cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5594826
By the time emergency responders arrived, the teenager was already dead. The scene was one of horror and trauma, with visibly shaken workers gathered outside the facility. Tina’s Burritos–a budget frozen food brand which markets its products with the slogan “Made in California”–has issued no public statement on the death of its employee.
That a teenager was sent into a confined industrial machine to clean it without elementary safeguards is a damning indictment of the conditions faced by millions of workers, especially the youngest and most vulnerable. These basic safety procedures have been known for decades. That they were not in place indicates that speed, cost-cutting and disregard for human life took priority. The absence of emergency kill switches, proper LOTO systems, or basic operational oversight suggests not just management negligence, but an entire economic system built on criminal disregard for workers’ lives.
The case at Tina’s Burritos follows a similar pattern as the Esparto fireworks explosion earlier this month, which killed seven workers—many of them young, low-paid laborers. Both incidents occurred in California, which despite its immense wealth and resources ranks second only to Texas in the number of workplace fatalities in the United States.
At the same time, the administration launched a campaign to normalize and expand child labor. Republican-led states across the country, emboldened by Trump’s return to power, have rolled back child labor laws and legalized the employment of minors in hazardous industries. The goal is to prepare young workers early for lives of brutal exploitation. The death of a 19-year-old janitor in a meat processing plant is not an aberration. It is a preview of what this system has in store.
If you can’t be bothered with lock-out-tag-out for a person-sized meat grinder, stop talking, go to jail. Your business is over and you are charged before you kill someone.
“Both incidents occurred in California, which despite its immense wealth and resources ranks second only to Texas in the number of workplace fatalities in the United States.” — As the most populous state, California should logically have the highest number of workplace fatalities. That they come in second after Texas, despite having 20-25% higher population, indicates they have far fewer workplace fatalities per capita.
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/state-data/at-work/work-deaths-by-state/
Per capita it actually seems like California is one of the best, with only four states doing better and three matching California with the numbers given on that table
Edit: now that I’m at my PC, I can get some more precision on the numbers. By this table and Wikipedia’s 2023 estimates for state populations, California is 7th best in the country and Texas is 30th (counting the 50 states and DC, but no other non-state territories)
As soon as I read the statistic I came to the comments to find this or to comment it myself XD
Yea, but if you look at it in a reasonable way then you can’t make blue states look bad.
That a teenager was sent into a confined industrial machine to clean it without elementary safeguards is a damning indictment of the conditions faced by millions of workers, especially the youngest and most vulnerable.
When I was slightly older than this kid I worked for a Mail sorting facility. When stuff would jam we sometimes had to climb into the machine to clear the jam, doing so meant you could not hold the kill switch. We kept asking for kill toggles, not a switch you have to hold.
The dude who ran the feeder for my team was a complete idiot. He never checked to see if he could see all of his team before starting the machine. One night there was a guy clearing a jam, and idiot boy started the machine while someone was in it. It destroyed his hand, it was a scene from an 80s horror flick. They moved everyone else to other machines and that was that. I found a new job very shortly after that.
To anyone in that scenario: it is your moral duty to sabotage that machine. If cost is all that matters, make doing the right thing the least expensive option.
I had the vague misunderstanding that there were annual safety inspections for things like lockouts on dangerous equipment. I was wrong.
That requires governmental regulation and Republicans always want to cut that. Per capita California is much better than most other states but they have had fairly significant periods of Republican governance including Reagan and Schwarzenegger and currently have Rlite/“moderate” Dem. The state is blue but not as significantly blue as it is portrayed in media.
Before Trump pretty much all regulatory agencies were understaffed, now they’re basically nonexistent.
literally the fucking Jungle, upton sinclair is going to ride from the grave and strangle a robber baron
LOTO is critical. RIP little homie.
Man, this sucks.
I would definitely check that the power was not connected to that machine, then check again after I walked around the whole thing.
I don’t blame a teenager, though. This was management.
This is not a case of just checking the switch is off, or the power cable is unplugged.
This is a case of locking out the power connection, and putting a tag on it with a picture of my face saying “if you turn this on, you WILL kill me” (which is what lock out tag out means)
If it’s detachable at both ends, take it with you.
And someone wonders why it’s not working. And goes and gets another jumper and now you’re dead.
The tag is just as important as the lock.
Oh no!
They might Lose Profit! Quick, get ANOTHER Kid in that literal Meat Grinder!
I don’t think that new flavor is going to sell well.
If it were legal, it would be a delicacy because it is taboo and the cost would be the 3nd most obscene part of it.
Now hear me out, I have a modest proposal…
Long as your proposal involves billionaires and bbq I am willing to invest.
But not joking as a father of a 18 and 16 no fucking way would I allow my boys to work in one of these death traps. Why are we allowing these places to continue to operate and kill children?
If there were appropriate inspections done on the facility prior to having occupancy, the kid may still be alive.
They didn’t have lockouts or a lockout procedure.
Even worse is we don’t know why the machine was turned on, which may have been done as a “prank”. Whoever turned the machine on will have a lifetime to think about it.
Where the fuck OSHA? This was in California too. Thought they all had unions and fucking work place protections? Yet you tell me the place had no lock out tag out procedures? I live in shit hole Oklahoma and we have those here. That just pisses me off. So much for California being so fucking great for workers. Please tell me someone going to prison over this?
It was in LA. The presence of illegal immigrants, typical in food processing, may have acted as a reason to not report safety issues to the management or OSHA.
A worker reports a safety issue to OSHA, other workers have BPS come after them, the factory closes down and everybody loses their jobs, worker responsible gets fired, or whatever are all reasons why a safety violation would not get reported.
Have you seen the movie What You Wish For (2023)
I will have in a few hours.
It’s really good. Enjoy!
It was a good watch, thanks.
