Please put yourself in my shoes and tell me if I am justified in my anger

[NightWatcher]

Background: I had to close my business early in 09 due to a lack of customers after 3 years.


Present: I have a job that pays 50 cents more than minimum wage, with a let's call them a lumber seller, where I make deliveries in one of those Mitsubishi delivery trucks you see a million of everyday.
For more than two weeks, I have been complaining to the store's #2 (my immediate supervisor) that the truck shakes damn near uncontrollably at speeds above 50 due to the front tires being severely worn. He says that he knows that the front tires are worn and that they have needed to be replaced since the beginning of the year, but he HOPES he can get it done sometime "maybe in December".

Today: (how many see where this is going?) I am making one of my usual deliveries and I notice that the vehicle is shaking severely as I travel down the 4 lane divided highway (with a 65mph speedlimit). All of a sudden I hear a loud noise and feel the vehicle begin to veer off the road. I am lucky to be able to maintain control and pull off the shoulder of the road onto the emergency lane. After I step from the vehicle I see that the driver's side front tire is severely warped. I make my way away from the roadside to call for assistance and POP! the tire explodes. After obtaining two new tires from a mobile tire company on the side of the higway, I return to the office nearly three hours after the incident. I ask my the store's #1 boss exactly how long he had been made aware that the tires needed replacement and exactly how long he was prepared to wait. He says that this is the first that he has heard about it. I ask my super (the #2) and he says that he told the boss about it last week. So first off, someone's lying. I get even more upset since it appears that they were fine with the idea of allowing me to possibly be in a crash, who knows how many people I could have killed, including myself. I then ask "what the fuck, man?" for which I am told that they dont like my attitude and I need to go to lunch (it's now 3PM). I then ask "no seriously, what the fuck? what if the blowout had happened where I could not have controlled the vehicle or on the huge ass (suspension) bridge (near the office)?
The reply was "woulda shoulda coulda". My response was " woulda shoulda coulda my ass, it did blow out. had it happened five minutes before it did, there's no telling what would have happened. The salesmanager then chimed in "fire his ass" They then advised that I leave for the day to cool out. I attempted to call the regional supervisor twice to report my concerns, but my messages went un returned.


Am I wrong to be pissed that I am so obviously expendable and they still dont care if I crash, burn, kill myself and or others?


Cant wait for work tomorrow. The chicken shits were to cowardly to fire me on the spot.

[PVnRT]

1. Consider calling OSHA or a similar local regulatory agency

You reported a safety hazard repeatedly and were ignored. That alone ought to get them a nasty phone call at least.

[flvegan]

7. Agreed, plus you're now on record

in the case they do fire you, you can call it retaliatory. Don't know if that'll make a difference in your state.

I agree, I'd be wicked pissed.

[NightWatcher]

9. Florida is a Right to Work (screw you employee) State

I have no rights, plus I doubt that they'll fire me. They'd rather make me quit, so I cant claim unemp while I look for something else

[flvegan]

15. Didn't know you were a fellow Floridian.

Yeah, it is a screw-you state.

[kentauros]

12. I second calling OSHA

In fact, here's their online complaint form (and the number to call)
http://www.osha.gov/pls/osha7/eComplaintForm.html

Filing of Retaliation Complaint: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=13269

Regulations (Standards - 29 CFR): http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owasrch.search_form?p_doc_type=STANDARDS&p_toc_level=1&p_keyvalue=24


OSHA applies to everyone no matter whether a state is "right to work" or not. OSHA has a big presence locally (Houston) due to the refineries and Texas is another big right-to-work state, too.

[doc03]

32. I called OSHA once. Here is the story

The company padlocked the exit door to one of the buildings I work in. I called my immediate supervisor he passed the buck to his boss I called him and he passed it higher up. The last one I talked to was the Plant Safety Superintendent and I was told it was locked to keep people from stealing some pumps stored in the building. I told him I work there and we have dangerous chemicals (chlorine and hydrochloric acid)in the building and that is our emergency exit. He refused to do anything so I called OSHA, in a couple weeks the lock and hasp disappeared from the door the holes were filled and the door was repainted. A couple weeks later I get a picture of the door from OSHA and they said they didn't see what my problem was, the door has no lock. (I couldn't get a picture of the lock on the door myself we are prohibited to have a camera in the plant) So basically it made me look like I lied but I did get the lock removed after about a month.

on edit: They will just deny you ever said anything about the tires being unsafe and maybe send them a picture of the new ones and since it is a non-union job you will be fired.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Are those exact quotes? Or are you paraphrasing?

You had the right to be mad. But if they're exact quotes then you were way out of line, professionally. But then again, if it's only fifty cents over minimum wage...

[NightWatcher]

4. the ignorant mouth-breathers that I work with speak and understand that type of language

[Ken Burch]

30. The man could have died. Other people could have been killed

You can's seriously be arguing that f-bombs are out of line after THAT. How can you be sweating the way he talked to the bosses? It was THEIR fault.

[trof]

3. You're right.

No question.

[liberaltrucker]

5. You are justified 10^n times

Recession or not, no job is worth dying for. Trust me, I've
been there. Your State Police may be interested in hearing
about this. Good luck, my friend.

:hi:

[Ineeda]

6. IMO you should be pissed....

You're lucky to have escaped a major accident and you should consider wrongful termination charges if they fire you. The #2 will either lie or back you up - 50-50.

[dana_b]

8. they put you and others in jeopardy

there is no out of line here. I hope you keep your job but damn, they need to get their priorities straight.

[XemaSab]

10. I would be SO PISSED

Is there a whistleblower number to call? :shrug:

[Kali]

11. any of those two weeks worth of complaints in writing/witnessed?

seems to be a key point, other than the worn tires themselves (where did they go?)

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. No, you are not justified. Your level of anger is unjustifiably low.

They put your life, and the lives of others, in jeopardy because they're too goddamned cheap to spend a few hundred dollars on new tired on their trucks.

I have found that business that can't manage to take care of their equipment, are certainly not going to take care of their employees, and are absolutely not going to take care of their customers.

As others said, if they give you any gruff when you go back tomorrow, call OSHA.

[kayakjohnny]

14. You should be completely pissed, you totally should have cussed, and you

probably should have sucker punched number 2 for endangering your life. That's my take. But don't take my take for it.

[ThatsMyBarack]

16. You're damn right to be pissed off!

Also, you are NOT the one who should be fired!

[david13]

17. You are certainly justified. But that type of thing is common as dirt

particularly in this economy. I have known companies in the best of times that never service their brakes, let alone replace tires. Even if they fire you, the next job you get will have exactly the same thing, only it may be at the refinery, or a large gas storage tank, etc.
Report them where you can.
dc

[Chan790]

19. Call your state DOT or whoever manages the highways and/or truck inspections...

I know that seems like a dick thing to do, but we had a bad bad accident in CT about 4 years ago (two actually, it happened again the following year to a much smaller degree) because some truck-owner (more like the assholes you're working for than not) decided that it was cheaper and easier to not service their vehicles which was ya know, great for them until the brakes failed at the top of Avon Mountain and caused a massive multi-casualty multi-car accident that closed the main thoroughfare through NW CT (about 10 minutes from where I was living at the time) for 5 days in part because it was actually so large they had to firefight it with helicopters and flame-retardant drops (like a forest fire) because they couldn't get near enough to the fire in the center to use hoses or fire-trucks. The debris field stretched halfway down the side of the mountain...about 2 miles.

http://www.wfsb.com/slideshow/news/9563514/detail.html

What were the outcomes:

Well, 4 people died, 3 of whom burned to death. More than 25 totaled cars. Two people went to prison for the rest of their lives. CT now has some very very tough laws for truck-owners like that. (If your bosses were in CT, They would already be under arrest as any brake-failure or tire-blowout is an automatic trigger for an investigation and if what you're saying is true, it'd have taken no time to determine that failure to properly service the truck was the cause...that's illegal for any commercial vehicle owner.)

Feel free to send people that news content when you tell them why you're complaining...hell, I'll do you one better, one of my friends is an editor for that news-station now...I'll give her an email and see if she'd be able to put you in contact with some people who were there...I can't promise anything, but I can see what I can do to give you some heavy weight.

While you're making those calls to complain of the unsafe transit conditions you're being forced to work in...call your corporate offices, tell them that your supervisor is making decisions that you feel open up the corporation to the potential to tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits and see how quickly this gets more attention from the big fish than your supervisors would like...make sure you tell them that you're going to mail them a letter by certified mail. That's their nightmare, a written document they can't deny receiving that lays out the threat. #1 and #2 won't make it to Friday.

[Ptah]

18. It's hard to do, but you should have refused to operate an unsafe vehicle.

I'm glad you weren't injured.

[Ikonoklast]

20. Bingo, This is the correct answer.

It ultimately comes down to you.

It is the operator of the vehicle that will be held immediately responsible for driving a vehicle with a KNOWN SAFETY DEFECT.

Your ass would have been in a sling right along with the owners of the vehicle, if anyone was hurt.

You may have been held criminally liable for operating a commercial vehicle that had a known safety defect.

The FDOT would have had a field day with the fine book.

[vadawg]

21. yup, its down to you the driver in the end to ensure the vehicle is safe

at least to the best of your ability, and tires are pretty much something that im going to look at and you should to in the event you have an accident. the company would bear some responsibility but a large portion would be yours as the operator especially as you knew there was issues with the vehicle..

[Brickbat]

23. +1 and it's good for everyone to remember.

[RoadRage]

22. Did you take pictures??

I hope you took some pictures with a digital camera.. or at least a cell phone camera.. that will help if this goes down an ugly road, which it looks like it might. But, yes you're very justified in your anger.. not only could you have hurt YOURSELF - but your idiot bosses need to think about the Soccer Mom driving her 5 kids home from school and what would have happend if your truck rammed them off the road. They'd be out of business due to the multi-million dollar lawsuit, not worrying about an "employee" that they feel is whining too much.

I hope this goes well for you tomorrow.. and I hope you got pictures!

[vadawg]

24. if he hit the soccer mum the 5 kids and they were injured or killed then he would have more to worry

about than lawsuits, he would be facing charges for operating an unroadworthy vehicle. There is personal responsibility when it comes to stuff like this...

[Odin2005]

25. Call the appropriate regulators on their ass.

If they fire you take them to court.

[BrklynLiberal]

26. Call OSHA and get a lawyer.

[dugaresa]

27. can you get the tires they pulled off that vehicle? You need proof

and then you call OSHA.

[applegrove]

28. I'd be furious.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

29. where I work, it is protocol to go up the chain of command if you do

not get action from your immediate superior. You should have gone to #1 when you were dissatisfied with the non-action you received from your #2. I would have done this after 3 attempts with #2. I would have documented said conversations and dated them.

[gmoney]

31. You're plenty justified...

I trust you didn't have to front the money for the new tires at least...

It's one thing to be too cheap to fix the copier until it breaks completely, but another when lives are at risk.

I'm almost surprised they didn't yell at you for running over something to "cause" the blow-out and dock you for the cost of the tires and lost time...

[DU GrovelBot]

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