UE Local 683 members at Liberty Iron and Metal are celebrating the reinstatement of fellow worker Verne Bliss, who was unjustly fired on November 1, 2008. The union grieved the discharge and won reinstatement and a “make whole” remedy in arbitration. Bliss received over $9,200 in back pay and reimbursement for other benefits.
Bliss is a burner at Liberty Iron and Metal, a scrap metal processor. Burners use torches to cut metal. They work outdoors and endure all types of weather. It’s been a longstanding practice for both burners and supervisors to smoke near the oxygen and acetylene tanks, although both gases are flammable. In November, a new plant manager was hired and according to company witnesses, he met with some supervisors and told them he intended to strictly enforce work rules. However, Verne Bliss’s supervisor became ill immediately after this meeting and did not return to work until after Bliss had been terminated.
A few days after this meeting, Bliss was approached by the plant manager and fired for smoking within two feet of the tanks. The union argued that Bliss’s supervisor had never notified him that the company was going to enforce the smoking rule. Witnesses for the company testified that Bliss had been notified, but their credibility was damaged by their inability to state what the rule actually was. They contradicted each other as to whether smoking was prohibited within two feet, 10 feet or 20 feet of the tanks. Company witnesses were also confused as to whether the rule applied to oxygen tanks, acetylene tanks, or all tanks.
Employees, including other burners and welders, reported that a month after Bliss’s firing, they had still not been informed that the rule was going to be enforced.
It became clear at the hearing that employees were permitted to use cutting torches as close as two feet from the tanks. The torches burn at over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and could quickly cut into the tanks, whereas a cigarette burns at about 300 degrees and poses no danger to the tanks.
The arbitrator concluded that the company had failed to enforce its safety rule for many years, and failed to give notice to all employees that it was going to begin enforcing it. The arbitrator ruled that therefore Verne Bliss should be reinstated and made whole for all losses.
The plant manager who fired Bliss also fired several other employees during his brief six-week tenure. He himself was then fired, before the arbitration hearing tool place, and was therefore not available to testify.
Chief Steward Joe Iavarone fought for Bliss through the grievance procedure and Steward Jeffrey Moose – who has since been elected as the union’s shop chairman/president, was a key union witness at the arbitration. Field Organizer George Waksmunski presented the union’s case in the hearing.