Magna’s Michelangelo
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or
Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
There’s more to Herman Vaughn’s work than removing sludge and metal chips from a tank that’s as long as a tractor trailer and 7-feet deep.
He cleans like Michelangelo painted because he understands that other workers depend on him to do his job well so they can stay well doing their jobs until the day they retire.
A Local 624 member, Vaughn is a janitor at the Magna Powertrain plant in Syracuse, N.Y.
But his job title doesn’t begin to describe the role he plays or the person he is. Some people may find it hard to believe that the 28-year seniority worker considers his job a “calling,” but they haven’t heard him tell it.
“What can I say? I love cleaning. I enjoy the challenge,” Vaughn says.
His challenge is cleaning out 60,000-gallon tanks that hold water-based coolants used in machining magnesium transfer cases that go into BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors vehicles.
“I don’t want to see anybody get sick,” he says. “It
is a beautiful feeling to care about the brothers and sisters who work next to
you. I guess you could say the Lord gave me a gift that way.”
Earlier this year, the health of 36 workers at New Venture Gear (as Vaughn’s plant was known before its recent sale to Magna) was affected following a partial dump of the central machining coolant system. Company nurses recorded a variety of symptoms among exposed workers, including sinus congestion, sore throat, burning eyes, bloody nose and breathing difficulties.
An investigation by a joint team of UAW and company health and safety specialists reported that “some workers have developed work-related asthma or hypersensitivity pneumonitis.” HP, as it’s called, is a severe, disabling, deep-lung disease. HP outbreaks happen when metalworking fluid systems like the kind Vaughn is responsible for cleaning get out of control. Some workers suffering HP can never risk returning to their jobs.
Vaughn approaches his work as if he’s on a mission, regularly donning rubber overalls, a mask and respirator to enter an empty flume, spraying the walls and flushing out the sludge that can be the potential source of dangerous bacteria.
“I feel good when a machine operator tells me that I did an awesome job,” Vaughn says.
