{"id":390,"date":"2017-03-23T12:56:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T16:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=390"},"modified":"2017-03-24T12:34:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T16:34:53","slug":"blood-american-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2017\/03\/23\/blood-american-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cars stained with the blood of American workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If you read nothing else this week, read this:\u00a0Inside Alabama\u2019s Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It tells the soul-crushing story of workers — mostly “temporary” employees — killed, dismembered, and permanently disabled in foreign\u00a0owned auto parts companies producing parts for large auto companies like Kia and Hyundi. As the author, Peter Waldman, says, these are stories that “read like Upton Sinclair, or even Dickens.”<\/p>\n

Waldman tells the story of\u00a0Regina Elsea, age 20, killed in an Ajin plant two weeks before here wedding; Cordney Crutcher who\u00a0lost his left pinkie while operating a metal press at Matsu Alabama; Phyllis Taylor, 53, who scorched her hand inside an industrial oven last year at the HP\u00a0Pelzer Automotive Systems Inc. insulation plant in Thomson, Ga.; Nathaniel Walker, 26, who fell into a vat of sulfuric and phosphoric acid 4\u00a0feet deep; Rico Allen, who lost his right forearm and three fingers on the other hand when he was 30; and on and on and on.<\/p>\n

Warning: You need a strong stomach to read all the way through this article. An example:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nathaniel Walker, 26, had been doing the same high-wire act for three years at the factory of WKW-Erbsloeh Automotive, a supplier of metal trim parts to Mercedes<\/a> and BMW<\/a>, in Pell City, Ala. Every Saturday he climbed onto a ventilation duct above big dipping pools of acid on the plant\u2019s back line, where the aluminum parts were anodized to give them a protective coat. It was always a race. At first, Walker and a co-worker had 24\u00a0hours to clean and service as many of the 34 tanks as possible. As production demands rose, management cut that to 14 to 16\u00a0hours, and sometimes to as few as 6. The job required balance and dexterity. Walker and his colleague hopped on and off the 4\u00bd-foot-high ventilation shafts, hauling hoses, tools, and 50-pound bags of caustic soda. They were always exhausted\u2014Walker worked from 3\u00a0p.m. to 3\u00a0a.m., seven days a week, for up to six months straight.<\/p>\n

There were no gangways, no cables, no handrails. The only training the workers got from the plant\u2019s German supervisors, according to Walker, was in how to rinse off the ventilation ducts so they weren\u2019t so slippery.<\/div>\n

In July\u00a02014, Walker fell in. He was balancing on the duct between two tanks\u2014one empty, one full\u2014while using a crowbar in the empty one to remove and replace a lead cathode. His hands slipped, and he tumbled backward into a vat of sulfuric and phosphoric acid 4\u00a0feet deep. Submerged, he swam for a second before righting himself. A nearby co-worker quickly pulled him out and hosed him down, minimizing damage to his skin and eyes. Walker\u2019s cotton shirt pulled off his skin like wet tissue paper. His throat burned and swelled from swallowing the solution. He spent four days in intensive care and didn\u2019t fully recover for months.<\/p>\n

OSHA is hard at work citing these companies, unfortunately, mostly after injuries or fatalities happen. Dr. David Michaels, OSHA’s Assistant Secretary during the entire Obama administration even traveled to Korea to meet with Korean automakers to warn them that their parts contractors were killing workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave them a very strong message: \u2018This brings shame on your reputation. American consumers are not going to want to buy cars stained with the blood of American workers,\u2019\u2009\u201d say Michaels.<\/p>\n