The Working Class Needs OSHA, Not Oligarchs

I have some gnarly stories about industrial accidents

Not the job for me! Photo by Enrique Fernandez on Unsplash

Years ago, one of my relatives got his hand caught in a conveyor belt at work and it ripped off his thumb.

His doctors came up with a novel solution: They cut off one of his big toes and attached it to his hand. I am not making this up. It’s a thing.

I am also not making up the fact that his surgeon cut a hole in his abdomen and sewed his injured hand into the pocket for a few weeks so it could heal. That is also a thing.

Jesse spent the rest of his life using his opposable big toe to do the things his thumb used to help him do – pick up a sandwich, caress his wife’s face, tousle his kids’ hair —and everything else.

The Republican party – you know, the one that claims to care about the working class – wants to eliminate the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

We don’t need to get rid of OSHA

We need to strengthen it. How many fatal work accidents do you think the U.S. had in 2023? Guess!

Did you come up with the number 5,283? Do you think that number of dead American workers is so inconsequential that we don’t need to worry about it?

You might not feel that way if one of those workers was someone you love.

You would think that every business would care enough about its workers to do everything possible to prevent them from being maimed or killed, but oh man, could I tell you some stories.

I worked in newspapers for decades, and we covered some gruesome industrial deaths. I’ve attended countless inquests; I’ve seen and heard some terrible things.

In one case, a man climbed into a rail car to clean it and was overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas; his colleague went in to save him and also died. My reporters covered that story at the time. Using the proper safety equipment could have prevented those deaths.

Another tragic case happened in my area after I was no longer working in newspapers. I’m glad I didn’t have to cover it. I don’t like imagining the horror of falling into a pot of molten iron. But that’s what happened to one man.

I do know what it is to get a call informing you your loved one has been injured at work. Fortunately, he recovered from his broken leg.

Not every injury results in death. Some people survive but suffer the loss of a limb. Or their vision. Or they lose their thumb and have to have their toe sewn onto their hand instead. (Yes, it looked exactly the way you are imagining it. A toe sewn onto a hand does not look like a thumb. It looks like a toe. Feel free to use Google images if so desired.)

There’s no way to make every workplace 100 percent safe. Freak accidents are always a possibility. But we have to stop vilifying everything the federal government does.

See also: Numerous plane crashes that no doubt coincidentally happened just after MAGA began dismantling airline safety systems.

Some people don’t trust the government

And that’s good. Yes, we need to keep our eyes on it.

But do you know who I really don’t trust? An unelected billionaire who has made it extremely clear that he cares about absolutely nothing in the world but seizing all money, power and control for himself.

His own track record for workplace safety includes “crushed limbs, amputations, electrocutions, head and eye wounds and one death.”

He is unaccountable to us. At least in the case of government, we all have a vote.

Some businesses are run by people who care about their workers

Other businesses will not spend one penny on safety unless they’re forced to. I think we should force them.

If someone tries to tell you they care about the working class but they don’t think we need OSHA, don’t believe anything else they say.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Ask some actual working class folks – not a billionaire whose greatest risk is a paper cut. (Take a look at the boots on the cover of the book below. Those are my husband’s actual work boots. I’m not cosplaying as a working class person here.)

The working class needs OSHA. And unions. And most of all, a government that doesn’t throw them to the wolves.

About Michelle Teheux

I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here and on Medium. My new book is Strapped: Fighting for the soul of the American working class. My most recent novel is The Trailer Park Rules. If you prefer to give a one-time tip, I accept Ko-fi.

Did you know that originally the term “bootstrapping” was used sarcastically to describe an impossible task? Yet now, the meaning has morphed into the opposite.

I invite you to give it a try. Reach back, grab your bootstraps and pull with all your might. How did that work out for you?

There’s a reason we tell people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps even though we know it can’t be done. It’s one of the ways people in power keep the rest of us from complaining that we’re being screwed. We keep trying and trying and blaming ourselves when we have trouble. Of course we blame ourselves. Who else can we blame?

This is not a self-help book because you cannot single-handedly fix what’s wrong with the system by working harder or working smarter. There’s a good possibility that some of your problems are out of your hands.

This book was not written for the top 10 percent or for anyone who had life handed to them on a silver platter.

Instead, this book is for every working-class, lower-class and even middle-class person who has done everything right but still feels strapped.