VivirLatino

Latin@ Workers Least Likely to Report Work Place Injuries

12:49 H | Topics: Health - Immigration - Justice - Labor

Continuing the theme of taking care of our Latin@ bodies, I found this very important article from the Chattanooga Times about the level of workplace injuries the Latin@ community deals with. It starts off with a very familiar story:

About a month ago, Ismael Ávila was hit by a car.

At work for a local paving company, he was pushing a large blower along a newly paved driveway when he suddenly found himself flying over the machine.

“The next thing I remember was waking up at the hospital,” Mr. Ávila said in Spanish.

After receiving emergency care, the 53-year-old Honduras native returned to work the next day.

“My bosses basically said, ‘No work, no pay,’ and I need the money,” he said in broken English.

Within a week his knee had swollen to double its normal size. He had torn the cartilage in his knee and strained shoulder muscles.

But he kept going to work.

Like many immigrants, Mr. Ávila put aside his pain so he wouldn’t lose his job. Some immigrants, especially those here illegally, work through injuries because they’re afraid that, if they complain or don’t show up for work, their bosses may fire them or turn them over to authorities to be deported.

This article rightly points out that the mentality of returning to work even after sometimes horrible injuries is rampant in the immigrant community, I think it's really important to point out that when so many of us Latin@s come from a heavy immigrant community, this mentality does not just disappear simply because we are citizens. I've worked through work place injuries more than once--and even went back to work at a smoke infested bar after I had to be carried out of that bar three hours earlier and rushed to the hospital in an ambulance because of a severe asthma attack.

Many citizen workers blame non-citizens for poor work place conditions/low pay, and advocate violence against those workers (in the form of ICE raids, imprisonment etc) based on those beliefs.

I have to wonder, however, how much have workplace problems improved since the marked increase in ICE raids/deportations have begun (within the last two years)? Workplace raids have doubled (and in some areas, tripled)--and yet there has been no similar improvement in the quality of workplace or pay in any area.

In Postville, home of one of the largest raids in the country, the factory that was raided is still under investigation for work place abuses--only now a large number of the workers that would have testified are sitting in jail or deported.

How does that help any worker, citizen or non?

Related

• In Times of Economic Crisis : Is Spending $160,752,000,000 on Deportations Smart? (Wednesday, Oct 15 2008)
• How Would the Proposed Health Care Plans Impact Real People? (Tuesday, Oct 14 2008)