Enbridge was notified of safety, immigration problems

MARSHALL — Michigan Messenger has confirmed that Enbridge Energy Partners, owners of the pipeline that burst in Calhoun County in late July, was made aware of undocumented workers and unsafe working conditions on the Kalamazoo river cleanup a week before we published a story about those problems.

The person who called Enbridge has come forward to tell his story, and Enbridge officials back up that person’s claims. Because he wishes to remain anonymous because he fears retaliation and still works in the industry, we will refer to him by the name Juan Montoya.

For two days, Montoya, who is a legal resident of the United States with full certification for working with hazardous materials, worked on the Kalamazoo River cleanup in unsafe and unsanitary conditions with men who readily admitted they were in this country illegally, being supervised by other men who did not have the proper credentials to be working on hazardous materials cleanup. For two days, he attempted to protect himself and his fellow workers from the dangers they were put in by challenging supervisors, and for two days he was told to be silent.

Exasperated, he picked up the phone on Monday, Aug. 23 and called the Enbridge community hotline. For over 40 minutes, Montoya explained to the operator that there were undocumented workers working in unsafe and unsanitary conditions on the river. For those 40 minutes, he said, the operator seemed unconcerned about the factual allegations he was making, questioning him instead about his name, what company he worked for and why his phone number had a Florida area code.

“Why are you so focused on my name? My name does not matter,” Montoya recalls telling the Enbridge operator. “I am telling you about a life threatening situation. I expect you to follow up on it whether you have my name or not.”

Nervous that the company would come down on him rather than on the contractors responsible for the unsafe and unsanitary conditions the undocumented workers were being subjected to, the source gave the company a fake name and claimed he was calling from a land line when the operator noted he was calling from a Florida area code.

“Of course, I gave them a fake name. Why would I give them my real name when I am calling to report all of this?” he said.

In addition, because he had not filled out any paperwork when he arrived in Battle Creek to work, he had no idea who he was working for. The only trucks with signs on them and the only logos he saw at the Beckley Road Target rally point were logos for Garner Environmental. It was not until later that week he learned he was working for Hallmark Industrial.

A Michigan Messenger investigation confirmed Montoya’s claims and the results published on Aug. 30. Hallmark workers were not differentiated in any way from Garner employees, except the Hallmark workers were transported in Garner vans and a charter bus, while Garner employees drove their own vehicles.

The safety issues were no secret, Montoya says. Supervisors on boats wearing hard hats emblazoned with the Enbridge logo regularly stopped and watched the undocumented workers as they worked on the oil-coated islands of the Kalamazoo river, ate food and drank water with oil covering their hands and faces and while still in suits designed to prevent contamination.

Montoya says Enbridge didn’t pay attention to the violations because the undocumented workers acted like a “bulldozer” when they arrived on an island. They were working harder than anyone else, the source said.

But on the phone with the Enbridge operator, he grew increasingly frustrated by the inquiries. He says the operator consistently referred to how difficult it was to understand him because of his accent, though the Michigan Messenger had no difficulty understanding him at all.

Enbridge readily admits it received the phone call and claims it did everything in its power to determine the veracity of the call.

Kevin O’Connor, a spokesperson for Enbridge, says he company’s operator called the company’s safety committee, and alerted management to the allegation of undocumented workers on the river. Enbridge, O’Connor says, called Garner to ascertain if the caller worked for the contractor or not. When Garner said no, O’Connor said the investigation hit a brick wall.

O’Connor defends Enbridge’s handling of the complaint — that is, trying to find the person making the complaint rather than working to verify the information in the complaint. Asked why the company did not send someone to the work site to investigate, as the Messenger did when the tip came in these allegations, he referred again to wanting to find out who had made the allegations.

“We didn’t know who this person was,” O’Connor says. “We were trying to find out.”

O’Connor said safety was always at the top of the list of issues for the company and that safety staff were regularly patrolling the river to make sure the sites were safe. Yet when the Messenger showed photographs of the conditions on the worksite to Terri Larson, another spokesperson for Enbridge, she identified violations of safety regulations just from the picture.

But Montoya says the unsafe and unsanitary conditions continued for days after his call, which is what prompted him to call the Michigan Messenger on Friday, August 27. Messenger met with Montoya and went to the rallying point for the workers at the Beckley Road Target store in the every early morning hours of Aug. 28.

On Aug. 30, Messenger published the results of its investigation which included dozens, perhaps hundreds, of undocumented workers being forced to work to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, under unsafe conditions, and being paid in cash under the table.

That night, Garner Environmental fired Hallmark Industrial from the job.

As for Montoya, he still wonders why Enbridge did not take his allegations seriously and do an investigation. If the Michigan Messenger could confirm the truth of those allegations within 24 hours of receiving his call, he says, Enbridge could have done the same if they wanted to.