Texas worker accused of being on drugs was actually dying of heatstroke (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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Mother of Gabriel Infante, 24, sues employer for $1m, saying construction workers had no protections from extreme heat

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[-] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Infante later died in a hospital from severe heatstroke and had a recorded internal temperature of 109.8F (43.2C). The Center for Disease Control states a body temperature of 103F (39.4C) or higher is a main symptom of heatstroke.

The poor man was fucking cooked alive and the foreman wanted to do a piss test! I wish Abbott and his funders could experience that.

[-] kite@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

109.8

And that's in the hospital, after he'd had a chance to cool down some in the ambulance, and I'm sure EMS started IV fluids as well, which would have also cooled him. I bet his temp was a good bit higher than 109.8 at its highest.

[-] elbowdrop@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Fuck them. Require a licensed doctor on site observing the workers. Fuck this I think your on drugs bullshit. Why the actual fuck would Texas take away water breaks? How much more value is that aqueezing out of your workers. I think this lady deserves WAY more than a million. You kill an employee due to neglect, pay a billion. But that's too high. It's supposed to be a punishment. Fuck it. A billion a year forever.

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

They're taking away the workers'rights to get water breaks, not the supervisors' rights to give them. So, if you're a happy and compliant little drone who kisses enough ass maybe you'll get one, and making workers' feel the need to do things like that is where the real value in this lies for the bosses I think.

[-] SmarfDurden@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You know, before this I really thought access to water was one of the few things conservatives wouldn’t have a problem with. They’re sadists

[-] Mirshe@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Those 5 minutes you're drinking water COULD be spent making money for the company! Think of the bottom line! /s

That's literally what this is. I'm sure whoever proposed the bill had a friend who runs a construction or landscaping company complaining that their workers are taking too much time on break because they're hot.

[-] marron12@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

The power dynamic is already heavily skewed in favor of the employer. Especially with construction and landscaping work, the way it tends to go is: workers need the job. The company rules with a pretty strict hand. You don't like something, there's the door. So you put up with stuff until you find another job or can't take it anymore.

Take away a legal right, and that's that. The workers and the company both know who has the upper hand. Sure, one person could try to stick up for themselves here and there, but plenty of people don't because they're afraid to lose their job. And it usually doesn't change anything anyway. Even when there are laws to protect employees, companies don't always follow them.

I'm talking mostly about non-union jobs there. Union jobs are better, but they're not free of problems either.

[-] ScoobyDoo27@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

And don’t forget in those industries you see a lot of workers who may not be legal so they have to put up with the companies bullshit. It’s not like they can get the law involved even if they wanted to. Companies know this and abuse their workforce heavily because of it.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

It's so insane. Let's say they are on drugs. Does that make it okay to let them die? You should still try to get them help.

[-] MoonshineDegreaser@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Good way to m lose your business license if you aren't a general contractor. But since they are, supervisor is getting fired and nothing else is going to change.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Working someone until they die of heatstroke should be a murder charge, not risk losing a damned business license. What a sick society.

[-] MoonshineDegreaser@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You're absolutely right. However there were rules and amenities put in place way before we were born

I'll give you an example. When I worked as a utility locator, I caught a GC's team doing HARD drugs on a construction site. I reported it to the county. Nothing happened. Same team, same habits. I would speak to the GC directly about their teams, and they didn't care.

A week passes and the entire site is roped off with police tape. A heavy machinery operator from that team ended up running a cleaner over in one of those JLG cherry pickers with the monster truck tires. Turns out he had meth and thc in his system. He was fired. No charges towards the individual or the GC because it was chalked up to a workplace accident.

Now why were they able to get away with that you ask? GC's have to maintain state and county contracts and they even do work for the counties and states. They literally have all the power when it comes to construction. The only real way to get a GC shut down is if there are multiple accidents resulting in an unusual number of injuries or death. But even then, that's usually when the feds and OSHA get involved

[-] Weirdfish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I got pretty bad heat stroke once while running in Texas. Was in the military, and due to a stupid miscommunication was told I was not allowed to drink water.

Lap or two later and I started having symptoms I'd never experienced before.

I can 100% believe that my look and behavior could have been mistaken for drug use.

I had stopped sweating, looked pale and disoriented, I'm sure I was not speaking clearly. My friend grabbed me and dragged me to a water fountain.

Once I had time to recover, get some A/C, and rehydrate, I was pretty much fine, though I remember having one hell of a headache like a hangover.

[-] gaybear@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

A foreman insisted Espinoza call the police, claiming Infante’s bizarre behavior was due to drugs, and the foreman pushed for a drug test when emergency medical services arrived.

Jesus fucking christ.

[-] exothermic@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A million dollars is hardly enough. The lawsuit should be for the dollar amount of his lifetime worth of gainful employment. Anything less is despicable and wrong.

[-] Master@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

and then times it by 10. If it bankrupts the company so be it.

I work in construction. We have a re-roof job running right now. They go through almost a pallet of water every day and are required to have x amount of rest in shade. When it got to hot the hours were moved to night till mid day to protect them from the heat.

If they suspected him of being on drugs they should have pulled him from the job site immediately once symptoms were showing. Anything less is a danger to the employee as well as everyone else on the site.

What this company did was illegal, morally wrong and down right evil.

[-] Blamemeta@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago

Problem is, heatstroke looks like drugs to idiots, and Ive never met one who wasn't an idiot.

[-] stown@sedd.it 1 points 1 year ago

Never met what that wasn't an idiot? People?

this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023

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