DSS126: History of the United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities with Tammy Spivey

In today’s episode of the Dust Safety Science podcast, Tammy Spivey, Assistant Director of the United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities, talks about the history of the organization, its purpose, and initiatives it has taken to support families suffering loss due to workplace fatalities.

Tammy is sadly familiar with loss. Her brother, Shawn Boone, worked at Hayes Lemmerz in Huntington, Indiana, an aluminum wheel manufacturing plant that had a history of fires and experienced at least one explosion. However, it had no extinguishers rated for the fires that broke out and workers were ordered to not call the fire department any more due to fears of being charged. Instead, whenever a fire ignited in the chip melt furnace where Shawn worked, they were to let it die down and relight the furnace afterwards.

When he was collecting his tools, there was a blast from the chip melt furnace.

“That is what happened on this particular day,” she says. “My brother and a couple of co-workers went in to make sure that the fire died down. They went back in a few minutes later, re-lit it, and they felt like everything was working okay. So he went back in to collect his tools. When he was collecting his tools, there was a blast from the chip melt furnace. Aluminum dust had dropped down into it. I was told that (as) he started walking towards the doors, there was a second blast.”

This second explosion knocked Shawn Boone over and blinded him. As he lay on the ground, falling aluminum dust burned through his flesh and muscle tissue. After rescuers retrieved him, he was flown to a burn unit a couple of towns away.

“They wouldn’t really do too much with him because of the condition he was in,” Tammy says. “They cleaned up his face a little bit but it was still swollen and splitting. All they did was cover up his body, give him morphine to keep him out and start pumping the fluids out of his body because his organs were burned. So we each had a little bit of time with him and then we had to take him off life support and actually watch him take his last breath. So it was pretty traumatic, I’d say.”

The dust explosion that fatally injured Shawn Boone occurred on October 29, 2003. It was one of the bigger explosions that occurred at that time and triggered an in-depth investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

Nobody really expects for a loved one to go to work and just not come home.

“Nobody really expects for a loved one to go to work and just not come home,” Tammy says. You know, they’re just trying to earn a paycheck. So, I mean, even though we knew that there were explosions before, I guess it really never hit home until then.”

Shawn’s family was devastated. His mother couldn’t work after his death and his brother committed suicide in 2007. Tammy and her children, who had looked up to their uncle as a second father, struggled to make sense of it all.

It was her quest for answers that led to the formation of the United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF).

“There was nowhere you could get support or any guidance or any resource,” she recalls. “There are so many different aspects to workplace death. You’ve got EMTs, you’ve got your firefighters, you got your police department, and then you have OSHA – which I didn’t even know about at the time. You can’t complain about something if you’re not going to do something about it. So that’s where the original idea came from.”

You can’t complain about something if you’re not going to do something about it.

Many times, Tammy’s attempts to learn the truth left her frustrated and heartbroken.

“I didn’t know how to get answers. For instance, after Shawn’s death, I didn’t know that OSHA was inspecting the incident. I found out because the newspaper called me and said, “What do you think about this?” And I was like, “I didn’t know about it.””

When she requested a police report, the document they sent her was heavily redacted- even Shawn’s last words were blacked out. When she asked why, she was told that the police were afraid the contents would hurt her. She persisted and learned that her brother’s last words were “I’m in a world of hurt.”

“Yeah, it’s hard,” she says. “But for some people, we have to have it. We have to have that for closure. And I realized shortly that we might be able to make a difference if we came together.”

Today, the USMWF works to make safety training available to those who need it and can’t get it.

The United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities started out as a tribute page but soon grew into an organization where families could get the support they needed. Today, it works to make safety training available to those who need it and can’t get it.

“We connect with safety advocates, organizations, companies and individuals to improve workplace safety and health,” Tammy says. “Right now, we have 5,000 individuals on our social media pages. We also have a private group for family members.”

One of the USMWF’s first big initiatives was the Faces campaign, which gave a face to workplace fatalities. Whenever members attended events or spoke to representatives, they would take posters with them and tell the stories of these workers and their families.

Over the years, the group has worked with various organizations like OSHA, the American Public Health Association, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Board, the U.S. Senate and House, and safety organizations. It has even been instrumental in getting safety legislation passed.

Conclusion

When asked how one can support the USMWF, Tammy encouraged listeners to share the organization and its mission with others and, if possible, help it connect with those who can make change happen.

Financial support is also welcome.

“It takes us a lot of research and a lot of time to connect with the families and work on the different issues that are at hand,” she says. “We’re a pretty small organization, so it just takes time to get that done. If people can offer some sort of funding or give a donation, every single little bit helps us accomplish that.”

If you have questions about the contents of this or any other podcast episode, you can go to our ‘Questions from the Community’ page and submit a text message or video recording. We will then bring someone on to answer these questions in a future episode.