Safety Ceremony in Memory of Members Ron Espittee Joe DePanfilis

Speech given by Pete Gereg at the safety recognition ceremony for two members, Joe Depanfilis and Ron Espittee, who passed too early in life. Thank you, thank you all for being here today.  Special thanks to AT&T and the Union for embracing and endorsing this gathering so we can honor the memory of Ron Espittee and Joe Dapanfilis and talk about safety for a little while. For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Pete Gereg.  I have worked for the various major telephone companies here in CT for over 30 years and I hope that I never have to relive the tragic event that occurred here 25 years ago today.  The news that a terrible accident had taken the lives of two wonderful people, two of my coworkers Ron and Joe June 27, 1989. So as we find ourselves assembled here today a quarter of century out from this accident I pose this question to you….why are we here and the answer is we’re here for you, we’re here for me, were here for all of us.  Were here to talk about and think about safety. In 1998 the cable splicing supervisor at the time, Mark Morsey decided that a small monument should be placed not only to honor the memory of Ronnie and Joe but also to remind future telephone employees you of just how dangerous our jobs can be. Mark M thought that if you employees drove by this granite stone and now memorial garden it would remind you to work safely.  Thanks to Mr. Jeff Zitney and Mr. Brian Grisell, who planted flowers and placed a memorial.  It’s even more visible, you can’t miss it.  So when you drive in here daily, and pass this small memorial garden think of Ronnie and Joe and think safety. Now what exactly does that mean?  It means safety everywhere all the time. It’s not limited of course to manhole safety, but includes, driving, work area protection, ladders, electrical , dangerous trailer parks, using a cable knife, slips, trips, falls, poison ivy.  You see safety is involved with almost everything we do.  Also let’s not forget safety when working at home.  Power tools, lawn mowers, cleaning gutters, climbing ladders and of course driving. Getting back to Ronnie and Joe, one year after the accident, our business agent at the time, Dick McGrath spoke in a small church in Ridgefield at a memorial service for Ronnie and Joe.  In his presentation he said that these two men died so that we won’t.  We survivors will never enter a manhole without testing, surging and ventilating.  Hopefully neither will you. Remember the original AT&T motto, “No job is so important or service is so urgent that we cannot take time to perform our work safely.” Remember that and put it into practice. So as we gather here today and think of Ronnie & Joe possibly one good thing can come as a result of this tragic accident, is the hope that because they died, it will remind us to work safely everywhere all the time so as to prevent any accident up to and including one of this magnitude from ever happening again.  To honor the memory of  Ronnie & Joe and allow you to have a physical condition to this memorial garden, please place these plants in the ground and as they grow in the coming years, let them remind you of just how dangerous our jobs can be and the need to recognize that danger and work safely.                                                                                     Thank you, be safe.