I'm not sure what to think about this. I worked for a company and was pretty miserable there

[hedgehog]

because I kept raising questions about safety issues that other people didn't want to deal with. I was finally laid off, but somehow never called back to work. Last January someone got killed in a department where I used to work, doing something I wouldn't have allowed. I understand OSHA hasn't left the place since. Yesterday the place filed for bankruptcy.

We're talking about 1000 jobs here, but I'm not sure this company should survive.

Oddly enough, I do have a every small vested pension, and the company was forced into bankruptcy when it defaulted on a deposit to the pension account!

[raccoon]

1. They were assholes who didn't like the safety questions you were asking.

Some employers are REAL lax about things like that. You'd think at least to avoid a lawsuit, they'd do certain things which seem obvious, but not so.

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. If your pension is small, it should be covered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

It's kind of like the FDIC for pensions.

[hedgehog]

7. I didn't think of that. It's probably to small to support me, but it would

pay for some extras.

[Sequoia]

3. What sort of work did the company do?

[hedgehog]

8. It's a supplier to tha auto industry.

[Sequoia]

10. Okay. Thanks.

[KansDem]

4. At my place of employment, I noticed entry to a secured staff area...

...can be breached using a credit card. I informed my supervisor who said she'll look into it. That was a couple of months ago and so far nothing has been done.

Not nearly as tragic as a death, but still I'm waiting for one of my colleagues to discover something "missing..."

[Trajan]

5. This shows some salient points

First: Safety is an ECONOMIC issue .... an employer who ignorantly denies it's significance in the workplace
is bound to pay the price when things go wrong ....

But then again: Things NEVER go wrong .... right ?

Second: So called safety 'troublemakers' aren't actually making trouble, but providing valuable guidance to
management as to where they can reduce liability.

THAT is like cash money in da bank ....

[Hello_Kitty]

9. The problem is there aren't enough teeth in regulations

If someone dies in the workplace because of lax safety provisions the company may get fined a few thousand dollars. Big whoop. And for many workers lawsuits are out because they make you sign waivers when you get injured (no medical treatment unless you sign away your right to sue) or arbitration agreements.

Also, when companies make a big production out of "XX number of days without an injury or incident!" it has the effect of discouraging reporting because who wants to be the asshole who breaks the "perfect" record? I always hated when companies I worked for posted those things.

[Hello_Kitty]

6. IMHO a lot of business are barely hobbling along

Many of them are being kept afloat by cutting corners on safety and ripping off employees and customers. I have a friend who works for the gov't in processing worker's comp claims. She says you wouldn't believe how many employers never pay into workers comp insurance, while claiming on the paystubs that they do. So when the worker gets injured and tries to collect, lo and behold, they have no record of the company and the worker gets shafted. Part of the problem is this mentality that any kind of protection for workers and consumers "hurts small businesses!" Like the powers that be give a fuck about small local businesses in general. I used to belong to the NFIB until I realized that they were too busy lobbying for the GOP (who only cares about giant corps.) and tax cuts to be of any use to actual small businesses.