City Council Rejects Safety Standards for Electrical Workers
The Everett City Council ignored the desperate pleas of local electricians for basic workplace safety ordinances.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Everett City Council, by unanimous vote Monday evening, killed the lighting and wiring ordinance prepared and introduced at the instigation of the electricians. The ordinance, if passed, would have reduced mortality and accidents among linemen by providing clearance on poles and yardarms to allow for safer work. Linemen face one of the most hazardous jobs, and an alarmingly large percentage meet violent deaths while working. Despite humanitarian calls for better legal protections, the council succumbed to the usual corporate opposition, prioritizing industry profits over the lives of workers.
“The usual corporation howl killed the ordinance. The same howl that sacrifices several thousand lives annually in factories because the owners thereof refuse to sink the setscrews on shafting.”
Everett has a long history of local labor movements fighting for workplace safety. This 1911 dispute over utility infrastructure safety echoes modern labor negotiations regarding worker protections and corporate accountability in the utility sector.
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