by @BarryRafkind in Immigration, Public Health & Safety, Workers' Rights
Posted on October 13, 2008 at 12:12 am
Last Modified on February 23, 2010 at 3:10 pm
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A Boston Globe article yesterday on Boston.com “Immigrant workers seen at increased risk” reports
Romulo Santos of Somerville headed off to work Sept. 9 at a Wal-Mart in Walpole as usual. But that day he was electrocuted on the job.
Some might consider the 47-year-old Brazilian native’s death a freak accident, but local advocates say that for many immigrant workers, the risk of injury is all too real.
Tufts University, Cambridge Health Alliance, and five Somerville community groups have come together to raise awareness of occupational health risks and to teach people their rights.
Read the full Boston Globe article here on Boston.com…
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Publish this story in Central and South America. Hopefully it will persudade the illegals to stay home!
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Dan, why do you think people would take all the risks of leaving their homeland through a dangerous journey to live clandestinely and work at hazardous jobs?
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Because they lack the courage to change things locally. They come here because they know they’ll be coddled and babied by the likes of you. BTW, screw Spanish on every goddamned sign and answering machine – before I went to live in Vienna, I studied German for 3 years. It’s polite not to expect that the local citizens will bend over backwards to accommodate you.
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Seems to me that living such a dangerous life actually requires great courage. Do you think the early European settlers who came to America lacked courage because they weren’t willing to stay home and change their society?
I guess you consider electrocution to be a form of coddling?
It’s pure fantasy to think that poor immigrant families would have the means or the time to invest in learning English when they are escaping to make a better life for themselves.
I wish you’d tell your story of how you and/or your family came to this country and what struggles they went through.
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My mother came her from Ireland at the age of 18, LEGALLY.
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That’s great, Dan. The Irish have really enriched our society.
I wonder, did she emigrate because she lacked the courage to change things in her own country?
Did she study English before she came?
Did she have to apply for immigration papers before she came, or did she simply ride over on a boat? At that time, people didn’t need to have a job or family waiting for them in the U.S., like they do now. What would she have done if things were like the way they are now?
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Dan, I agree. To get this country back we need to ship all the ILLEGALS out – including the usurper-in-chief now residing in the oval office. Once we do that and stop mortgaging our childrens futures — we will be fine.
FYI: I have called ICE on neighbors that I suspected or have known were here illegally. I have no problems doing it. All citizens have the responsibility to report criminals. The more we all do that the less they will come.
And do not take Barry too seriously; he is just a misguided socialist. He means no harm.
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dey took’er jerbs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzivCJ9pzU
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Hey, Barry, mighty defender of workers’ rights, consider that the people most in favor of illegal immigration are business owners who know that they can pay next to nothing because the workers are too scared to say anything. Then they go on to perpetrate the big lie that these people are doing jobs that native born Americans refuse to do. They ought to be shot for treason. And Xumi, get off the Obama hate wagon. Every person with a lick of sense knows that he was born in Hawaii. good job calling ICE, though.
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Dan, I agree with you about the hypocrisy out there and that there are strong economic factors promoting illegal immigration which need to be addressed.
However, it’s not a lie that many jobs done by undocumented immigrants are ones that most American workers refuse to do because there are little or no benefits, or there’s a high degree of danger. Jobs like picking fruits and vegetables in the fields, cleaning homes and bathrooms, or working in meat-processing plants.
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