Fatal plunge by stagehand stirs questions of safety, fines

http://www.lvrj.com/news/fatal-plunge-by-stagehand-stirs-questions-of-safety--fines-95599114.html

Las Vegas stagehand Vicente Rodriguez fell to his death from a rigging plank suspended over the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theater. If the planking had been equipped with guardrails, the 20-year-old -- who was incorrectly wearing his safety harness -- might be alive today.

The stagehand's death and the relatively small fines assessed for failing to maintain workplace safety -- imposed according to a penalty scale that has increased only once in 40 years -- are part of a national discussion about improving safety in the entertainment industry.

For their part in safety violations connected to the death in May 2009, both the stage company that employed Rodriguez and the hotel that owns the theater have been cited by the Nevada Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

MGM Grand paid a penalty of $19,800, down from a proposed penalty of $38,700, said Steve Coffield, head of Nevada OSHA.

Rhino Las Vegas, the stage company, must pay a $4,000 penalty, according to terms of a settlement reached in late May. The original fine proposed for Rhino was $25,000.

Coffield said both fines were reduced partly because of duplication of charges. Also, Rhino's fine was cut because of the company's small size.

Coffield said it is legally difficult to apply Nevada's safety regulations -- which are geared more to construction sites -- to the entertainment industry, which has grown more sophisticated with technologies that present new workplace hazards.

David Michaels, head of federal OSHA, recently discussed entertainment safety with reporters.

"The current penalty structure is too low to compel companies to take workplace safety as seriously as they should," a federal OSHA spokesman, Michael Wald, wrote to the Review-Journal this week after it inquired about Michaels' remarks. Despite inflation, the agency's penalties have increased only once in the past 40 years, Michaels told a congressional committee in March.

Occupations such as construction, offshore drilling, mining and logging are routinely viewed as dangerous, while risks to entertainment workers are not always well-publicized, Michaels told the media. Most of the public knows that an animal trainer died during a performance at SeaWorld Orlando in February, but fewer people realize Disney World also suffered several work-related fatalities last year.

On a telephone conference with reporters, Michaels talked about a Florida stagehand's death in late 2009 but did not seem to be aware of Rodriguez's death in Las Vegas, which was not coded in OSHA's database as entertainment-related.

Michaels wants to tighten national safety standards for entertainment, which Nevada's business chief, Donald Jayne, seconds. "By inference, we'll match" what the federal agency adopts, said Jayne, who is administrator for the state's Division of Industrial Relations.

Marychris Rodriguez, mother of the young Las Vegas stagehand, said Wednesday the family has been unable, for more than a year, to obtain a police report about the death. She also wants federal OSHA to investigate Nevada OSHA's investigation.

In the May 20, 2009, accident, Vicente Rodriguez fell almost 37 feet to the stage floor as crew members were tearing down stage fixtures after Tom Jones had finished a run at the MGM Grand.

Nevada OSHA's accident report, issued in September, said that in the stage area where Rodriguez fell, workers had to balance on a catwalk before they could clip a harness onto a horizontal life line. And then, they had to step over 33 inches of false ceiling, without any guardrails.

Rodriguez was wearing his safety harness improperly, but OSHA inspectors also found a risk that sharp edges on structures above the stage could sever lines attached to a harness worn correctly.

A similar stagehand fatality in Florida last December led to an OSHA fine of $3,675, which was announced several weeks ago. That accident occurred at a West Palm Beach concert hall, when a lighting technician fell 25 feet from a stage catwalk, which lacked mandatory safety rails.

OSHA can levy a maximum $70,000 civil penalty for a workplace death when willful safety violations are proved. But in 2007, the national median for OSHA fines proposed -- not necessarily the finalized amount paid -- for violations leading to a workplace death was "just $5,900," Michaels told a congressional committee in March.

Rhino's safety violations were not found to be willful, state OSHA records showed.

State officials and Marychris Rodriguez have said they will work together to develop a campaign promoting entertainment safety in Nevada, whose casinos hold many performance venues.

Stagehand work isn’t like other work

http://backstageat.backstagejobs.com/?p=694

–As always, the views expressed here are my own, and are not to be considered an official position of IATSE or its Locals.  Nothing in this post should be considered, nor is it intended, to be disparaging to any of the parties involved.–

By now most of you have heard of the IATSE member who was taken off a call, apparently due to his clothing choice that day.  The story has been picked up by many conservative and anti-union outlets, as well as by some mainstream media, primarily because the call was to construct a stage for President Obama to speak from, and the clothing in question had the word “Bush” prominently on it.

An article and video report can be found here.

Now, I am not in L.A.: I didn’t work on the call, and I have no firsthand knowledge over what happened in this instance.  But as a professional stagehand, I can give you some realistic possibilities.

What most of those angry about this seem to forget, is that stagehand work isn’t like other work.  Our job is to help to present: something.  Whatever the something is.  Appearance sometimes does matter.  Usually, we will be told in advance of the particular call/job what dress code requirements there may be.  Sometimes we need to have a suit.  Other times no shorts, or no t-shirts with potentially insulting text/images.  Or sometimes just to be dressed in black, with no lettering or images of any kind.   There are also times when no information about dress is given, at which time you just assume you need clean clothes without profanity or references to male or female anatomy (in other words: “relax, but remember you aren’t in your backyard at home”).

That said, we are always aware that the dress code may change once on-site, for any number of reasons.  Sometimes, an issue can be resolved simply be reversing a shirt.  Other times, an inside-out shirt may also be a problem.

Something to keep in mind: most of the time an IATSE Local acts as any other traditional union: taking care of its membership who are employed at given companies.  But some IATSE Locals also serve as “labor providers,” advertising the services of their membership and acting as a hiring agent for one-time events (Need a stage crew? Hire our team!).  And sometimes the client hires a production company to deal with doing the production the client wants, and the production company hires the IATSE Local to provide the crew.  As such, there are different scenarios for who is in charge of the show/crew at any given time.

Now, many outlets are reporting that the stagehand in question was “fired” by the IATSE Local.  This is unlikely.  A union works for its members, not the other way around.  A member cannot be removed from the union by one person while on a work call.  Such a drastic move would require a vote of the membership.  More likely he was simply sent home from call.  Could this result in not getting paid for the call?  Yes, but unlikely if he was not informed of a certain dress code (reports indicate that the Local will make sure he is paid for the call if indeed he was sent home due to the what was written on his sweatshirt and hat).  If you show up for a call without the tools or clothing you were told to bring, you can be sent home without pay, as bringing what was asked is part of the job.

But let’s look at this from the “show” appearance point of view.  The most prominent wording on the sweatshirt is “BUSH.”  The text about the ship is much smaller.  From a distance, most people would not see that the shirt is referencing the ship, they would only notice the word “BUSH.”  If the client is the Democratic Party, do they really want to take the time to explain to everyone that may happen to see this shirt from a distance that it is referencing a Navy ship?

To look at it another way: if the stage was being built for a Microsoft event, and a stagehand arrived wearing a shirt with a large image of an apple on the front, does it matter if there is smaller lettering saying “ABC School PTA” on it?  The most noticeable part of the shirt is still the apple.  As we are in the business of presenting a certain look, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the representatives from our hypothetical Microsoft office would rather not have a reminder of one of their major competitors at an event they are paying for.  Just because there is no ill intent from the person wearing it does not change the first impression the shirt gives to representatives of the client, and in the end, the client is paying the stagehand.

Even a shirt with a large US flag printed on it may not be allowed, if it is considered distracting to the production.

For those conservative or anti-union outlets: If the crew was non-union, would you have reported this story?  The union status of a stagehand does not change the basic job description of a stagehand.  If I was put on a call to set-up a Republican event, and was wearing a black shirt with only the word “CHANGE” and a US flag on it, and was asked by the client to change my shirt or go home, would you be up in arms about it?  I doubt it.

Again, not all the facts in this particular case are known.  But our appearance on our job sites is not a freedom of speech issue, as our appearance is part of the job.  We are paid to help the producer present a certain look, and our job is to do that, regardless of if we agree with how they regulate that look or not.