[TowerTalk] Cell Tower Broadcast

[Jim Lux]

On 5/24/12 9:39 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
> The Front Line piece on the epidemic of deaths by cell tower workers
> aired on our local station last night.  It was quite well done, and a
> devastating criticism of the cell phone companies, the middle-men
> contractors they hire to build out their systems, the sub-contractors
> hired by those middlemen, and even OSHA, which has the responsibility
> for workplace safety.  Would you believe that the guys doing this
> dangerous work are out of work locals getting paid $10/hour, with
> virtually no training, no supervision, and time pressures that make safe
> climbing nearly impossible?  With this sort of work environment, no
> tower-climbing professional is going to go near this work.
>
the concept of multiple layers of intermediate subs is an old one.  Look 
at agricultural labor contractors, for instance.

It is a flaw in the current regulatory mechanism..