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My husband was hired as an account rep for concrete contractor in Pennsylvania, who assigned him the additional responsibility of chairing the safety committee (in case anyone is unsure, the sole purpose of this committee was to reduce the cost of insurance). This was a monumental task for my English only speaking spouse, as most of the workers were illegal immigrants, and spoke only Spanish. When he complained about the complete inability to communicate safety information to them, he was told to just get their signatures on the documentation which indicates that they understood the safety practices they were being taught (my husband refused, and left the company shortly thereafter). Not only was the owner well aware that they were illegal immigrants, he couldn’t care less what happened to them.
One of the products/services the company offered was Rubberwall waterproofing spray-on shield for the purpose of waterproofing basements in the initial stage of construction. All the Rubberwall literature stressed the importance of applying the product in an open, well ventilated area, as the material and technique involved in this process is both toxic to humans and EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE!
On June 6, 2006, three of these illegal employees, none of whom spoke a word of English, traveled to New York to apply the rubberwall waterproofing shield to a small pool inside the finished basement of a rich man’s home. It was a completely enclosed environment, trapping the flammable fumes in the enclosed area. As the employees were packing up after the job was finished, something went terribly wrong. Somehow a spark was created as they were putting their tools away and KABOOM!
One of the men was literally burned to a crisp and died instantly. He was unrecognizable, so identification was made through the process of elimination. One escaped with serious burns over his arms, hands, face, and torso, but did eventually recover most of his physical function, (his memory I’m told will be faulty from this point on). The third however, spent many months in a hyperbaric (spelling?) chamber in a hospital in New York, thankfully in a deep coma, until his death several months later.
The end result of OSHA’s investigation? No harm, no foul. And while the good citizen’s of the land of New York will foot the bill for the millions of dollars (low guesstimate) to pay for the emergency services, police, fire, rescue, and the hospital costs for the unfortunate fellow who lingered for several months in a coma, the owner of the company was slapped with a $5,000.00 fine (I’m not really sure what the excuse was for this travesty).
Legalizing the criminal aliens won't resolve these atrocities; that will only bring in more to be abused. Hitting the employers in the wallet however, will go a long way to ending these types of abominable practices, and will serve to re-establish safe labor conditions, and will raise the wages of Americans to the reasonable quality of life sustaining levels that were fought so hard for by our legal immigrant ancestors, but were lost due to the above mentioned criminal employers and illegal aliens.