Minnesota OSHA officials fined National Service Corp. (NSC) $34,200. Swift was fined $2,100. Both companies filed notice on January 18 that they are contesting the fines.

NSC is based in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and contracts for sanitation services at meatpacking plants. NSC workers at Worthington are attempting to organize into the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

Santos Marroquin, 32, became caught in the meat auger around 4:00 a.m., October 11 as he was cleaning the machine. Two surgeons from Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, were flown to the plant by helicopter, arriving three and a half hours later. One doctor said Marroquin's legs were "pulverized" from the knees down. They amputated his legs in the plant, one above the knee and the other below, after Marroquin was freed from the machine.

"Actually, the employees there, I think, were really the ones that should get the credit," Dr. Greg Alvine told the Worthington Daily Globe. "They were able to pack cold towels around him and cut the side of this meat grinder away so we could get at his legs." A worker used a pipe wrench to back up the auger and help free Marroquin from the machine so the surgeons could work on him. "They were just amazing at how calm and cool and collected they were in the face of a tragedy like this when they know the employee," the Sioux Falls orthopedic surgeon said.

Raymundo Diaz, who works at Swift and is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1162, told the Militant that the company started the line at 6:00 a.m. while Marroquin was still trapped, and ran production until OSHA ordered them to shut down. "The company cared more about the machine and production than about the worker," Diaz said.

OSHA fined NSC $31,500 for a "willful violation" for not enforcing the use of a lock by the employee assigned to sanitize the "hash gut" grinder. "Basically, what Minnesota OSHA found is that there's documentation at the plant that showed the company [NSC] was aware that the condition existed and failed to act on it," according to OSHA communications director James Honerman. The maximum penalty for a willful violation is $70,000.

NSC was also fined $2,700 for a serious violation because Swift mechanics who disassembled the machine did not stay once they removed their locks to make sure NSC workers lock out before cleaning the equipment. Swift was fined $2,100 for the same violation.

The accident at Worthington occurred two months after a maintenance worker, Gabriel Hernandez, was killed at the Farmland meat processing plant in Albert Lea, Minnesota, after becoming trapped in a meat tumbler.

Kevin Dwire and Karen Ray are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 9 at Quality Pork Processors.  
 
 
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