Ford's battery flagship socked by mold sickness, workers say

https://labornotes.org/2024/02/fords-battery-flagship-socked-mold-sickness-workers-say

144 107 2 years ago

duxup7• 2 years ago

Interesting.

I will say I find the writing a little off putting. Felt like they wanted to rope in every name, company and person involved here.

"medieval hazards" I don't even know what that means but mold is a thing in the modern area too.

Clearly this publication is pro labor unions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Notes), but it is strange that they push this narrative and note how people in the labor union were working in these poor conditions:

"many have required their union workers to build on 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Despite months of worker concerns, managers waited until early February to take basic precautions against the mold—precautions that might slow construction"

Gee thanks labor unions for helping out?

This article is all over the place.

There's a story here that IMO could have been told, and accomplished the same goals without the internal weirdness of the article sort of pointing back at itself.

FrustratedMonky6• 2 years ago

Think your response is similarly all over the place.

"Despite months of worker concerns, managers waited until early February to take basic precautions against the mold"

Doesn't this indicate that the union was raising concerns and needed to push for action?

Mold is no joke. I knew a guy that died after working in moldy conditions. He was old, and pneumonia.

duxup7• 2 years ago

I wouldn't assume that.

davorak2• 2 years ago

"medieval hazards" I don't even know what that means but mold is a thing in the modern area too.

A definition from google "medieval" -> primitive or very old fashioned. The implication is that those running the operation have an old or primitive mindset or safety standards.

cptskippy2• 2 years ago

The implication is that those running the operation have an old or primitive mindset or safety standards.

What? That isn't at all what it said.

But under all the high-tech green fanfare, several construction workers, including some who wished to be anonymous, say the site has been gripped by mold and respiratory illness—medieval hazards that workers feel managers neglected in the pressure to quickly open the plant.

They were contrasting the high tech and modern nature of the plant to the medieval hazard of mold. The assertion being that mold isn't a modern day problem. Mold, insects, vermin, and disease were common everyday problems in medieval times that were overshadowed by the more pressing needs around food scarcity and clean water.

singleshot_• 2 years ago

It’s a medical hazard, but the editor is as illiterate as the author.

arrakeenrevived5• 2 years ago

FWIW I agree with you. The title hardly makes sense to me as well.

"Ford's Battery Flagship" - even after reading the article I'm still not sure what this is. "flagship" is used only in the title and nowhere else. Based on my knowledge of Ford, I would assume their "flagship" would be the F150, but this article seems to be talking about some sort of battery factory that a South Korean company is building?

Similarly, "socked by mold sickness" is a weird phrase. Feels like an inappropriate use of "socked" here. If the project is delayed because workers are getting sick, just say that.

The title strikes me as a failed attempt at clickbait, and immediately makes me distrustful of the rest of the article, which is confirmed by the "all over the place"ness that you mentioned as well.

FrustratedMonky6• 2 years ago

"Flagship" means important.

The press release seems to indicate it's importance.

https://corporate.ford.com/articles/electrification/blue-ova...

""FORD TO LEAD AMERICA'S SHIFT TO ELECTRIC VEHICLES WITH NEW BLUEOVAL CITY MEGA CAMPUS IN TENNESSEE AND TWIN BATTERY PLANTS IN KENTUCKY; $11.4B INVESTMENT TO CREATE 11,000 JOBS AND POWER NEW LINEUP OF ADVANCED EVS FORD TO BRING ELECTRIC ZERO-EMISSION VEHICLES AT SCALE TO AMERICAN CUSTOMERS WITH THE LARGEST, MOST ADVANCED, MOST EFFICIENT AUTO PRODUCTION COMPLEX IN ITS 118-YEAR HISTORY""

hahamrfunnyguy• 2 years ago

"Shocked by mold sickness." would have been better.

rtkwe2• 2 years ago

Socked here is just "hit or struck" which isn't that weird of a phrase to use in the context. We use it all the time for natural disasters, cities are socked by a hurricane.

dotancohen• 2 years ago

I kind of get the impression that it's another EV hit piece. The fact that the factory will be making EV batteries has nothing to do with the mold problems, yet the reader is constantly being reminded of it.

elevaet• 2 years ago

I've been noticing a lot of these "EV hit pieces". What's going on with that? Is it organic? Are there nefarious actors (ahem ... oil?) trying to stem the tide? What's going on?

sanderjd2• 2 years ago

Yep:

- EV hit piece: for sure.

- Assigned to an intern or perhaps farmed out to mechanical turk or similar: almost certainly.

- Written entirely or mostly by an AI: probably.

araes• 2 years ago

Generally in the same place, just not for the same reasons. A lot of journalist writing is inherently sensationalistic, because the metric has become an ambulance chasing and gross out horror metric.

Personally, have more issue with the automaton-like reactions of the workers. 1000 workers, who are holding fundraisers to help each other find other work, and recover from illnesses, smell mold so strong it "hits you when you walk by the plant, and yet almost no personal responsibility.

Have to be forced to wear masks. Don't just buy bleach and nuke the area into oblivion. Boxes had large Do Not Bring Inside, boxes are brought inside. Obviously illegal behavior. Where's the documentation of provable illegalities? Every phone's got a camera with timestamps. (also a serious issue with the military barracks situation. You went home to this every night? Took years and a Reuters expose? [1]).

However, still sympathetic. "Electrical workers complained to foremen." Objects replaced just prior to safety inspections. Months of mold complaints, largely ignored. 12 health or safety investigations, half closed, half limbo. Must be infuriating working in technician industries. Reuters investigation of SpaceX was basically a deja-vu story. "Bad safety results? Stop reporting." [2] These days it seems better to go to a journalist, than the safety agencies, they're far too financially motivated. "Good for Kentucky business. Die of mold? We'll give you a plaque somewhere, in a decade or two once the money's extracted."

[1] https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/02/16/military-fami...

[2] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-m...

inemesitaffia• 2 years ago

The Reuters SpaceX story is full of nonsense. Starting by claiming they had a scoop

TylerE• 2 years ago

Yes, this sort of writing is very common from heavily slanted/borderline propaganda sources. Strongertowns is the same way. Lots of scare words, minimal substance.

samirillian• 2 years ago

a) I like the language use. The title is punchy, and it makes you check it out just because you want to know what it means. Medieval hazards sticks with you.

b) there’s not a lot of money in being a commie journalist so this is probably some volunteer.

c) I live in Kentucky and had not heard about this.

d) re Kentucky, this place is wet

h0l0cube• 2 years ago

"medieval hazards" I don't even know what that means but mold is a thing in the modern area too.

Maybe. But the situation sounds unlike any modern workplace I know of:

Worker complaints piled up until, on December 8, Abel management hired the firm Environmental Testing & Consulting of Kentucky to take “limited samples” for mold. Their report, sent to Abel less than one week later, found seven types of mold inside the wooden crates, including three in “heavy” concentrations. It also noted an “intense mold odor” inside the containers.
To limit exposure, the report included a recommendation for handling the wooden boxes: “DO NOT PUT INSIDE.”

cptskippy2• 2 years ago

"medieval hazards" I don't even know what that means but mold is a thing in the modern area too.

The author was just trying to convey that these days we remediate mold issues, where as in medieval times mold was just something you lived with because you had bigger issues.

They were trying to juxtapose the fact that the this was suppose to be a modern state of the art battery manufacturing facility with the fact that they were being told to just live with the mold.

Imagine they popped open a crate and it was infested by rats. Would management have just told them to work around the rats?

myaccount2131• 2 years ago

The comment here is out of place, as the general point of the article is sufficiently said.

I'm not sure why this is top comment, it's detractive of discussion.

A better solution would be to summarize your findings, and state that the article was poorly written. 'Socking' the author is clearly anti-discussion, distracting, and not worth the toxicity other than a quick offhand remark to accompany an opinion that talks of the main topic at hand

readyman2• 2 years ago

Labor Notes is pro workers. It's a very well-established and highly respected publication that advocates for strong unions (controlled by workers) over weak unions (controlled by bureaucrats).

jtriangle• 2 years ago

Doubly unfortunate, being that mold remediation on an item isn't terribly complicated or difficult, but mold remediation in-vivo, or in a structure, is much more complex.

That's not to say hosing down hundreds of crates with biocide is great, it's not, but, it's certainly far better than what they're doing here...

duxup7• 2 years ago

Seems like the factory wasn't even complete yet, so access to clean / deal with it should have been maybe a little easier at that point rather than later.

Good opportunity get to every nook and cranny and etc.

iancmceachern2• 2 years ago

Totally, or paint them in fungal resistant paint from the factory, or ship them in steel containers...

shadowgovt• 2 years ago

or paint them in fungal resistant paint from the factory

Then you'd have to stop buying from the lowest bidder. Because it turns out sometimes the higher bids are paying for important stuff.

rootusrootus2• 2 years ago

Can mold cause a bacterial infection? Or are they trying too hard to connect the dots? Similarly, it seems like the rest of the article is filled with numbers that may sound significant on their own but I would like to see how they compare to normal. A certain number of people will get sick whether they were exposed to mold or not, with thousands of workers on site the number of illnesses will always be a good bit greater than zero.

iancmceachern2• 2 years ago

No, bacteria causes bacterial infections. Mold causes lots of other problems, and can be deadly

datavirtue• 2 years ago

It's attitudes like this that perpetuate injuries and death on job sites around the world. By all means, pontificate from your cozy,filtered and climate controlled environment.

If a slight mildew issue broke out in your office all hell would break loose. All work would stop until everyone was remote and a hazmat mitigation company would be brought in by management after a few emails got around.

Go on, explain to us why these workers should just suck it up.

rootusrootus2• 2 years ago

It's attitudes like this that perpetuate injuries and death on job sites around the world.

I assure you, the safest industries in the world got that way because of data-driven solutions, not emotion. Go ahead, get angry from the comfort of your office, yell and scream about the injustices of the world. That's how we got to be so incredibly divided, so it must be the right way.

SkyPuncher• 2 years ago

The mold itself doesn't cause a bacterial infection, but it can encourage the conditions for a bacterial infection. Pneumonia would be the most well known example.

Anecdotally, my understanding is the flu itself isn't what's dangerous to at risk populations. Its' the pneumonia that you're much more likely to get.

whycome• 2 years ago

Did Ford figure out their "unspecified quality issue" and actually resume production yet? Last I saw was it was halted in February. Is it possible it was related to this issue in terms of their battery production?

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-s...

Animats2• 2 years ago

Different plant. That's in Michigan. The one with mold is under construction in Kentucky.

stuaxo3• 2 years ago

America needs some basic rights for workers, no sick leave you are just out.

solardev4• 2 years ago

It's a bit surprising to me that the labor unions couldn't negotiate this, as some of the biggest / most powerful unions out there already.

If even they can't, what chance do the rest of us have :/

wumeow• 2 years ago

After a honeymoon period, labor unions usually become just another middleman.

rokkitmensch• 2 years ago

The major labor unions are just as corrupt in their own ways as the capital unions one'd expect them to be working against.

darknavi• 2 years ago

Dugan and scores of others now believe they are in the midst of a health crisis at the site. “We don’t get sick pay,” Dugan said. “You’re sick, you’re out of luck.”

There was a post yesterday slamming the CHIPS act for having too much D&I in which they referenced the "huge" costs of forcing construction firms to give full healthcare coverage (and more) to employees. This is a perfect example of how the market does not meet the bar without intervention.

sanderjd2• 2 years ago

The slightly confusing thing to me is that there is already intervention here: it's a unionized workplace. Seems like the union should be doing better for its members here.

floydnoel2• 2 years ago

It's almost as if unions are just another power structure with their own goals. I've seen more stories of union corruption than I can count, and we can add this example to the pile.

>> Although Dugan, Shaffer, and other members say their union stewards on site helped press their concerns to management, they say that local and international IBEW officers who visited the facility scoffed at their concerns. Dugan says a local officer refused to file a grievance on his behalf about the mold in January. One worker requested to stay anonymous out of concern that union officials might withhold his future job placements if he spoke out. Officers with the IBEW local and district did not return requests for comment.

solardev4• 2 years ago

Can we maybe change that title to something clearer? eg "Ford workers say they're sickened by mold in new battery factory"

mvdtnz• 2 years ago

Struggling to parse this title.

proee• 2 years ago

Certain types of plywood are a magnet for mold growth. The natural oils in the wood (like birch) plus certain types of glues that contain organic compounds are the perfect environment for mold to thrive.

From my understanding, marine-grade plywoods are more resistant to mold growth, and of course, you could paint the plywood with mold-inhibiting paint.

This is a supply chain issue that needs addressed at the source (supplier level).

There are well known charts that define safe operating environments for temperature and humidity. If you go outside these bounds, its easy to calculate the number of days until an object develops mold.

https://energyhandyman.com/knowledge-library/mold-chart-for-...

solardev4• 2 years ago

Could this be a like a covid thing, possibly, with a bunch of old untreated wood sitting around for a long time and finally getting used up?

verteu2• 2 years ago

Although Dugan, Shaffer, and other members say their union stewards on site helped press their concerns to management, they say that local and international IBEW officers who visited the facility scoffed at their concerns.

Why did their own union scoff at the safety concerns?

spaceguillotine• 2 years ago

union leadership, esp the IBEW have a history of not actually caring about safety but of making sure they get their due, AFL-CIO affiliated unions were part of keeping communism out of america at any cost and that was it.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/left-wing-union-afl-cio-imp...

The CIA helped them rise to power and retain it while also taking away from the workers.

readyman2• 2 years ago

Exactly right. Refreshing to see someone in this thread knows their history.

lupire2• 2 years ago

The (extremely biased) article you cite doesn't even support your claim. It says that AFL-CIO supports American workers over non-American workers.

floydnoel2• 2 years ago

Let's ask the reverse question also, why would the union do anything to help the workers? Do they get paid more in that case? Incentives are the answer to all these questions.

There is no incentive for a union to care about safety concerns. they have a monopoly.

verteu2• 2 years ago

Every union officer is elected by the workers, so yes, they have an incentive to please them. Historically, unions have been responsible for a massive amount of health & safety improvements in the workplace.

forgetfreeman• 2 years ago

From the perspective of someone who's done formal mold abatement projects everything about this is deeply frustrating. PPE to work in a mold contaminated environment safely is inexpensive and ubiquitous. Likewise, the equipment and materials required to safely segregate mold contaminated materials from the larger working environment are inexpensive and simple to install. This could have been avoided.

qwertyuiop_• 2 years ago

When Dugan walked in, huge wooden boxes containing battery-making machines, largely shipped from overseas, were laid across the mile-long factory floor. Black streaks on those wooden boxes, plus the smell, immediately raised alarm bells for workers.

Has anyone thought about nefarious foreign actors introducing biological agents to stymie the build ?

NEETPILLED• 2 years ago

The absolute state of American manufacturing

lupire2• 2 years ago

Several other articles by professional news outlets using more common American English language:.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ford%20battery%20factory%20m...

Ford's battery flagship socked by mold sickness, workers say

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