In 2001 I turned down a job as Personnel Officer with ICL Plastic in Maryhill, Glasgow. On 11th May 2004 a gas explosion ripped through the premises killing 9 and injuring others, some of the injured are still unable to work thanks to the injuries sustained on the day. The company has just been fined £400,000, it hardly seems enough yet the judge had his reasons and I think the justification stands up.
I remember the day I heard the news on the radio, sitting in my Clydebank office, and I remember in that moment feeling as though I’d just been pulled back onto the kerb as an out of control motor tore across where I would’ve stepped. I don’t change employer readily and had I accepted the job there’s no doubt in my mind that I would have been on site that day.
It’s funny (in a strange way, not a ‘ha-ha’ way) because I still have sketchy memories from the interviews that I attended. I remember how backwards and eccentric the Chairman was, how he was impressed that I drove a clapped out fiesta as it showed that I knew how to take care of the pennies, how the Personnel Director had been interested in my very basic REHIS Intermediate Health & Safety training and that I had undertaken the advanced training to.
I remember how backwards the company felt, with ashtrays in the offices and the stale reek of cigarette smoke in the air. I remember how cramped and warren-like the premises were, I seem to recall being told that it was a Victorian building and they were stuck with it. I recall a area where the ovens were, and a man working there. I wonder if that’s where the explosion was. Everything seemed so outdated.
Originally I accepted the job before some further research highlighted something from Amnesty International pointing to the manufacture of electric batons and shields for supply to unscrupulous governments. Something which was as good as admitted when I put it to the then Personnel Director … maybe she still is.
Not unsurprisingly I withdrew my acceptance of offer.
Life changing moments sometimes seem so innocuous.
Related links:
BBC News - Propane gas pipe caused carnage
Socialist Worker online - Scandal behind Glasgow’s factory fire.
