The family of a Baltimore sanitation worker who died of heat stroke earlier this month is demanding accountability from City Hall and calling on other workers to share their stories.
Ronald Silver II, 36 years old, died on August 2nd of hyperthermia, i.e. heat sickness. He worked the trash and recycling route, literally hauling tons of trash while traveling about the city. On the day he died, Baltimore City had issued a Code Red heat advisory, meaning temperatures were at or expected to be 105 degrees.
“Ronald was the backbone and heartbeat of our family, and he was taken from us long before his time in what was a completely preventable death,” said Renee Meredith, an aunt of Silver’s and the only relative to speak publicly during the press conference.
Silver’s five children stood in front of their other relatives, all wearing shirts emblazoned with family pictures of their now deceased father.
Through their lawyer, Thiru Vignarajah, Silver’s family is demanding that the Baltimore City Council hold immediate investigative hearings on Silver’s death. The family also demands direct “real time” updates straight from City Hall into Silver’s investigation – not secondhand reports filtered through the media.
They want that to happen immediately.
“A statewide investigation is a wonderful step in the right direction for the workers who are going to be toiling in the hot summer heat next summer, but it's August. It's hot today. It's going to be hot this week,” said Vignarajah, a former state deputy attorney general and four-time citywide candidate for elected office. “Those investigative hearings need to happen this week or next week. They don't do our workers any good if we do them in the dead of winter.”
“Ronnie was not just a sanitation worker,” said Vignarajah, calling Silver’s death “preventable.”
“He was also a son, brother, cousin, nephew, fiancée, and father to five beautiful children.”
Litigation against the city is on the table, Viganarajah confirmed, although no suits have been filed at this time. Right now, he said the priority is accountability and answers from the city and its public works department.
But Silver’s family recognizes that he may not be the only one to experience dangerous situations working in the city’s Department of Public Works. Through Vignarajah, they are asking other DPW workers to come forward with stories of a “toxic” workplace within the department.
“Ronald Silver deserved better, and…we are asking for all of those other DPW workers with horror stories of their own to come forward,” said Vignarajah, noting that other DPW workers had sounded the alarm early this summer, provoking an investigation by the Baltimore City Office of the Investigator General.
Inspector General Isabel Cumming found “dangerous” conditions, including a lack of water and air conditioning, at two facilities: Bowley’s Lane and the Cherry Hill Reedbird Sanitation yard. Bowley’s Lane is where Silver began his DPW career and he left for his shift out of the Cherry Hill yard on the morning he died, said Vignarajah.
Silver was finishing his route on that Friday when he knocked on the door of a Guilford resident. Gabrielle Avendano found Silver in a state of distress, showing signs of confusion while he begged for water. She administered emergency care, but Silver died at Union Memorial Hospital some time after.
Avendano spoke with Silver’s co-worker who she said reported that Silver had complained of pain in his leg and chest all day. But, according to Avendano, the co-worker said Silver was just being “lazy” and did not call for assistance while Silver finished his shift.
It is important to note, said Vignarajah, that Silver was in “perfect health.”
“I don't want that to be an excuse for wondering whether these DPW workers are failing to do their own job,” said the attorney. “This was a 36-year-old, able bodied man who was picking up barrels of trash in 100 degree weather, that is what put him at grave risk.”
Many of the demands made by Silver’s family have a ring of familiarity. Last week, a coalition of unions and city council members expressed similar concerns and allegations. Both Councilmembers Zeke Cohen and Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer called for a series of investigative hearings into worker safety within the city, starting with DPW.
Meanwhile, Councilmember Antonio Glover, himself a former sanitation worker, spoke personally to what many have now called a culture of “hazing and harassment.”
“It's the old adage, I went through it, so you're going to go through it, right? And that's not acceptable,” said Glover.
Unions on up through Mayor Brandon Scott himself have demanded an immediate end to the toxic culture.
Governor Wes Moore has also called for a "full investigation” into Silver’s death, which is currently being handled by the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health division. The Baltimore Police Department is also doing an investigation, which Scott says is standard procedure.
"The Mayor’s Office and DPW are already in discussions with the City Council on hearings, and we will, of course, work in conjunction with them, state agencies, the union, and rank-and-file members to ensure our workers are able to do their work safely, securely, and with confidence that this Administration is behind them fully,” said Scott in a statement.
According to an October 2023 employment offer letter, Silver made $37,242 annually, about $18 an hour, working as a sanitation laborer for the city’s public works department.