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An ongoing investigation by the Socialist Equality Party |
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Return to Record of the Workers Inquiry Testimony of Emmon Brust My name is Emonn Brunt. I worked on the Number 3 battery in the coke ovens at BHP Port Kembla as a gas regulator, monitoring the levels of toxic emissions. When I was measuring carbon monoxide levels I would put the monitor right up to a leak and the monitor would go off the scale. If I stood a distance away I would get readings of 400 parts per million. A safe level is 35 ppm. More than 200 ppm meant that you had to have a gas mask on at all times. At one stage, I would record that all the time. I've recorded higher than that on the oven tops. I brought it up with management. They said it does not matter because it's not an enclosed area. I said to them over 200 is over 200, whether it's out in the football field or in the toilet. It's still over 200. If the monitor is reading it, I'm breathing it in. I've been exposed to 500 and 600 parts per million of carbon monoxide. The monitoring only registers carbon monoxide. What else is in that gas I don't know, but I have been gassed on numerous occasions. Many times I've woken up in the middle of the night, with a splitting headache -- I've had to take Panadol. It's usually after doing overtime, doing gaswork down underneath the battery; cleaning, oiling, greasing, oil removing. I got that sick of reporting it. Blokes are there working eight hours in those conditions, breathing it in. And now the company and the unions want to bring in 12-hour shifts! They want everyone over there to suck in that garbage in for 12 hours instead of 8! What are they trying to do to us? I know of cases where workers put monitors into the worst leaks, and the readings would be very high, but nothing was said about it. The company would use averaged figures. There has been publicity about chemicals such as benzene but nobody does a test on the continuous effect of exposure to carbon monoxide. My doctor said that he couldn't tell me. Management was supposed to do a health screen on everyone in the coke ovens, every 12 months. Now it's been extended to two years because of the expense. They said at the time "there's no need to screen everyone every 12 months -- every two years will be sufficient". But they hadn't long screened Peter ....., the oldest worker in Number 3, and he died of cancer three or four months later. As my brother said to him, so much for BHP's cancer screening. It didn't detect Peter in his advanced stage of cancer. When you go for your health test they do a lung capacity test. But if they don't like the reading you get originally, they give you Ventilin (an anti-asthma spray) and tell you to sit down for five minutes and then breathe in the little tube. That gives you a higher reading and they accept that one. That's the reading that goes away with your health report. If you prove positive to their urine test, as I did, the onus is on you. Your own doctor is told to send you to a specialist, which in my case was Figtree Private Hospital. First I went for x-rays and then I had to wait two months to see the specialist. In the meantime, I thought I might be dying. The specialist put me through a horrible procedure, and then said I was alright. When I went back to work BHP would not pay the $300 bill from the specialist. All up, the testing would have cost $800 if BHP had to foot the bill. It is supposed to be their cancer screening program but they put no money into it whatsoever. Many workers with families would not be able to afford the amount that I had to pay, and they just would not get the procedure done. I was lucky in one respect in that as a gas regulator, I was on the highest level of overtime wages, so I could afford the treatment. But after having this cancer scare, I didn't want to expose myself to it any further and I applied for a transfer out of the coke ovens. I went to the union to demand that BHP pay for the screening test, but when the company refused, Ossie Peres, the union organiser, would not take it any further. "I'm sorry," he said, "I agree with you on this -- it's a bit rough to be out of pocket with this sort of money -- but I've got another case to go to. See you later." Peter ...., the one who died, used to be held up by management as living proof that working in the coke ovens wasn't a health hazard. We were always told "look at him, he's as fit as an ox!" Even the guys that worked there used to say, "look at old man Peter!" For years he worked in the dirtiest job, as the ram attendant on 3 battery. He was subjected to uncooked coke, full of gas, and exposed to extreme heat. He kept working in the coke ovens for years, doing all the overtime he could get, because he was trying to pay off two mortgages. When he went for a medical, they didn't pick up his cancer. But they made him take his shoes off and the poor bloke, he had deep cracks in his feet. There was pus everywhere. When the medical report got back to the foreman, they put him on light duties and his job then was to clean the machines. That was when he found out he had cancer. Each battery in the coke ovens is allowed to leak according to EPA standards. Different amounts are allowed to leak per battery. EPA standards are based on a huge amount of leaks, particularly on 3 battery. And there are days when the standards are not met on some of the batteries. 3 battery is always exceeding the limits. The limits on each battery are determined by negotiations between BHP and the EPA. The levels are not set according to what is dangerous to human health. They are determined by what BHP and the EPA work out between them. Emission levels are also manipulated by BHP when required. When the EPA is doing testing on emission levels, they are lowered accordingly. Today the company is pushing for higher productivity all the time. We were told, we want you to make 8 to 10 percent return on capital. Ultimately, they want us to make 15 percent. To put pressure on us we have been told that the BHP shareholders want to get rid of the steel division, because it's not profitable enough. We're told that unless we lift our game, they're going to close us down. We made $40 million one year, the next we only made $20 million for them. We still made money for them, but it wasn't enough. As far as I am concerned No.3 battery should have been closed down years ago. It leaks badly. If you just drive past it, smoke is coming out of the doors, and the roof works are breaking apart. The battery is falling apart. BHP is just trying to get the last dollar out of the place before shutting it down and going overseas. We are just a commodity -- that's BHP's attitude towards their workers. They don't care and they never will care. Why can't they be honest for a change? Because they are trying to maximise their profit. It's quite obvious that the government is not concerned. The local council is definitely not going to do anything, because BHP is the biggest payer of their bills. The state government won't upset BHP too much. They all look after themselves. I've seen the unions bending to the company's persuasion as well, including with their redundancy packages. They say: "You can't sack anyone, but if you give them a redundancy package, well that's alright then!" The Workers Inquiry is the only way anybody is going to do anything. |