Dear Rosa:
Years ago, one day I went to work and all the wheelchairs in the hospital,
except the emergency room, were broken or in some sort of disrepair. At the
time I was a young undergraduate at Berkely, and immediately filed the
report. I was shocked.
I learnt: 1) the workers were all afraid of their jobs being on the line if
in any way they brought attention to themselves. 2) I was labeled a
political activist by my co-workers, and my immediate supervisor reported
that I was a malcontent.
With the economic climate what it is today, are the Hispanics afraid that
they will not keep their job and that is why safety is so low a priority?
My experience with workers on jobs requiring little or no experience fear is
the greatest motivator (or lack of motivation) and then comes lack of
education on the subject. Immediate food and other survival necessaties are
of most important.
I am in Canada where we foster multiculturalism as is unimaginable for many
US citizens. We have a large (very large) immigrant labour pool. Many
organizations funded by the government to asimilate these persons into the
labour market beleive that even highly educated (as in PhD) immigrants must
first acquire experience at bottem end, few skills, jobs. There is also a
fear of many (especially from Pacific Rim countries) a fear of any authority
figure (going as far as the elementary classroom teacher). They do not
speak up, do not know what their rights are and are constantly being
exploited in sweatshops. The government is constantly on a witch hunt to
find them and close them down. But the fear that the workers have is
greater than their desire for safety.
