Shipyard Policy : Nassco OKd Basket Curbs Before Deaths

The day before six workers died when a personnel basket carrying the men crashed on the deck of a ship under repair, officials of National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. and seven shipyard unions had agreed on a new safety policy limiting use of the baskets.

A union official who requested anonymity told The Times that the two sides had agreed on new restrictions on the use of the baskets at a July 9 meeting of the union-company health and safety committee. Hours after the meeting, shortly after midnight on July 10, a steel mesh personnel basket suspended from a crane plunged 30 feet to the deck of a Navy ship, killing six men and injuring six other workers.

Fred Hallett, Nassco vice president and spokesman, confirmed Thursday that, under the new agreement, senior company executives must now approve the use of personnel baskets in non-emergency situations. However, late Thursday afternoon, Hallett was unable to confirm the date the new policy was agreed upon. But he said the policy was in effect July 10.

Hallett said that in a non-emergency situation, one of the company’s two senior vice presidents must approve transporting workers in the basket. In an emergency situation, the “most senior person available” will decide whether to use a basket, Hallett added.

More Walking Required

According to Hallett, the company will try to limit the use of baskets to situations when workers have no other way of getting to and from a job site. Nassco’s policy will now require workers to walk up and down a ship, even if it means walking several decks, Hallett said.

Union officials and shipyard workers had previously told The Times that personnel baskets were routinely used to transport people around the shipyard.

“Previous policy said that you could use a crane for lifting a person when other means were not readily available. . . . Now, that person would have to wait until there’s a way to walk down or up, until scaffolding is available, for example,” Hallett said. “People will be inconvenienced, but we will try to use alternate and safer means of transporting people.”

However, Hallett defended the use of the personnel basket in the accident. The 12 workers were inside a 6-by-4-foot basket that fell as it was being moved by the crane.

The men were on a berthing barge alongside the Sacramento, a Navy supply ship that is being overhauled, when they climbed inside the basket. An electric-powered crane operated by Hugh Humphrey lifted the basket over the Sacramento and was attempting to lower it onto the pier when the accident occurred.

“In this instance, the ship (Sacramento) was being secured. Since the ship was not secured, there was no way that the men could’ve gone from the berthing barge to the main ship and to the pier,” Hallett said in a recent interview.

Makeup of Investigating Team

A team of investigators from Nassco, the unions, Navy and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating the cause of the accident.

Local OSHA officials were not aware of Nassco’s new policy, OSHA Director Jerry Ryan said. But Ryan called the decision to limit the use of personnel baskets “prudent.”

“At this point, it’s not anything that we are requiring Nassco to do,” said Ryan. “But it is a prudent practice.”

Shipyard workers have told The Times that personnel baskets have not been used at Nassco since the accident. “That’s pretty much the policy right now,” said Jack Huth, a member of the Iron Workers Union and of the health and safety committee at Nassco.

Manuel Ruiz, financial secretary-treasurer of the Iron Workers Union, Local 627, said Thursday that the union filed a grievance against Nassco after the July 10 accident. Ruiz said the union asked the company not to transport iron workers in baskets until the company assures the union that it has installed safety devices on the cranes to prevent similar accidents.

Hallett and some union officials agreed that the use of personnel baskets will be closely supervised in the future.

“We have instituted a review procedure and we will now require adequate reasons to be given when a basket is used . . . ,” Hallett said. “We’re working with the unions and in subsequent discussions with them we want to form ongoing safety policies.”