Working on and around the docks is a dangerous job. So dangerous that in the last few days of 2009 two ILA members died while on the job.

David Wieland, 43, an ILA gang foreman in Local 970, was killed in Norfolk, Virginia, on December 22 when a straddle carrier dislodged a light pole, causing it to fall on the car Wieland was seated in while processing paperwork.

Virginia Port Authority Police and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) are investigating the accident. Click here to read more about this tragic accident.

In Staten Island, New York, ILA Local 333/United Marine Division member Ricardo Young, 50, died on December 29 when he became tangled in the lines, or hawsers,that were being used to tow another vessel. Read here for more information on this fatal accident.

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While we await the results of the investigations, the LWC continues to be concerned about the lack of coast wide health and safety standards for ILA workers.

Wieland is the sixth longshore worker to die in Norfolk since 2005.

Steve Oravets, Local 333/UMD member estimated, according to the Staten Island Advance, that “about one fatality occurs every year on board tugs and barges in the tri-state [New York/New Jersey] area.”

Oravet said, in the same article, “”The technology is there to improve the safety aboard tugs and barges.”"

For information about traffic safety on the docks, you can consult this document provided by OSHA.

Contact the LWC at 718-865-8782 to find out about our own network of health and safety activists in each port.

The LWC sends its sincere condolences to the families of David Wieland and Ricardo Young.