Posted on 11/16/2013 2:22:59 PM PST by mdittmar
A disproportionate number of Latinos and immigrants are disproportionately killed in fall accidents in New York, according to a new study by the Center for Popular Democracy, because they work in construction in relatively high numbers; are concentrated in smaller, nonunion firms; and are over-represented in the contingent labor pool.
According to Fatal Inequality: Workplace Safety Eludes Construction Workers of Color in New York State:
Latino construction workers said they feared retaliation from their employers if they raised concerns about safety conditions. The report also points to an underfunded and understaffed OSHA and penalties for safety violations that are “so small that employers can see them as just an incidental cost of doing business.”
The report warns that matters could get worse because the construction and insurance industries are proposing an amendment to weaken the state’s Scaffold Law, which requires owners and contractors to provide appropriate and necessary equipment, such as safe hoists, ladders and scaffolds. The law holds owners and contractors fully liable if their failure to follow the law causes a worker to be injured or killed. It would shift responsibility for workplace safety from owners and contractors, who control site safety, to workers, who do not.
We should pass a law that Unions are banned.
Culturally immigrant Latinos have never been exposed to the idea of safety in the workplace.
Women and children wetback construction workers hardest hit.
I would hazard to guess that these numbers are not that far out of line with the percentage OF Latino or immigrant workers in construction - PERIOD.
No, it’s probably simply that there are more of them (both immigrants and general and Hispanics in particular).
I live in the South, and blacks won’t take dangerous jobs in general. Some whites will, but not gladly, and I actually heard one white guy say he wouldn’t take the job as a roofer because it was work for Mexicans.
This was after he had quit and gone back on welfare after literally only two days ripping up shingles.
Yep, at 15-20 dollars an hour. Doing the work Americans wont’ do.
Yep. Everything is racist, even nature
The unions should be providing their illegals with instructional classes about how gravity works and demand that when they show up drunk for work, they be given a job to do that is closer to the ground.
Solution: Drink more Red Bull. It gives you wings and you can fly back to Mexico or Central America.
They ARE the contingent labor pool.
-PJ
I know a lot of white people who do roofing, including one very feminine looking woman who works with her husband who owns a construction company. She does it all, she stained my cabinets and put up molding in my house. You would never know it just by looking at that cute little petite woman.
If following the regulations, they must be tied off at a height of 6 feet.
They are not minding the safety requirements for protective harnesses
Maybe there’s a macho angle in it, too.
Safety equipment? We ain’t got no safety equipment. We don’t need no safety equipment. I don’t have to show you no stinking safety equipment!
Screw it: If they weren't so damned drunk and stoned all the time they might stay on their feet!! Cops HATE end of shift at construction sites because they see the beer bottle/can boxes and they smell the pot on the illegals they pull over. It is a rampant habit in their circles to get drunk and smoke pot immediately after their shift. Go to ANY work site and see the beer trash laying around, stuffed in vents, etc.
Me no sabe. Might be part of the problem.
Or the ever popular yo no se. I don’t understand and I don’t know. Yea, I could see how that would be a problem doing construction or working with power tools./S
I’ve heard that the OSHA thuggery here in North Texas has really started cracking down on home construction sites. No hard hat? $5,000 fine per offender. That will put a framing contractor out of business real quick.
They are also instituting harness safety requirements, and fall prevention training. The guys with illegal, oh sorry, undocumented workers are going to be loosing some of that job profit.
I have watched many Mexican workers on the job. They think nothing of standing on the top of a ladder or using a 5 gallon bucket as a stool. They seem unable to tell when they are in a dangerous situation.
they can’t speak or understand english that well....they are being paid under the table...they aren’t held to the high standards other Americans are....need I go on?
Exactly. I also see it every work day.
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