cannabisnews.com: Rudolph-Libbe Takes Drug Testing to Jeep Plant 





Rudolph-Libbe Takes Drug Testing to Jeep Plant 
Posted by FoM on January 25, 2000 at 12:20:40 PT
By Julie M. McKinnon, Blade Business Writer
Source: Toledo Blade
In a Rudolph-Libbe, Inc., trailer near the $600 million Toledo Jeep Assembly factory project, it takes 10 minutes to determine whether construction workers may be under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs - and prevent them from stepping onto the job site.The makeshift laboratory has saved more than $900,000 in screening costs alone so far, and it represents what some see as the future for drug testing in the construction industry.
Instead of waiting days for results while affected workers are on the job - and paying them for the time it takes to be screened - Rudolph-Libbe runs all Toledo Jeep construction contractors through on-site drug testing during safety orientation."We felt that we could save a lot of money for Toledo Jeep owner DaimlerChrysler AG, and I think we've done that," said Lynn Corlett, the Walbridge company's corporate safety manager. "We also liked the idea of having the instant results. . . . We know the guys we send out there have a negative drug screen before we send them out there."Associated Builders and Contractors of Rosslyn, Va., is promoting on-site testing among its 22,000 members because it is faster and less expensive, said association spokesman Scott Brown.Maumee's Lathrop Co. typically sends workers elsewhere for screening when owners want but would consider doing immediate testing, said Joe Kovaleski, vice president of operations.As site manager for DaimlerChrysler's Toledo Jeep project, Rudolph-Libbe contracted with Mercy Health Services employees to conduct drug screening on all construction crews. Inconclusive samples are sent to a laboratory for evaluation, and those workers are prohibited from the site unless they are taking verified prescription medications, Ms. Corlett said.From March, 1998, through December, more than 5,710 were tested at the Toledo Jeep site and fewer than 3 per cent were found to be positive, according to Rudolph-Libbe. The positive-test percentage could be low, Ms. Corlett said, because workers know they have to pass the test immediately or be scrutinized.Nationwide, about 14 per cent of construction workers use illegal drugs, and more than 12 per cent are heavy drinkers, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.Al Segur, executive secretary of the Northwestern Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, said he was surprised by the low rate of positive results at the Toledo Jeep site."That denotes to us that it's working," he said.Roughly 5 per cent of Rudolph-Libbe's on-site screening has had inconclusive results, with 67 per cent of them being positive for illicit drugs or alcohol, according to officials. Workers with negative results, though, are paid for the two to four days they couldn't report to their jobs, the company said. Published: January 25, 2000© 1999, 2000 The Blade Cannabis News Drug Testing Articles:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/drug_testing.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by J Christen-Mitchell on January 26, 2000 at 05:17:01 PT:
Hemp and The Auto Industry
Rudolf Diesel designed the diesel engine to run on hemp fuel, realizing its superiority.
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Comment #2 posted by Tim Stone on January 25, 2000 at 15:23:19 PT
Huh?
This is a curious article. There's not a word about what sort of quick-and-dirty drug test is being conducted here. Probably some sort of cheapie immuno-assay. It doesn't sound like there's any new d.t. technonogyinvolved here, just a new way of marketing old technology. Things to notice about the way the article is written: 1) The implicit presumption of absolute reliability of drug tests, even quick-and-dirty, on-site cheapies.2) The conflation of "drugs" testing with "alcohol" testing, giving the idea that the biochemistry is pretty muchthe same in either case. Of course, alcohol - breathalyzer? - testing does correlate with real-time impairment, while drug testing does not. 3) The usual presumption that on job drug use is widespread. At least according to official gov't estimates.4) There is no mention of any possibility of a worker's livelihood being ruined by a false positive, which is very likely to happen in this kind of cost-cutting quickie testing. The drug testing companies must feel that drug testing is now so permanently established, and accepted, inAmerican workplaces, and so solidly upheld by the courts, that the testers can now cut costs and corners at will. And if a few more innocent peoples' lives are ruined, well, that's just too darned bad. The darned thing about the entire drug testing industry is that there is absolutely nothing good to say about it. Drug testing is just pure, in-you-face evil. It has nothing to do with safety or productivity. Other than to makemoney for the drug testing companies, the sole purpose of drug testing is to identify members of a demonizedscapegoat group who, oddly enough, cannot be identified on the basis of their actual observed behavior. Those evil druggies are so neferious that they act just like non-druggies in their behavior. Since their behavior doesn't betray them, only an invasion of privacy can determine who the evil druggies are. The purpose of drug testing is to determine members of an arbitrary class who can then be condemned and savagely punished solely because of their membership in the class, regardless of their actual observed behavior. For those of you who would like to learn from history rather than repeat it, that is precisely what the Nazis did to the Jews. And that is why drug testing is pure, in-your-face- evil. Yeah, I know Godwin's Law. It still doesn't in any way invalidate my points.Grr...d.t. is _such_ a hot button for me...
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on January 25, 2000 at 13:18:08 PT
Stand and Deliver - your urine
You can't say you didn't see it coming. Just like the 'highwaymen' of old, who would waylay stagecoaches and rob their passengers at gunpoint, the Testers are robbing you of your rights.Here it is, another wonder of technology, being used to invade the rights of the working class. No pee? No pay!Of course, it does absolutely nothing to determine whether someone is *impared* or not. Only that you have used. Not when.But what about the multimillionaires who run these corporations that the workers are so dependant upon for their livelihoods? I doubt very seriously that the majority of them are models of Puritanical sobriety. If these people make a mistake, they affect an entire corporation, and the lives of thousands of people. If they are inebriated, do they have some sort of genetic protection that still enables them to make correct decisions? I seriously doubt it. Must they too 'stand and deliver'? Of course not. That's 'beneath their dignity'. Implying the workers have absolutely none.Like I said before, what's 'sauce for the goose' isn't necesarily sauce for the gander.
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