ILA calls for safety meetings after ?rash? of accidents

ILA calls for safety meetings after ærashÆ of accidents    The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) has called for emergency port safety meetings along the U.S. East Coast after a union dockworker died in Port Elizabeth on Nov. 28.
   Three other ILA workers have been injured, two of them critically, in the Port of Charleston, S.C., within the past two weeks.
   Citing this “recent rash of accidents,” ILA president John Bowers said he would convene meetings with union officials, employers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Transportation, and the Coast Guard.
   “Something is wrong when ILA members are killed or critically injured at work sites. We need to address this problem immediately,” Bowers said.
   Oscar Cuthbert, 63, died in Port Elizabeth when a straddle carrier struck and crushed a cab in which he was working as a checker. The brakes on the straddle carrier allegedly failed, the ILA said in a statement.
   A day earlier in Charleston, John Godfrey and Henry Lincoln were injured when wires securing cargo snapped, bringing a load down on top of the longshoremen and knocking them 20 feet into a ship's cargo hold. On Nov. 18, Michael Clarkin, another dockworker in Charleston, was hurt critically when a container fell on top of his vehicle at the State Ports Authority.