[Jewelry making - Article 00396] - Re: [Orchid] Unvented basement workspace and health

[Zen Sojourner]

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    Betty, I have been out of work since my entire department was laid
    off two years ago (outsourced).  The best I have been able to come up
    with is a part-time job that over the past year has amounted to a
    total of 800 hours.  Prior to June of 2004 I had no job whatsoever,
    and I've made less than $5k in the year since then. 

    In short, there is not somewhere else I can work to make my living. 
    I wish there were! 

    Furthermore, since I recently broke down and applied for foodstamps,
    I CANNOT quit this job (or any other I am currently working) without
    having my application for food stamps denied (for having
    "voluntarily reduced" my work hours.) 

    However, I do have an appointment at the nearby nearly-free-clinic
    to see if I can get "permission" to quit this job.  I don't know if
    I'll get it - I have been avoiding going to this job (its a second
    part-time job I started working at about the beginning of June) for
    the past week, so my most obvious symptoms have improved.  I guess
    I'll forego the food stamps if I can't get the doctor's excuse, but
    I've got to tell you, going hungry is hard.  I'm lucky enough to
    have friends who will feed me, and for the past couple of months I've
    actually had to rely on this sort of help on more occassions than I
    care to think about. 

    People really do work under these kinds of conditions because the
    alternative is quite literally starvation. 

    And don't think that OSHA is any help at all.  There's a factory
    here that produces weapons-related products for the military.  I know
    a woman who quit there after she started experiencing multiple
    health-related problems, including bleeding from the ears.  They
    were working in an area where antifreeze and other chemicals were
    being sprayed into the air in a fine mist.  There was no protective
    gear provided to the employees.  No discussion of or education about
    safety procedures.  In fact, she had to sneak the product labels out
    to a local university to even find out what they were working with. 
    Highly toxic stuff, it turns out.  She did call OSHA.  They sent an
    inspector.  The inspector had coffee with management and left
    without ever setting foot on the factory floor.  You do know that
    surprise inspections have to be scheduled with the company being
    inspected now, right?  And that OSHA has no way to force their way in
    to inspect anything if the company doesn't want them to? 

    She quit 2 years ago and is still unemployed.  Her boyfriend still
    works there and now requires an inhaler to breathe.  Nobody cares,
    Betty.  Or they call you a liar when you report this type of thing
    (I had someone from this list e-mail me privately and suggest I was
    lying about my situation).  Or they're so afraid they'll be
    unemployed too, they just keep quiet and pray they won't be the next
    to succumb - to ill health, unemployment, or death. 

    It's not a question of "making a few dollars" so much as it is a
    question quite literally of survival.  Worries about future health
    pale in comparison to the option that would destroy your ability to
    feed your kids and keep a roof over their heads today. 

    Sojourner 

    PS - remember that the unemployment rate is a lie.  As soon as I
    dropped off the unemployment rolls - after 6 months - I was no
    longer counted as unemployed.  Yet I was completely unemployed for
    another 6 months, then I was working a big 13 hours a week.  There
    are far more of us who have been unemployed for a year or more than
    are currently on the unemployment rolls.

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