Workers risk death, injury at Fort Worth Amazon construction site, whistleblower says
A whistleblower who had safety responsibilities at an Amazon fulfillment center under construction in Fort Worth says multiple safety hazards could be putting workers’ safety at risk.
Jose Rodriguez of Houston provided the Star-Telegram with photographs and video taken inside the 1-million-square-foot building at 1511 NE Loop 820. The images showed people working without N95 respirators in a dusty, dimly lit area where contractors were drilling into concrete to install metal racks. The fine dust from concrete, masonry and rock can cause lung damage and even death, according to the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Photos also showed workers on ladders and scaffolds placed on a corrugated metal deck. Rodriguez, a former safety manger, said he reported these same safety concerns and photos to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration before he forwarded the same complaint to the Star-Telegram on Jan. 29, a few hours after he was fired.
He said a language barrier makes it difficult for safety managers who speak only English to correct any imminent danger because many of the workers speak only Spanish.
An electrician working for a subcontractor at the Amazon site said he walked off the job in late January because of safety concern. He supports some of the claims made in the complaint and as seen in the photographs from Rodriguez. He said he fears the lives of his former colleagues could still be at risk.
Texas is the deadliest state for workers in the U.S., according to a 2019 report by the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation. Experts say the use of subcontractors makes it difficult to train employees and track the safety history of companies.
“Ensuring the safety of our employees, contractors and vendors is our top priority,” an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email. “We work closely with our general contractor and construction crews to provide a safe work environment and are committed to providing all contractors with the proper safety and job specific training.”
The general contractor, The Conlan Company of Marietta, Georgia, addressed a safety issue with a vendor the week of Feb. 1 and ”out of an abundance of caution” paused a portion of the work to address the safety concern and rectify the issue, Amazon wrote in an email on Feb. 5. No other construction work onsite was paused.
“Adherence to safety rules and practices is mandatory and we, along with our general contractor, immediately address any concerns to ensure all safety procedures are strictly adhered to by all contractors onsite,” read the statement.
Imminent Danger
Loud hammering sounds reverberated from the building to an access road about 500 feet away where several workers had parked their vehicles on a recent afternoon. The Star-Telegram spoke to a few workers who declined to comment before Bill Stone, superintendent with The Conlan Company, drove up in a pickup truck.
“What are you doing here?” asked Stone, who oversees safety issues in the worksite.
“I know exactly who told you to come,” he said, naming the whistleblower before asking the reporter to leave.
Rodriguez was an independent contractor hired as a safety manager by sub-subcontractor California-based Safety 1st Consulting to ensure OSHA compliance at the Fort Worth site. Rodriguez said he was fired by Safety 1st for “holding up production” after he reported several safety hazards.
Safety 1st Consulting, not to be confused with Safety First Consulting in Arlington, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Stone did not say why Rodriguez was fired but called him “a disgruntled employee.”
Rodriguez said he was doing his job as a safety and health official.
“I reported the risk through the proper channels but they decided to let me go and that’s their decision,” he said. ”My concern is that people in there are still being exposed to imminent danger.”
In a statement, Kevin Turpin, president of The Conlan Company, wrote that the safety of all workers at its construction sites is a top priority.
“We seek to ensure proper training is provided to Conlan employees and to ensure that all employees of other firms are properly trained,” he wrote. “If a safety hazard is identified, work is stopped in that area until the safety hazard is abated and work may safely continue.”
OSHA officials in Fort Worth declined comment. Messages seeking requests for comment from the Labor Department’s public affairs office in Dallas were not returned.
Raising the Alarm
Rodriguez is not the only person who has raised the alarm on safety hazards at the construction site of Amazon’s fulfillment center in Fort Worth.
Randy Smith, a former employee at Dalworth Lighting and Electric Services of Fort Worth, said he quit on Jan. 25 because he was being asked to work in unsafe conditions. Dalworth is a subcontractor working at the site.
“I wasn’t going to put anybody in danger,” Smith said. “That’s one of the reasons I quit.”
He said he and a crew of 12 or 13 workers were being asked to install strip lights on metal racks but the corrugated metal deck made it dangerous to use the A-shaped step ladders and the movable platforms they needed for the job. Smith confirmed that the conditions described by Rodriguez also caused him concerns.
“We didn’t have a flat surface,” Smith said. “I was afraid someone might trip in the groves as they walked around or came off the ladder causing them to fall.”
Also, he said the subcontractor installing the racks could not keep up with production so workers stood the racks up without bolting them to the floor. Smith said he feared the racks would topple over like dominoes onto him or the other workers.
“It just wasn’t worth the risk,” he said. “I’d rather live to work another day.”
Greg Knowles, the owner of Dalworth, said he could not discuss Smith’s reason for leaving the company.
“I don’t know why the gentleman made those statements but our safety records show we have no violations,” Knowles said. “I would never put an employee’s life at risk. We have a strict safety policy in place and our employees are trained on a regular basis because safety is our number one priority.”
A Lack of Training
Aloysius Attah, who teaches occupational safety and liability at the University of North Texas’ college of engineering said 60% to 65% of all injuries in the construction industry involve specialty trade workers like Smith.
Training may not always trickle down from the general contractors to the actual workers of the subcontractors on the first, second or third tier of the project, he said.
“The general contractor really is not responsible for telling the subcontractors how to do the job or the means and methods of construction,” Attah said. “So the employees of the subcontractors don’t have any allegiance to the general contractor or the person who is in charge and specially trained for safety at the site.”
Attah said major job sites can have thousands of subcontractors, making it difficult to train workers especially in places like Texas where many don’t speak English. Turpin, the Conlan president, said all safety documentation is available in English and Spanish.
“Some companies may go out there on the street and hire people without giving them any general or basic training,” Attah said. “In Texas, where many of these workers speak Spanish it is especially important to have training in a language they understand.”
There are no public records that reveal the structure of the subcontractors involved at the Amazon site. Rodriguez’s complaint and photos of documents from the site show EFficient Storage Solutions was hired as a subcontractor to assemble the racks supplied by Hannibal Industries of Los Angeles. EFficient hired Southwest Electrical Solutions of Flower Mound and Southwest hired Dalworth, according to Rodriguez who included the names and tiers of these companies in his complaint to OSHA.
Bob Pinard, president of Southwest, verified his company, like Dalworth, was working on the site but declined further comment. Emails to EFficient Storage Solutions, sent to an address provided by Rodriguez, were not returned.
In an email, Turpin, the Conlan president, said none of these firms is directly contracted by Conlan. Turpin declined to provide specifics about the project’s subcontractors, citing a non-disclosure agreement. Multiple emails seeking comment from Hannibal were not returned.
OSHA’s online safety records showed no inspections had been conducted at the Fort Worth site as of Wednesday. Records also showed no inspections, violations or citations for any of these companies this year.
A Deadly State
One construction worker is killed every three days in Texas, according to a 2016 report from the Workers Defense Project, a nonprofit in Austin advocating for low-wage workers’ rights.
In 2013, 116 construction workers died on the job in Texas compared to 61 fatalities in California, even though the two states have approximately the same size construction workforce.
Immigrant construction workers face the highest risk of dying on the job. From 2012 to 2013, the total number of construction worker fatalities in Texas increased by about 11%, while fatalities among foreign-born Latino construction workers increased by 47%, according to the report.
But the subcontracting system often veils the dangers and fatal history of contractors, according to Rodriguez, who has 20 years of experience working in safety and OSHA compliance across the U.S.
General contractors often hire subcontractors to perform jobs they are not equipped or staffed to complete for a project. These subcontractors can then hire other subcontractors with their own sub-subcontractors, also known as tier-subs, to perform a job.
In September, two steel workers died at an Amazon fulfillment center under construction in Suffolk, Virginia. The site was managed by The Conlan Company, according to news reports.
The two were employed by Louisiana-based Eastern Constructors, a traveling, nonunion steel contractor that had been hired as a sub-subcontractor.
The two fatalities appear on the federal safety record of Eastern Constructors. Amazon’s and Conlan’s safety records do not show the two fatalities, according to a search of OSHA’s website.
Eastern Constructors had been cited for deaths at job sites in 2016 and 2017, according to OSHA records. After the deadly accident in Suffolk, Eastern Constructors was fined $9,000. Conlan was investigated for possible safety violations but the case remained open as of Wednesday.
Summarizing his criticism of the industry, Rodriguez said it comes down to profit. Subcontractors with an unqualified or illegal workforce will often win the bidding process because they can offer lower prices.
“As long as subs continue to hire unqualified tier subs while making an easy profit off an unqualified workforce, people’s lives will continue to be at risk,” Rodriguez said.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
