Beef Jerky Worker Cuts His Finger Off, Coworker Allegedly Fired For Calling 911

The slogan for Lone Star Western Beef Jerky is "This ain't no wimpy city slicker beef jerky," and apparently the company doesn't want any wimpy city slicker employees either. You know, the kind who would call 911 after watching one of their co-workers slice his thumb off with a band saw.

Lone Star fired Michele Butler-Savage for ringing for an ambulance after she attempted to help her blood-soaked co-worker and, as a result, the dried beef manufacturer is now facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

According to the lawsuit, an otherwise uneventful July 2014 morning of meat slicing was interrupted by Chris Crane's screams of pain after he severed his thumb with a band saw blade. Butler-Savage grabbed paper towels and wrapped Crane's hand before using her cell phone to call 911. But before that call connected, Lone Star plant owner John Bachman told her to hang up. "Butler-Savage told Bachman that Crane needed an ambulance," the lawsuit states. "Bachman responded that he would decide whether to call an ambulance, and instructed Butler-Savage to get back to work."

Bachman then picked up the piece of Crane's thumb and told another employee to drive him to Whitehall Medical, a family practice doc-in-a-box located near the Fairmont, West Virginia plant. Crane was later put in an ambulance and driven to a real hospital. His thumb could not be reattached.

Later that day, Butler-Savage expressed her concerns to a USDA inspector, telling him about Bachman's refusal to let her call 911 and sharing some gross details about the lack of cleanup after the incident. Blood had spattered on the floors and walls of his work area, but Bachman didn't seem to be bothered by it. "Bachman discarded only the piece of meat Crane was cutting when he was injured, and did not discard other meat present in the area where crane bled," the lawsuit said. "The areas where Crane bled were not sanitized until production was finished for the day."

Two days later, Bachman fired Butler-Savage. She was told that "production was too slow," but also that "he had lawsuits pending against him." (And a year before, Lone Star was forced to recall 109 pounds of beef jerky after a USDA food safety inspector realized that it was not being processed at the correct temperature). Butler-Savage promptly filed a complaint with OSHA, because she is not a wimpy city slicker.

"Her efforts were protected … and showed basic human decency," Richard Mendelson, an OSHA regional administrator told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. "No worker should have to fear retaliation from their employer for calling 911 in an emergency, or taking other action to report a workplace safety or health incident."

A phone number listed for Lone Star's current location in Reading, Pennsylvania has been disconnected, and a second phone number registered to the company was a generic MagicJack mailbox. MUNCHIES will update this post if Bachman or a company representative returns our message.