Shipyard crane collapses into Seattle's Elliott Bay

JohnCreeden said on February 18, 2012 at 10:56 AM

Looks like Frank Foti is once again pushing the "profit over people" agenda. It's cheaper to kill some one rather than maintain a safe working environment for his employees. It looks like it's time for OSHA to do a complete inspection of all the facilities that Vigor is buying up. There again you have Mike Peterson advocating safety while his inspections are being conducted being blind in one eye and can't see out the other.

tprop said on February 17, 2012 at 10:09 PM

Hey folks get use to it - you are commodities. Vigor wins. You lose. Too Bad. So Sad.

tprop said on February 17, 2012 at 10:07 PM

Cheep cheep cheep. Not cheap of course. that would be insulting.

tprop said on February 17, 2012 at 10:05 PM

Cheep sells.

twowebfeetinwa51 said on February 17, 2012 at 12:16 PM

The main thing about Vigor is that they don't qualify to hold Navy contracts anymore. They are considered a large business and as a large business, they typically won't get government contracts, if there are qualified small businesses. I know that they have gotten around this before using Vigor Marine, but unless Vigor Marine is a separate entity that maintains their own books and is not a subsidiary of Vigor International, they don't qualify either because the business size is based on control of the company and if there is a parent company, it is typically based on the size of the parent company. Whereas Todd was small and also local which is good for us in the Puget Sound area. I was very sorry to hear about their acquisition by Vigor.

twowebfeetinwa51 said on February 17, 2012 at 12:11 PM

I agree with the posters below. Vigor has no regard for their employees health and/or safety. My son worked for them up until December when due to some health issues and having a lot of appts, they decided that they didn't want him anymore and "fired" him. When he had asked for time off for the appts, they said that he needed to make a choice and if they couldn't rely on him to be there then they didn't need him. I am sorry, but taking care of health problems is more important. He is young, so he wasn't going to question, but I told him to go to the union, but again he is young. He told me though about things that had happened that were unsafe in Bremerton and Seattle. He started with Todd and love it and loves the work/pay, but didn't care for Vigor once they replace all of the old Todd "supervisors/bosses" with their own people.

comiccon2010 said on February 17, 2012 at 9:29 AM

the oilly sheen was from him crapping his pants

Vigorsucks said on February 16, 2012 at 10:07 PM

My husband works at that shipyard. I remember when he worked in Bremerton he use to complain about the poor workmanship of Vigor and how unsafe they were. He's worked there for going on 11 years and I never worried while it was owned by Todds. Now it's been twice in a couple weeks that i've seen the news and had to call to make sure he was ok. It's ridiculous. Seems to me that since Vigor started bringing in their personel that things have gone downhill fast. Not sure if it's the lack of skilled workers, they just don't care, or what. I want my hubby to get a new job, I shouldn't have to be worried about him going to work everyday. The scariest part is all the shipyards Vigor has been buying, hope this doesn't start happening at all of them.

rigger said on February 16, 2012 at 9:56 PM

Remember Neil Lund! Neil fell to his death at Cascade General in 1996, he too had small children, and I doubt if Cascade General or the Owner (Frank Foti) even knows his name today. Welcome to Vigor, the "Limited Liability" (LLC) arm of Cascade General. The operator in this case was extremely lucky to survive the impact of this fall. I'm glad no one was under the load on the end of this crane.

ospreypaul said on February 16, 2012 at 9:38 PM

Why would anyone that worked around Vigor in PSNS the last few yrs be surprised at these accidents? Todds almost got removed from PSNS the last 3 contracts for violations caused by Vigor,who was sub contracting jobs for Todds.Now they somehow bought Todds shipyard for the cost of their floating drydock and now gutting the workforce by attrition and eleminating seniority.When they are down to just a few competent workers they will use that as an excuse to bring in workers from Korea,etc.,just like microsoft does.The Navy wont let those foreign nationals into PSNS or their ships and therefore will be forced to hire american workers or shut down and let the private yards try to keep her afloat.All Todds union agreements are soon to expired and if many leave because the pay will drop,expect more disasters to the point of shutdown.Goodbye Seattle from the Navy and back to Bremerton for all repairs and overhauls of Navy Vessels.

torkezilla said on February 16, 2012 at 7:55 PM

kalaloch....congrats. you win the idiot progtard of the day award! Now, if you win this prestigious award two days in a row you get a free kick in the onions,oh wait you don't have any. keep up the good work anyway,you're always good for a laugh!

squeezeplae said on February 16, 2012 at 5:04 PM

most of us down there would like to see vigor go back to Oregon.

squeezeplae said on February 16, 2012 at 4:59 PM

I worked at TODD Pacific Shipyards for 22 years until VIGOR bought.

Daytrader said on February 16, 2012 at 4:58 PM

Seems Vigor has a few safety issues that need serious fixing and soon before everyone else is hurt of killed.

squeezeplae said on February 16, 2012 at 4:57 PM

I watched this one from my office window. the crane was making a pick on the west end of the pier, obviously overloaded. It started to swing the load over the water and over she went. This is horrible I was in a man basket yesterday with this same operator. Vigor doesn't care about anything but the bottom line. 2 major accidents in two weeks. Here at Vigor the number one thing is making money number two is production safety and personnel fall in about number 5 or 6. I have been working there for about 22 years and I have never seen anything like this. When "BULL " died they shut down for the rest of the day but we were back at work the next day no safety meeting just a short well we lost a man but we are running a business. When my contract is up I will be going elsewhere for employment.

au6892 said on February 16, 2012 at 4:26 PM

Why hasn’t L&I cried bloody murder yet? They sure jumped all over the Husky Stadium crane accident and no one was hurt in that one.

speeadork said on February 16, 2012 at 4:25 PM

Nobody has said it lately..........Bush's Fault

Cran13 said on February 16, 2012 at 4:15 PM

@kalaoch Although I don't think shutting down OSHA is a good idea, yourcountry1776 is on the money, it's not a political party thing this comes down to companies cutting down maintenance budgets to increase breathing room in other areas. This is an epidemic, look into recent articles on semi chassis. Unfortunately this is what will happen, I am a foreman for a maintenance crew and my constant battle with mangement is money they just don't understand, there is no alternative to safety.

angeleys77 said on February 16, 2012 at 3:48 PM

You should all save your ignorant comments until you know facts.

yourcountry1776 said on February 16, 2012 at 3:07 PM

@kalaoch- OSHA isnt shut down. And look what happened... Did OSHA even inspect this crane? This accident isnt the republicans fault. Why does everything have to be a democrat or republicans fault? How about the company themselves owning up to it.

gablestout said on February 16, 2012 at 3:01 PM

Because this accident is a good example of how well it’s been working with OSHA?

kalaloch said on February 16, 2012 at 2:51 PM

And Republicans want to shut down OSHA???

firesoul said on February 16, 2012 at 2:36 PM

Two incidents in two weeks...yikes. Not good for Vigor's reputation. Hope this guy is OK.