BODY COUNT RISING AT GULFSTREAM MARINE AT THE PORT OF BROWNSVILLE

By Juan Montoya
What's happening at the Port of Brownsville?
With the announcement last Thursday that yet another fatality had occurred at Gulfstream Marine Stevedore company, it is now becoming clear that with a handful of fatalities in just as many years, the safety of workers there is becoming questionable.
Port of Brownsville spokesman Manuel Ortiz confirmed that a man died Thursday evening when he was hit by steel beams that were being loaded onto a truck in a yard at the port.
That was the latest fatality at the union-busting stevedore.
An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) report indicates that less than two years ago, on Oct. 25, 2009, another worker there died after a heavy spinning cargo sling struck him on the head and killed him, crushing his skull despite his use of a hardhat.
At the time, workers there remember that company and port administrators were trying to sell the public the story that the victim had suffered a heart attack and had been struck as a result. However, the OSHA investigation found the worker had no heart problems and that the accident was not a result of a cardiac arrest, despite the claims of company and port administrators.
In the latest fatality, investigations indicate that the worker was struck while in the process of loading steel I-beams. Further investigations indicate that the beams were being hoisted by a forklift when one of them slipped and hit the worker below.
To make matters worse, we know understand that the accident did not happen on Gulfstream leased property, but rather on land belonging to the Brownsville Navigation District. The port has not released the identity of the victim or his age.
The port also diverted questions about whether the forklift operator possessed a certificate enabling him to operate the machine. There are reports that in the accident Thursday he did not. Now the question becomes: If the operator of the forklift was not certified to operate the machine and the accident happened on port property, shouldn't the port require the company to ascertain that every worker operating heavy equipment on navigation district property possess a certificate before using them?
These are not your run-othe-mill forklifts you find at the local warehouse.
The Gulf Stream Marine Brownsville fleet includes over 25 forklifts ranging in capacity from 5,000 pounds - 70,000 pounds.
Ortiz said that OSHA investigators had been out at the port on Friday and that the Cameron County Sheriff's Department was assisting in the investigation. He said that the port's security had been a first responder in the accident but the investigation was in the hands of the sheriff's department.
Workers at the port say that they remember at least another two or three fatalities involving company workers. While no one denies that work loading and unloading heavy cargoes is inherentlyh dangerous, they say the mounting track record at the company is of concern to many there.
"One ot two over a decade is undertandable," said a longshoreman. "But now four or five over the same period is something that should be taken seriously. Something has to be done by the port to address these concerns."
The corporate website for the company indictaes that its mission includes the safety of its workers. It states that "It will be our goal to build enduring and equitable relationships with our customers, our vendors and our employees within a safe and ethical working environment."
There's another wrinkle in this tragedy.

It appears that Mark Hoskins, Vice President of Operations fo Gulf Stream Marine, is the brother-in-law of BND board chairman John Reed.
Could it be that the special relationship with the chairman of the board and the company's head honcho is guiding the hand of Port Director eddie Campirano to exercise a hands-off stance in the mounting death toll at the firm's operations and a scrfutiny of its work-safety protocols?
And why can't the port's security force launch its own investigation? Could it be possible that we will actually miss the departed George Gavito?