Fabcon began bringing in strikebreakers Monday to cross picket lines established by members of Laborers Local 563, who went on strike April 5 after rejecting proposed wage cuts.
The temporary worker, Michael Martinco, reported that he was “wearing only tennis shoes with rubber slip-ons that were slightly ankle high” while shoveling wet concrete and standing in a six-inch deep mixture of water and concrete. “Since I was standing in a puddle deeper then my boots, the water was filling into my boots,” he said. “My feet started burning badly,” he wrote in a letter to Fabcon, documenting his experience.
Martinco notified his supervisor that he was in pain, he said, but said the supervisor “told me that lime burns ‘were no big deal.’”
Martinco finished working his shift in “severe pain,” he said, and was told not to come back to work at Fabcon.
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| A photo supplied to the Minneapolis Labor Review shows the burns to Michael Martinco\'s feet. |
Martinco’s account continued: “When I got home, my feet were in such excruciating pain, that I went to the ER. The doctor said that lime burns are very dangerous. As of today, they are worried about severe infection from the burns. I am taking large of amounts of painkillers which barely touch the pain. I will need follow-up with my family doctor, and it has been suggested that I go to Regency Hospital that specializes in burns.”
Martinco’s letter to Fabcon documenting his injury was sent by his father to Laborer’s Local 563, which in turn provided a copy of the letter to the Minneapolis Labor Review.
“It’s atrocious. It’s unbelievable,” said Local 563 business manager Tim Mackey, commenting on Martinco’s injury report. “We knew that untrained people were coming in” to work at Fabcon as long-time employees walked picket lines outside. “We were worried someone was going to get hurt and now it has happened,” Mackey said.
The Local 563 members now out on strike have described dangerous work conditions in the plant, where workers also were expected to work long past an eight-hour day.
Workers voted to go on strike April 5 rather than accept a Fabcon proposal that would have led to pay cuts of 30 percent by eliminating overtime pay for weekend work.
A support rally for the striking Fabcon workers is planned for Thursday, April 15, at 10 a.m. at Fabcon, located at 6111 West Highway 13 in Savage (south side of Highway 13 at Dakota Ave., between Highway 169 and Interstate 35W).
Steve Share edits the Labor Review, the official publication of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation. Learn more at www.minneapolisunions.org
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Fabcon began bringing in strikebreakers Monday to cross picket lines established by members of Laborers Local 563, who went on strike April 5 after rejecting proposed wage cuts.
The temporary worker, Michael Martinco, reported that he was “wearing only tennis shoes with rubber slip-ons that were slightly ankle high” while shoveling wet concrete and standing in a six-inch deep mixture of water and concrete. “Since I was standing in a puddle deeper then my boots, the water was filling into my boots,” he said. “My feet started burning badly,” he wrote in a letter to Fabcon, documenting his experience.
Martinco notified his supervisor that he was in pain, he said, but said the supervisor “told me that lime burns ‘were no big deal.’”
Martinco finished working his shift in “severe pain,” he said, and was told not to come back to work at Fabcon.
|
| A photo supplied to the Minneapolis Labor Review shows the burns to Michael Martinco\’s feet. |
Martinco’s account continued: “When I got home, my feet were in such excruciating pain, that I went to the ER. The doctor said that lime burns are very dangerous. As of today, they are worried about severe infection from the burns. I am taking large of amounts of painkillers which barely touch the pain. I will need follow-up with my family doctor, and it has been suggested that I go to Regency Hospital that specializes in burns.”
Martinco’s letter to Fabcon documenting his injury was sent by his father to Laborer’s Local 563, which in turn provided a copy of the letter to the Minneapolis Labor Review.
“It’s atrocious. It’s unbelievable,” said Local 563 business manager Tim Mackey, commenting on Martinco’s injury report. “We knew that untrained people were coming in” to work at Fabcon as long-time employees walked picket lines outside. “We were worried someone was going to get hurt and now it has happened,” Mackey said.
The Local 563 members now out on strike have described dangerous work conditions in the plant, where workers also were expected to work long past an eight-hour day.
Workers voted to go on strike April 5 rather than accept a Fabcon proposal that would have led to pay cuts of 30 percent by eliminating overtime pay for weekend work.
A support rally for the striking Fabcon workers is planned for Thursday, April 15, at 10 a.m. at Fabcon, located at 6111 West Highway 13 in Savage (south side of Highway 13 at Dakota Ave., between Highway 169 and Interstate 35W).
Steve Share edits the Labor Review, the official publication of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation. Learn more at www.minneapolisunions.org