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Job-related deaths rising for Hispanics
Monday, December 19, 2005

By ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITER


Juan Garcia was only 19 and making repairs to the ceiling of MHI Inc. in Teterboro last year when he came into contact with a 480-volt electrical wire. He suffered third-degree burns and died.

Federal labor investigators cited the employer, an assembler of perfume baskets, for failing to train workers to handle electrical material.

The year before, death awaited another worker - Patricio Anguisaca, 28 - who was digging a hole for a staircase in Bergenfield when an excavator struck him, causing severe head injuries. The employer, Kemper Construction Co., was found to have failed to train employees how to use excavators.

Fatal workplace injuries claimed the lives of 883 Hispanic workers in 2004, the second-highest number for this population since 1992. In that 12-year span, only 2001 saw more deaths - 895.

The rise for Hispanics is in stark contrast to a sharp decline for the general population. Fatalities for all workers stood at 5,703 in 2004, a dramatic drop from the 6,632 in 1994.

Labor officials say the growing role of immigrant workers in high-risk jobs, along with communication barriers and a fear of complaining about conditions have made some workplaces a death trap for Hispanics. So this year, the regional office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has joined forces with the Consulates of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador in New York to educate Hispanics about safety and their rights. They have trained about 500 workers.

"We want to fix this problem by getting directly to the people who may be afraid to ask for safety equipment, and who don't know about their safety rights," said Lisa Levy, who as the area director for OSHA is based in Hasbrouck Heights. "We're giving them information they probably will not get from anyone else."

The partnership with consulates is the latest effort in a Hispanic outreach effort that has included 21 joint programs between OSHA and churches, ethnic civic organizations and immigration rights groups, among others.

"Many of our people work in very risky jobs," said Yolanda Castro, head of the legal protection department for the Mexican Consulate in Manhattan. "They face dangers in construction, landscaping, agriculture. OSHA has helped by providing an outlet for our people to lodge complaints about careless employers. They also come to our consulate once a month and talk to people who are waiting to see us about getting a passport or some other document. OSHA people talk to them about safety, give them brochures and show them videos."

Esther Chavez, a community organizer with American Friends Service Committee in Newark, also has worked with OSHA to educate immigrants about workplace safety.

"We've had a great, productive partnership with OSHA for about a year now," Chavez said. "We get about 20 people at the training sessions we've had. You have different sessions for different topics, like one on safety and construction work, another one on safety in factories."

OSHA officials say they plan to form liaisons with all Latin American consulates. They also plan to head out to New Jersey communities with the largest number of day laborers, and make a pitch directly to them. Their first stop, Levy said, will be Palisades Park, where up to 200 day laborers sometimes gather in the hope that contractors will pick them up for a day or more of work.

The majority of injuries in 2004 involved falls, transportation accidents and mishaps with equipment. Most of the deaths that claim Hispanic workers are avoidable, OSHA officials say.

"They would not happen if the employer follows our standards," said Diana Cortez, OSHA's regional Hispanic coordinator. "Some employers are in a rush to get the job done, at any cost."

One of the most difficult tasks in the outreach effort is to gain the trust of the workers, many of whom are here illegally.

"They are fearful," Cortez said. "They don't know who we are, and we are government. Particularly those who are undocumented feel they have no rights, which is not the case. Our mission is to ensure that every man and woman can work in a safe place regardless of immigration status."

That may be so, but many employers, ethnic community leaders say, are not ready to welcome well-informed workers with open arms.

"I've known people who've sued their employers and then lost their jobs," Chavez said.

With that in mind, OSHA says it guarantees confidentiality to workers who fear retaliation if they report safety hazards. The agency also accepts anonymous complaints, and those made through a third party such as a consulate.

Ethnic community leaders have a front seat to the dangers Hispanic immigrants face.

The injured and maimed frequently walk into the office of the Immigration and American Citizenship Organization in Passaic.

"People come in mutilated, they walk in with missing fingers," said Gustavo Ramirez, IACO's president. "Many of them get disabled for life."

Chavez of the American Friends Service Committee mentions the woman who slipped on an oil-slicked factory floor and hurt her spinal cord, the man who lost three fingers, and another who tried to pull a piece of plastic out of a machine, and had his hand amputated.

But Ernie Alvarez sees those who pay the ultimate price. He owns the Alvarez Funeral Home in Passaic.

"We had construction workers who fell off the roofs they were working on, people who've fallen down steps," Alvarez said. "I remember one guy, about a year ago, who was on a forklift in a factory, and the forklift kept going up - with him on it - and wouldn't stop. It hit the ceiling and his neck broke."

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What's at stake

Fatal workplace injuries nationally have declined sharply among all Americans - from 6,632 in 1994 to 5,703 in 2004.

That's not the case, though, for Hispanic workers. In 2004, 883 of them lost their lives on the job, the second highest annually since 1992. Only one of those 12 years was worse: 2001, when 895 Hispanics died in the workplace.