Ferryrnasters temp killed by girder fall
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by Rob Wiflock • A P&O Ferrymasters' temporary worker was crushed to death under tonnes of steel girders at the company's Teesport yard two weeks before Christmas. Father-of-three Steven Sizer, 36, from Middlesbrough, was helping to load bundles of L-shaped steel girders on to a flatbed trailer when some slipped and pinned him to the ground.
Fire officers took more than an hour to free him using hydraulic lifting gear and six forklifts and he was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on the evening of Friday, 12 December.
The Health & Safety Executive has also launched an investigation into the incident.
• Subcontractors working out of
P&O Ferrymasters' Teesport yard have been
pressurised into disbanding their unofficial union.
The group of 18 drivers formed the Teesport United Contractors in November in a bid to persuade their P&O bosses to raise their "subsistence" 78p/mile rate (CM 11-17 Dec).
But P&O claimed the group was, in effect, an "illegal pricefixing cartel" and sent a letter to the members of TUC promising legal action if they persisted with strike threats.
One former TUC member says: "Following the letter a lot of the group members became scared and bailed out" He adds that following press reports about TUC, P&O has since withdrawn an offer of a lpimile pay rise.