LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The refrigerator line at Louisville’s GE Appliance Park was idled Monday as the company observed a “day of mourning” for Steve Herring, the veteran employee who died Sunday morning after a workplace accident at the factory on Friday.
It was the first workplace fatality at the 65-year-old appliance factory since 1988, according to Julie Wood, a GE Appliances spokeswoman.
GE Appliances, a unit of Chinese appliance maker Qingdao Haier Ltd., and the Kentucky Occupational Health and Safety Administration are investigating Herring’s death. Neither would provide additional information about the incident on Monday.
Dino Driskell, the president of IUE-CWA Local 83-761, the union representing about 3,600 rank-and-file employees at Appliance Park, told reporters on Monday that the union is working with OSHA regulators to get to the bottom of the incident.
“Discovering what led to this tragedy and ensuring it will never happen again is our first priority,” he said.
Herring, 55, who had worked at Appliance Park for 24 years, became pinned between a machine called a “fixture” that molds foam for refrigerator doors and a set of steps and railing, with his abdomen “squeezed,” according to a worker who helped respond to the accident on Friday.
The worker, who was not authorized to talk about the accident, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Herring was by himself when the accident happened, but alerted others by screaming for the emergency stop on the fixture. He was pinned for several minutes until other workers could disassemble the railing and steps to relieve the pressure, the worker said.
Herring was taken to University Hospital, where he succumbed to the injuries on Sunday morning.
Herring’s adult daughter Ashley told WDRB on Sunday that her father was a “jokester,” a loyal fraternity member, a dedicated Freemason, a passionate University of Louisville fan and a greeter at St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville.
Haier bought Louisville-based GE Appliances from General Electric Co. for $5.6 billion in 2016.
In the 32 months since the ownership change, GE Appliances has been cited for 7 workplace safety violations, 6 of which were considered “serious,” according to the federal OSHA’s online database.
Serious violations are ones in which “there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.”
In the previous 87 months under General Electric, the park had 25 violations, 19 of which were serious, according to available data going back to 2009.
While a much shorter sample time under Haier, the available data show the park accrued safety violations at a slightly faster rate under General Electric than under Haier.
Asked by a reporter Monday if Haier “has your back” in terms of worker safety, Driskell smiled and declined to comment.
Wood said operations at “AP 5,” the building where the accident occurred, will resume on Monday night.
