Tearing out asbestos with bare hands: Meet the boss from hell
Source: Salon.com
Fired immigrants share their horrifying work stories. "This hurts all workers," Sen. Bob Menendez tells Salon
Josh Eidelson
A group of immigrants allege their boss wielded their status as a weapon when they stood up to extreme abuses: from hanging from the top of a four-story building without scaffolding, to removing asbestos without gloves.
New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez told Salon those allegations illustrate the urgency of passing an immigration overhaul. “Clearly, what happens is: When someone is undocumented they can be exploited – and they frequently are,” Menendez said following a Friday press event with the workers. “And once they try to organize in order to get better wages, working conditions, they immediately are fired. And sometimes, even worse, they are told they are being reported to immigration as a way to keep them subjected to the discrimination and exploitation.” He added that such retaliation “hurts all workers” and “presses down wages for all in that universe.”
The four immigrants who joined Menendez were fired last year by Benjamin H. Realty, a New Jersey apartment company, during a union organizing drive by the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA). They told Salon that before their firings, the company had directed them to do unsafe work. “The worst thing was the asbestos,” said Isaac Hernandez. He said he was “100% breathing this stuff in” in a tight crawl space without warning or proper equipment, and “we went with our clothes home, so not only were we exposed – our families were exposed.”
His co-worker Daniel Quintana told Salon that years back he removed asbestos with bare hands after “the supervisor said, ‘No, this is nothing.’” Another worker, Rodolfo Cax, described doing brick pointing on the mortar of a four-story building without a scaffold or harness. He said he was “hanging” from the top with co-workers holding his legs, and a supervisor told him “nothing’s going to happen – we’ve got you.” “I was scared doing this,” Cax told Salon, “but we’ve got no choice…If I don’t do this, he’ll fire me.” His co-worker Fabian Londono Taborda said, “They say if you don’t do, we’ll find someone else.”
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2013/11/06/the_worst_thing_was_the_asbestos%E2%80%9D_combatting_the_boss_from_hell/
Chrysotile asbestos (Credit: Wikimedia/Ravaka)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Preferrably get video of the abuse with your phone as well beforehand.
(And I work in the trades. This is not an unfamiliar story)
