Guardian: 61% of Undocumented Hurricane Clean Up Workers Lack Proper Respiratory Equipment

(Getty Images)

Payday Senior Labor Reporter Mike Elk filed a startling dispatch for the Guardian looking at the conditions that will likely claim the lives of many undocumented hurricane clean-up workers:

The recent survey of 361 Latino day laborers conducted by University of Illinois at Chicago, done in conjunction with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and Fe y Justicia Worker Center and funded by the Ford Foundation, paints a startling picture of the inequities plaguing Houston’s clean up.

According to the report, entitled “After the Storm: Houston’s Day Labor Markets in the Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey”, 26% of those surveyed said that they have experienced wage theft in doing hurricane recovery work. Some 64% of day laborers say that they have not sought government assistance in storm recovery out of fear of being deported. More shockingly, 85% of day laborers say that they have not received any health and safety training prior to entering a job site. And 61% of day laborer say they have no respiratory equipment to prevent themselves from breathing in dangerous molds and chemicals.

Last month, the Guardian reported that workplace safety groups have criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) for failing to coordinate their health and safety training as the Obama administration did.

Unsafe conditions have already taken the life of one worker, 31-year-old Josue Zurita, an immigrant from Mexico. Zurita, a carpenter, had worked on several flood-damaged homes that had become infected with the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing fasciitis.

 

Go to the Guardian to read the full story.

 

 

About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter and alumni of the Guardian. In addition to filing nearly 2,000 stories from 46 states, Elk traveled with Lula from Sáo Bernando do Campos all the way to the Oval Office in the White House. Credited by the Washington Post for being the first reporter to track the strike wave systematically, Elk started Payday Report using his NLRB settlement from being illegally fired for union organizing in 2015. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and works frequently in Rio de Janeiro, where he attended college at PUC-Rio. He speaks both Portuguese and Pittsburghese fluently. His email is [email protected]

Be the first to comment on "Guardian: 61% of Undocumented Hurricane Clean Up Workers Lack Proper Respiratory Equipment"

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.