Chattanooga: Hispanics often hesitate to report job dangers

About a month ago, Ismael Ávila was hit by a car.

At work for a local paving company, he was pushing a large blower along a newly paved driveway when he suddenly found himself flying over the machine.

“The next thing I remember was waking up at the hospital,” Mr. Ávila said in Spanish.

After receiving emergency care, the 53-year-old Honduras native returned to work the next day.

“My bosses basically said, ‘No work, no pay,’ and I need the money,” he said in broken English.

Within a week his knee had swollen to double its normal size. He had torn the cartilage in his knee and strained shoulder muscles.

But he kept going to work.

Like many immigrants, Mr. Ávila put aside his pain so he wouldn’t lose his job. Some immigrants, especially those here illegally, work through injuries because they’re afraid that, if they complain or don’t show up for work, their bosses may fire them or turn them over to authorities to be deported.

“I think the majority of Hispanic workers, first of all, don’t have knowledge about security norms at work,” said Anibal Franco, one of three Spanish Occupational Safety and Health Administration instructors in Tennessee and the only one in Chattanooga.

“Secondly, when they see something that’s insecure, they don’t report it because they are afraid of losing their job. And thirdly, they don’t report dangerous situations because those who are here illegally are afraid of being deported.”

In 2006, Hispanics accounted for 13.4 percent of all work-related injuries in the United States, while blacks made up 8 percent. Whites had the highest percentage with 44.2 percent, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.

But Hispanics also have the highest fatality rate on the job, statistics show. In 2007, Hispanics had a 4.4 fatality rate for every 100,000 employed workers, followed by blacks with a 3.8 fatality rate, and whites with a 3.7 fatality rate, according to the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

STORIES OF INJURIES

Joe Wolverton, a worker’s compensation attorney reaching out to the Hispanic community, opened his office in the Highland Park neighborhood about three months ago and says he’s heard about people who are afraid to speak out.

“We had a girl that had her hair caught in a machine and had her scalp ripped off,” he said. “This young lady was about 23, her whole life in front of her, but now she is disfigured. But she didn’t want to pursue the worker’s (compensation) case because she said she was here without papers, hadn’t used her real name and was afraid immigration would come get her.”

Mr. Wolverton said he explains to immigrants that in Tennessee the immigration status of someone injured at work doesn’t matter.

“In Tennessee, regardless of one’s immigration status, if one is injured at work, then he has every right to receive compensation during his disability,” he said.

Hispanic immigrant workers tend to report work-related injuries only when they are very serious, said Leon Berriós, a legal advocate for Conexión Américas, a nonprofit organization in Nashville that helps the Hispanic community in Tennessee.

“A mild accident, such as a fall, we have the mentality that ‘I’ll just pick myself up and keep working,’” he said. “We don’t know there might be secondary effects to that fall.”

Ermelinda López, a Guatemala native who asked not to name the factory in which she works because she’s still employed, said she doesn’t report injuries if no one sees her.

“I slipped some months ago, and the supervisor took me to see the company’s nurse,” she said in Spanish. “They gave me a form to sign that they told me said I could be fired if I fell again.”

Although she couldn’t read what she signed because it was in English, Mrs. López said, she did it because she didn’t want to get in trouble.

Since her fall, she has slipped again, but instead of notifying her supervisor she just got up and kept working, she said.

“There is a great level of abuse from employers, even between Hispanics,” Mr. Berriós said. “This goes much farther than just a problem of discrimination.”

Ray Atkins, director of corporate communications with Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., where in April immigration agents arrested in five states almost 300 workers accused of being in the country illegally, said in an e-mail that Pilgrim’s Pride policy is “that any employee who has suffered a work-related injury or illness is to report it to their supervisor immediately after the incident has occurred.”

Employees are encouraged to participate in daily safety inspections to ensure adherence to safety best practices and are provided safety training and orientations in English and Spanish, he said.

WILLING WORKERS

One of the consequences of widespread illegal immigration is the deterioration of work safety, said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies based in Washington, D.C., which explores the effects of immigration in the United States.

He said about 15 percent of the nationwide work force in construction is illegal, about 17 percent is illegal in cleaning and maintenance, about 11 percent in food preparation and about 8 percent in food production.

“What these numbers generally suggest is that illegal immigrants, commencing with the fact that most have very little education, work in occupations where injury is not uncommon,” he said.

Four workers are killed every day on average at U.S. construction sites, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and construction is a sector that increasingly is becoming Hispanic at the national and local level, said Mr. Franco, a Spanish OSHA trainer who specializes in construction safety.

He said one of the main causes of accidents in the construction industry is lack of training, not the machinery itself.

But Tim McClure, president of the Home Builders Association of Southeast Tennessee and a local developer, said he hasn’t seen more work-related injuries happening to Hispanics than any other group.

“I’ve only seen one accident since I’ve been working with Hispanics in the last four, five years,” he said.

Hispanics have a tendency to work longer hours, he said, but he thinks they go the extra mile to ensure work safety.

Mr. Camarota said the willingness to work in unsafe environments and the unwillingness to report injuries make illegal workers more attractive to employers and can lead to work safety deterioration.

“As you increase the supply of workers — legal, illegal, native born — you generally transfer more bargaining power to the employer and make employees work for less,” he said. “One area where they’re able to cut more corners, simply because there’s more people to choose from, is in safety.”

Mr. Ávila, who has lived in Chattanooga for four years, said he decided to contact Mr. Wolverton after speaking to a friend.

“(My friend) told me not to be afraid, that lawyers are here to help us, and that even though I don’t have any papers I’m not a criminal, I’m a worker,” he said.

He said he’s waiting to recover so he can start planning his return to Honduras, although doctors have told him his knee probably never will fully heal.

“I need to go back healthy with a good leg again,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve lost anything by trying to come to make a better life.”