they are bedazzled by the fantasies of the money they think they can have buy going there, doing "whatever it takes" and often signing away rights in the fine print when they hire on with some operator.
Laws don't apply when there is no enforcement and no one gets caught. In what was, until recently, the least populated state in the lower 48, such a large influx of workers, one can expect such conditions to persist.
Yes, I have tried to talk to some who went off to the gold rush and the dangers they may face and the response was always based on having a chance at getting out of an unemployment sinkhole, any danger would be faced when they arose. Once you get there, sometimes at great cost - as in your last $100 - there are few alternatives than to take what's offered, and often the workers are not paid what was advertised, the housing costs are exorbitant... it is so much like many mining booms where the company owns everything for miles... not much has changed in that world. Sure the workers should organize but the companies will see that they rarely have the opportunity to gather and compare notes. If you've never seen this kind of ownership serfdom before, you have no idea how well the owners control and protect their interests that consider workers as disposable and basically, many of them do sign their life away when taking the jobs laws be damned.
You can sit and speculate at your computer about how things ought to be but it makes no difference on the ground on location... unless you go there and try to make changes. Doing that might become a serious danger to your well being as the "Pinkerton" types are also there to protect the oligarchy. It wouldn't surprise me if drones were put to use there first.
http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-destructive-canada-oil-sands-2012-10?op=1v
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