Mayor Brandon Scott is hailing a report by a Washington, D.C., law firm about a sanitation worker’s death as “an important inflection point in our effort to enhance workplace safety for all of Baltimore’s frontline workers.”

But union leaders and the family of Ronald Silver II say the report, released today, shows that his death last August was “preventable” and differs little from the findings by Baltimore’s inspector general about hazardous conditions at the Department of Public Works’ sanitation yards before Silver’s death.

“This is an agency [DPW] that refused to listen to warnings. This is an agency that refused to respond to precautionary, constructive reports from the Office of the Inspector General. An agency that literally closed its eyes and shut its ears to a history of heat-related episodes,” said the attorney for Silver’s family, Thiru Vignarajah, speaking outside City Hall.

The report noted, as had IG Isabel Mercedes Cumming earlier, the lack of policies and procedures to safeguard solid waste workers amid high heat – and the fact that many employees had fallen ill on the job earlier.

“Our investigation revealed a history of heat-related medical emergencies among the solid waste collectors such as fainting, severe cramping, vomiting and more severe physical responses, with an inadequate agency response from DPW,” the report by Conn Maciel Carey LLP said.

Moreover, “heat-related safety talks that had been provided by the safety enforcement officers [to] employees regularly stopped in 2022, and did not resume again until after” Silver’s death on August 2, 2024, according to the report.

Silver, who was hired after the safety talks stopped, received no extreme heat illness training, and neither did his supervisors, the report concluded.

“Our investigation revealed a history of heat-related medical emergencies among the solid waste collectors”  – Conn Maciel Carey Report.

“This death was as horrific and tragic as it was avoidable and preventable,” said Vignarajah.

“Suddenly, there was time on the clock for training. Suddenly, there was room in the budget for outside audits and independent evaluation,” he continued. “It shouldn’t require a tragedy to do things the right way.”

Union leaders had the same message today, pointing to Conn Maciel Carey’s history as a pro-employer firm currently lobbying to weaken national workplace heat standards.

“The report from the outside law firm validates what we have said since the death of Brother Silver – the city doesn’t have basic heat and emergency protocols,” said Patrick Moran, president of AFSCME Maryland Council 3 which represents the solid waste workers and other city employees.

“Days after the tragedy we made clear demands that track with just about all the recommendations from the report,” Moran declared an emailed statement.

 “It shouldn’t require a tragedy to do things the right way”  – Thiru Vignarajah, attorney for the family of Ronald Silver II.

The head of another union representing DPW workers also had withering remarks for the city and its outside legal team.

“The city wasted money on lawyers who fight [against] worker safety and rights,” said Dorothy Bryant, President of AFSCME Local 44. “I can only imagine what a report from credible health and safety experts would have found.”

Few Rules, Little Enforcement

The city never released its contract with Conn Maciel Carey or answered questions about how much the firm was paid, but the report provides some information on the scope of its work.

The 62-page document was sent on September 30 to DPW Director Khalil Zaied by the firm’s founding partner, Eric J. Conn, with three other attorneys listed.

The lawyers said they interviewed “more than 35 DPW employees, including chief administrators, safety enforcement officers, Control One supervision, solid waste supervisors and solid waste frontline workers (drivers and laborers) responsible for waste collection at the Reedbird and Bowley’s Lane facilities.”

They also visited those facilities as well as the city’s Wheelabrator incinerator and did a ride-along with a solid waste driver.

Rules regarding ways to protect workers from overheating on high heat index days – rest, shade, water and regular breaks – were either non-existent, poorly understood or never enforced, the report found.

Staff complained to the lawyers that, while the city warns citizens to stay indoors during Code Red high heat days and allows some employees to leave work early, it required solid waste drivers and laborers to complete their routes.

Supervisors did not enforce cool-down rest breaks, according to the report, creating “an incentive for the frontline workers to push through the work to finish as quickly as possible because they are permitted to finish their task work early and still be paid for their entire shift.”

Bad Trucks, Retaliation by Bosses

Another finding in the report was the presences of a dedicated DPW emergency phone line (“Control One”) that employees and supervisors can call for assistance in an emergency.

Several employees said they had never heard of it. Others said they were unsure of how it was to be used.

The report added some twists to the longstanding problem of DPW trucks with broken or ineffective air conditioning, pointing out that they are still being utilized, “perhaps as back-up vehicles.”

“This has resulted in DPW drivers failing to report safety or operational issues on their vehicles out of concern they would be assigned a vehicle without air conditioning or other essential functions,” the authors said.

As before, the subject of DPW’s “toxic work culture” was referenced in the report, which found a deep distrust by frontline workers about the city’s ability and willingness to address their safety concerns.

Several employees said they were afraid of retaliation if they voiced concern. Employees who spoke up were “subjected to more onerous working conditions, assigned demeaning work tasks and/or denied certain benefits such as overtime assignments,” the report said.

Along with a number of recommendations – including finalizing the development of a heat illness prevention program – the authors called on the Scott administration to require supervisors to undergo “anti-retaliation” training.