair remains a monument to corporate greed and one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.
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Glenn:
I usually mention this in each of my courses. However, to call it a "disaster" is a bit of a whitewash. I tell my students that it was more like genocide. While both blacks and whites died, my understanding was that a disproportionate number of blacks were put to work doing the dustiest of the work and were not provided with inferior or no respiratory protection.
There was a jury trial, but the jury was ferried to and from the courthouse in limosines paid for by Union Carbide subsidiary. Management got off free.
It did bring about a change in WC laws to include occupational some health issues, but not retroactively.