by Caroline Keane
Evergreen allowed large rocks to be cut by faculty for art, potentially exposing Evergreen staff and community residents to large amounts of silica, or fine ground rock particles. Silica exposure over time can lead to silicosis, a serious lung disease. Rock artist and faculty member, Bob Leverich, was given a grant by Washington state to create public art, and created some pieces for Vashon Island High School. Two students also received Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship stipends to do these sculptures with him. The motor pool and grounds employees, surrounding apartment complexes, and local wildlife may have been exposed to silica, and not given any protection. When they spoke out, they experienced retaliation, prohibited by the union contract.
Symptoms of silicosis may not appear until years after exposure. The tiny particles of silica dust create scars on the lungs. There is no cure for silicosis. Symptoms can be similar to bronchitis, and increases vulnerability to other diseases like lung cancer, tuberculosis, and kidney disease. Silica is released when rocks are cut. This rock art was made to be displayed at Vashon Island High School. It was commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission for $135,000. It was the largest grant ever given to a K-12 school in the history of the arts commission, which was established in 1974, according to the Vashon Beach Comber. They reported Leverich worked with three granite slabs sourced from the Cascade Mountains and a glacial erratic, from a gravel pit east of Covington.
Some Evergreen employees spoke with us about their experiences. Below is their telling of their experiences and interpretations of them, and do not reflect information verified by the Cooper Point Journal. At the time of writing, concerned faculty and administration, despite responding to initial inquiries, have not made a comment or scheduled the requested interview about this matter.
Motor Pool Worker (MPW): The real story we wanted to tell you about was the illegal rock cutting behind the grounds breakroom, that’s been going on since what, 2016-17? During the year of Covid, nobody was here doing any of that. When we started filtering back in, working outside, the guy that was cutting the rocks, still had his equipment and rocks around, and he started cleaning up his stuff. We were like, wait a minute, what’s going on? This is supposed to be investigated. You know, this is basically silica exposure across the whole grounds department in the building. They closed the grounds breakroom for like 6 months, probably almost a year.
CPJ: What were the rocks being cut for?
Motor Pool Worker: They were cutting art. They had like 16 ton granite stones.They ground them and cut them. With no water system. We didn’t realize how toxic it was, but it’s just like asbestos. They were cutting it dry with no water system and no air system to protect us.
Bob Leverich was on a grant contract. I don’t know who else was involved with that, but his sculptures wound up going into Vashon Island. I mean, it’s, you know, truck them up there ferry them over it’s at the high school. The President and everybody up from the third floor came down when he was done cutting them and they were all proud. Oh, yeah, look at this stuff. Somebody put him down here because it was up [outdoors, behind] at the Art Annex. I’m sure due to the noise complaints and the dust complaints they’re like well this can’t happen here.
So somebody put him down there [near ground’s breakroom] to pollute our lungs.
CPJ: When you say down there like how close to your workspace?
MPW: Yeah, all this whole area is our workspace. In the summertime, when he’s cutting rocks all our doors are open because it’s so hot in our break room. We could barely walk through the shop because we were sliding all over the place. We’ve all went down in there because of the dust and everything all over the tables and stuff. We had to wipe them off every day, where we would eat our sandwiches.
One time I told my supervisor, I can’t breathe. You know, and I have trouble breathing after this. If you look up silica and granite countertops, you can’t cut those things in the neighborhood. This guy was cutting these stones as high as a ceiling here. They brought them in on a flatbed and took them off with a crane.
When they have a show or something where they’re cutting rocks, you can’t go in there without a Tyvek suit, a respirator and all the [protective gear]. So he knows exactly what he’s doing, and somebody else put him down here because they didn’t care about us. I’m sure of it.
Grounds Crew Worker (GCW): There was some type of deal that obviously got him. That’s all fine and dandy, but we were unaware of all this, until we wound up going through asbestos training. To find out well, Jesus just as bad as silica is, yeah, what have we been breathing for over a year more?
MPW: I reported this to the safety committee and at and all the safety meetings. We have them once a week and I’ve been retaliated against, totally. Finally, I reported them to L&I [Labor & Industries] because they didn’t do anything. They said I don’t want to hear any more of this silica, that’s what the new facilities manager said. He stared at me just locked in, eye to eye at a meeting a whole hour’s worth of this stuff-he saw, everybody saw. He was trying to intimidate me and retaliate, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I couldn’t sleep for several nights. I said, Hey, I’m just gonna go report this to L&I. They didn’t do an investigation because they hadn’t cut rock in six months, because of Covid.
GCW: They had a consultant come out and look at and assess the situation. But since they hadn’t cut in six months, there was nothing airborne for them to test.
MPW: But they closed down the break room, immediately, taped it off, we got pictures of the whole back area where you could grab a handful of granite dust, throw it in the air. Even next year, you’ll be able to, it’s deep, deep in granite dust. This guy pressure washed and cleaned everything and even after doing so there’s still remnants. So we dragged mowers, blowers, vehicles through there in the summertime when it’s dry and dusty. They mow that grass too.
MPW: I think they started this in 2014. There were many years that they cut back there many years have they come back there. There’s always been a rock cutting studio back there in one form or another probably since I’ve been here but, this guy went to town.
CPJ: How long have you worked at the college for?
MPW: 18 years.
CPJ: How have you been retaliated against?
MPW: For one thing that stare down. I went ahead and reported it then furloughs came along. Okay, the grounds crew, which was four people plus me and my partner at the motor pool had to take furloughs. I asked at the safety meeting because there’s quite a few of us, and the shops and I go, how many of us are taking furloughs and the new boss said everybody’s taking furloughs and I go, you taking furloughs? Well, no, I’m not taking furloughs. Well, who else is taking furloughs? Well, nobody here is taking furloughs. Turns out, it’s just the grounds and the motor pool in that whole complex is taking them. One manager said, Well, I’m taking furloughs too, which is a lie. They won’t send somebody down to clean my bathroom in the motor pool.
I’ve been telling him for, like, you know, a year now, but every time it rains, my roof leaks really bad. And they go, I’m gonna put a ceiling in here because of these water stains. So they put a new false ceiling in to repair the water stains, and they use some sort of a plastic stuff that doesn’t stain. But again, it rains and it leaks like crazy. They did nothing about that.
They have maintenance people.
GCW: So going back to the furloughs. We’ve mentioned this, and he had mentioned it and we’re like we said, if we’re short staffed. Why should we have to take furloughs, when the manager said other departments aren’t that aren’t short staffed as we are right? Yeah. Okay, blah, blah. So he works out some deal when said the furloughs come to an end for grounds. He makes a special case to come over and visit us at lunch, the manager. And we’re all sitting around eating lunch and I got a telephone. He’s on the phone. And he’s like, Oh, I got some information for you guys. Okay, cool, cool. Well, he stays on the phone. He’s busy. Whatever. Well, he lets us know. He’s like, Okay, everybody here. You guys don’t have to take furloughs anymore.
MPW: Okay, cool. Well, but you’re going to continue to have to take furloughs. Two people in the place taking furloughs. We are the most shorthanded people here. I mean, we’re short handed, even when we’re fully staffed right. You know what I mean? It’s like he did this just for retaliation and to rub it in my face. He wants to rub everything in my face. Somebody got into the motor pool. I think what happened was a cop let a man and they you know, I gotta check a ladder or something. Okay, I’ll let you and they went through everything in my department.
CPJ: How did you know?
MPW: Because everything’s moved. Everything’s moved all the benches
MPW: Everything had been moved. It’s been my shop for 18 years, I know. It had been a secure area. Now I’m missing keys, missing tools, everything. My boss, told me that ‘You
don’t have any privacy. It’s all state property.’ I went and reported all this to HR.
GCW: Isn’t an office supposed to be a secure area?
MPW: Yeah it’s my office
CPJ: Was your coworker that had to take a furlough also outspoken?
MPW: No, but it’s through association. Because if someone is seen with me they’re in trouble, too. The thing is, around here, it’s a dictatorship. We have our HR department, as an employee, I’m supposed to be able to report this stuff. I get thrown to the wolves, which would be facilities manager. Now he’s vice president. That’s the way it’s always been. I used to go tell HR something, and I would get glared out of their office just for bringing this stuff up. Yes, it is a corrupt place.
MPW: What I think they’re going for is they want to get rid of all their employees, they hate employees. Each time they sublet something out that they make money they make a percentage of that money that they have to pay that person.
CPJ:What do you mean?
MPW: That’s how they make their money. That’s how facilities works it causes corruption. It causes corruption. That’s the facilities department, they get mad money.
MPW: Because it’s the way things are going on. We’re not doing anything wrong. Yeah. And but just the vicious circle around here of a dictatorship. He goes, You report something and they definitely retaliate on you including the HR department. Yeah, they retaliate by throwing you right in, let’s say I’m sexually abused by the facilities manager. I go report it to the HR, and they go send me to the person that did it for an investigation. That’s the way it works here. But that’s just an example, that didn’t really happen. Although, I did have a facilities manager here. That would every time he saw he would come over and start caressing me and rubbing me you know, oh, I reported it to the manager who just laughed. You know, it’s funny. I even told HR this. I’ve been to HR, I told them that. Yeah, it’s nothing. They laugh, they laugh about the stuff about the hiring.
Another thing that the manager said, We’re having a clean start here. A fresh slate. Everybody forget what’s happened in the past. I say, I can’t forget. Yeah, I cannot forget any of this stuff.
GCW:They had that tested, yes it showed silica levels across the whole area. Yeah, it had all been cleaned. We’ve washed it out with acid, etched the floors, hosed it, pressure washed it. They come in and test it all. We found silica in small levels. Well, you know what, we’ve cleaned this thing so many times.
CPJ: Did they make you clean it?
MPW: We did it because we didn’t know any better. We were cleaning it up for us. The floor was too slick and there was too much dust everywhere.
CPJ: You say you’re having problems breathing?
MPW: Oh yeah, I got a wheeze going on. It’s like an asthma type thing. And you know what? There’s an adjacent neighborhood, right behind where this guy was cutting. You can see people in the morning, you know, when they’re making their breakfast or whatever. So they were taking heavy amounts of this silica too.
GCW: A little research revealed there was a residential complaint to L&I.
MPW: The local complexes are Hidden Ridge and Cedrona. There are some places that are probably 25 yards away from the cutting.
CPJ: Not to mention the local environment.
GCW: Then he tried to tell me they had been cutting it wet the whole time, but I had been here the whole time seeing what they were doing and the floor testing for silica.They had students out there wearing bandanas.
GCW: So we want to know the chain of command and how that got put down to our area and how it got okayed and who was involved.
MPW: Because they never gave us any answers. The Safety Committee just tries to get us to shut up and shut things down.
CPJ: So you’ve been to the Union a few times have they helped you?
MPW: Well, we have to write grievances. That’s how we get things done. But it’s got to be a winnable grievable thing. It’s not against the law to be an asshole. Not everything might not necessarily be grievable, but it’s a fine line and there are a lot of grey areas. But I have been retaliated against.
Article 3 of Evergreen Employee’s Union Contract, Workplace Behavior, states
3.1 The Employer and the Union agree that all employees should work in an environment that fosters mutual respect and professionalism. The parties agree that inappropriate behavior in the workplace does not promote the Employer’s business, employee well being, or productivity. All employees are responsible for contributing to such an environment and are expected to treat others with courtesy and respect.
3.2 Inappropriate workplace behavior by employees, supervisors and/or managers will not be tolerated. If an employee and/or the employee’s union representative believes the employee has been subjected to inappropriate workplace behavior, the employee and/or the employee’s representative is encouraged to report this behavior to the employee’s supervisor, a manager in the employee’s chain of command and/or Human Resource Services. The Employer will investigate the reported behavior and take appropriate action as necessary. The employee and/or designated union representative will be notified in writing, with a copy to Human Resource Services, of the beginning and upon conclusion of any investigations.
3.3 Retaliation against employees who make a workplace behavior complaint and witnesses who provide information will not be tolerated.
The employees expanded on the cover ups they witnessed by Evergreen staff.
MPW: We saw an old manager carrying armloads of the CPJ out of here, off campus, as many armloads as they could, they collected everything off campus. When the CPJ was reporting on Asbestos at Evergreen. You know what the asbestos, they’ve done nothing with it. After it was reported and they were fined on it. They’ve done nothing with it like the rest of the things we report to the safety committee.
For example, you know what a jerrycan is, it’s a big five gallon, metal gas tank. We got generators under these buildings, there’s tunnels all over. They got to go fill these things by hand by packing five gallon cans of diesel down there to fill the generators in the tunnels. They’ve done nothing to correct this problem. That’s how they’re going to do it again this year. People have gotten hernias and hurt backs from doing this.
CPJ: Yeah we wrote about that.
MPW: Yes, and they’ve done nothing about it. That’s the plan this year to use jerry cans. He said I got some new generators ordered, but he lied. They don’t spend their money on things that matter.
Article 1.7, Silica Activities, of Evergreen’s Facility Service’s Project Manual states, the college must “Provide the Owner with copies of initial exposure assessment sampling required by this Section, along with asbestos and lead periodic submittals required by Section 028200
and Section 028300.”
If anyone who was exposed develops silicosis how will the college be accountable? Will Evergreen change its practices of disregarding employee health and wellbeing? Will the employees who have given years of their lives to the college face retaliation for being outspoken about their health?
