©Scott Sines, Since it is the day — here’s a personal worker rights story — Late on a June afternoon in 1989 the World Prodigy ran aground on Brenton Reef near the mouth of Narragansett Bay spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil. When I made this picture I was working as an editor with a team of photographers and reporters out of the Newport Bureau of the Providence Journal. At first light I was shuttling long lenses out to the photographers on the Island when I went around a curve and there the damn thing was. It was the first non-aerial picture of the wreck and it ran all the way across the front page.
One of the photographers who was on site with me, who was one of my very best friends and at one time even a generous landlord, filed a grievance against me. I was a manager and taking photographs was a guild-protected job. His name was Andy Dickerman and he was right to file that grievance. I got a letter in my personnel file and some bullshit remedial training. Even though we lost touch later in life Andy and I remained good friends until he passed away last year. Protect worker rights.
