Contract This

By SETH SANDRONSKY

By definition, in the US, a contract worker lacks labor rights. One is the right to work safely, free from hazards to life and limb. The late Anthony Ramirez was a contract worker for a cleaning firm doing business as QSI, electrocuted fatally on the job at the Perdue Prepared Food facility in Perry, Ga., on Aug. 8, 2021.

Jessica E. Martinez is the co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). “The tragic death of Anthony Ramirez, a 23-year old father, who leaves behind a one-year old infant and a pregnant wife, was no accident,” she said in a statement.

“This deadly electrocution at a Perdue Farms poultry plant is the result of actions by a company and an industry that routinely disregard worker safety. Perdue and its contractor failed to provide a workplace ‘free from recognized hazards’ as mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.” Workplace safety costs a company money. Cutting costs grows company profits.

To be clear, Anthony Ramirez was not a direct employee of Perdue. Rather, he worked for QSI, a firm that had entered into a contract with Perdue to provide labor services. NCOSH’s Martinez continues.

“Both host company Perdue and cleaning contractor QSI must be held fully responsible for their actions which led to this tragedy,” Martinez said. “During a thorough investigation, OSHA must fully protect all workers who come forward as witnesses — especially any immigrant or undocumented workers.”

Such foreign-born workers lack the legal and political rights of native-born workers. Employers know this fact about laborers born abroad and exploit them. One employer tactic is to deploy government enforcement agencies against potential foreign-born witnesses to labor conditions that led to fatalities and injuries. Case in point is the workplace death of Anthony Ramirez.

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must be instructed to stay away from this facility during this investigation,” NCOSH’s Martinez said, “and to have no contact at all with any workers or family members.” An ICE visit to a family or friend during an active investigation of a workplace death is an act of intimidation, bringing with it the threat of deportation and all the harm that can follow from that.

A reporter contacted Perdue for a comment on ICE’s involvement with an investigation of the death of Ramirez. Diana Souder Helms, corporate communications for Perdue Farms, Inc., did not answer a reporter’s question about the investigation into the workplace death. Instead, she had this to say in an email.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of a contractor working for a company that cleans our production equipment who was fatally injured in an accident on August 8th at our Prepared Food facility in Perry, Ga. The safety of our workers and facilities is always Perdue’s top priority, and we are taking the matter very seriously. We are in communication with local authorities and the contracting company, and our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and co-workers.”

Asked about ICE and the investigation into the death of Anthony Ramirez. a QSI spokesman said, “We are working with OSHA, state and local government authorities in addition to our client to fully investigate this unfortunate event. QSI remains committed to maintaining stringent work safety protocols.

Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2021

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