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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 129 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 9 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.

[-] PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

They'll never be without air conditioning.

[-] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Oh, I wasn't suggesting to give them the option. Literally just leave them out in the desert.

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 75 points 1 year ago

So let's pass a law that removes any requirement in Texas to allow construction workers to drink water while they are working... That'll fix things.

Fucking evil shit.

[-] PhoenixRising@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

E: Sorry, replied to the wrong comment.

[-] elbowdrop@lemmy.world 73 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 52 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 34 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 18 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.

[-] PhoenixRising@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

They like doing this kind of thing

[-] SmarfDurden@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

That one at least makes sense (for them) since they wanna kill or deter dem voters. But yeah, nothing is off the table for them. Fuck them

[-] marron12@lemmy.world 9 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 6 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 8 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.

[-] Weirdfish@lemmy.world 69 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.

[-] Mirshe@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Yeah, you start acting this way because your brain literally starts to boil in your skull. Over a certain temperature, your sweat glands start dying and so your body has no other effective ways to shed heat from your core.

Well There's Your Problem just had a very horrifying episode about heatstroke - they had a physical therapist on to talk about the Jordan McNair heatstroke case in 2018 at U Maryland.

[-] MoonshineDegreaser@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

3 times in my life I can tell you that I had heat exhaustion. One time I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital. It is the absolute worse feeling I've ever experienced

[-] gaybear@lemmy.world 43 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.

[-] Ginjutsu@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

Greg Abbot can fucking burn for all I care. Fuck that piece of shit cunt right up his ass.

[-] exothermic@lemmy.world 29 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 31 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.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, as if being on drugs means they don't need help and should return to work. Insane.

[-] MajorHavoc@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

When a corporation kills a human, we should dissolve it, sell it's assets, and turn the money raised over to the victim's next of kin.

We can see how long it takes for stockholders to vote in favor of safety regulations after we do that a few times.

[-] Blamemeta@lemmy.world 25 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 8 points 1 year ago

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

[-] Blamemeta@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Bosses, managers, especially in the construction industry.

[-] TwoGems@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

If we ever get rid of the fascism in the USA Abbott or other fascists should be expelled from the U.S. Same for Ted Cruz.

[-] narp@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago

Expelled for crimes against humanity? Do a Nuremberg trial II and let the judges decide their punishment.

[-] TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

Lol the Nuremberg trials were overshadowed by the cold War and many war criminals got leniency for cooperation.

Not the best example

[-] thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 11 points 1 year ago

I don't feel like exile is a strong enough deterrent.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Depends on where they're exiled to. I suggest Afghanistan.

[-] MoonshineDegreaser@lemmy.world 22 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 53 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 10 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

[-] meat_popsicle@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Doesn’t hurt that the GCs will often just lose envelopes full of cash around where certain regulators, investigators, and politicians live.

It’s just by accident - those envelopes are just too damn easy to lose.

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

AND when they do get caught in something of that nature, they don't really shut down. They change the company name under a new license and then magically get all the contracts that the previous company had

[-] marx2k@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Also... is Texas.

I'm surprised they need licensing at all

[-] thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 1 year ago

You don't actually have to be licensed to be a contractor in Texas.

[-] marx2k@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Damn, and I thought I was being funny

[-] thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 1 year ago

Texas does a good enough job of it on its own.

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Not in Texas. Not anymore. They are actively making it so much worse with the recent bill removing a requirement that employers allow construction workers to drink fucking water.

[-] EricHill78@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

I live in the city this happened. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to do physical work in this weather. May he RIP.

[-] marx2k@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

The inevitable conservative argument: "If we didn't have open borders, construction companies would need to cater to their employees better because they'd have less competition from cheap labor. Thanks Biden"

[-] vd1n@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago

It's time for other countries to come fuck up America.

this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023

597 points (98.5% liked)

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