:: rawblogXport ::

:: Sunday, January 18, 2004 ::

Frigid Weather Paralyzing N.E. Region By M.R.F. Buckley
Big Dig workers were also on the job, but those operating heavy equipment beneath the old Central Artery had mufflers wrapped, turban-like, underneath their bright yellow hard hats. At Haymarket, other workers were unloading produce on forklifts in the frigid morning temperatures.

Ice sculptors and workers at Brookline Ice and Coal found that it was so harsh outside they were warmer inside the freezer, where the thermometers held steady at 20 degrees.

'The workers who bag the ice have found that when they have to go outside and load trucks and things like that, they come back in the ice house to get a little warmer,' said the company's Charlotte Ploss.

Northeast colder than Mars Cornell News
Temperature for Mars rover at lunchtime: 12 degrees; temperature in U.S. Northeast: minus 13 to 9 degrees

'Bundle up, hope for the best' By MARK PETERS, Portland Press Herald
On Portland's waterfront Friday, welders and iron workers faced harsh winds as they put beams in place for the new Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Some workers skipped their breaks because going into a warm construction trailer just made them feel colder when they went back outside.

Postal workers under fire for abandoning routes CTV.ca News Staff
"Is Canada Post being cold-hearted? Ha, ha, they are specialists at that," said Philippe Arbour, a Canadian Union of Postal Workers spokesman.

The union said its contract gives them the right to refuse work, but the employer said 20,000 workers in even colder parts of the country kept on the job.

The U.S. Postal Service motto about 'neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor hail' should apply in Canada. The union disagrees.

Outdoor workers layer it on thick to battle bitter cold By ALAN RAPPEPORT
Although it has been bitterly cold, all temperatures are relative.

'That's warm,' said Charlene Apangalook, an Eskimo from the village of Gambell, near Nome, Alaska. 'We go to 70 below zero. We have no choice. We have to go out and do work.'

posted 8:02 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

-------------------------------------------