So… I need an outlet, a new perspective and advice.
I'm a 24yo student and due to covid and other factors, I started work in a factory. Basically ground level work, packing boxes with plastic products that come from machines and such. Occasionally that involves dealing with the machines, especially at night, when no technician is present.
In the beginning of May this year a machine grabbed my hand and squeezed my wrist enough that a few blood vessels bursted and I had a bruise. I followed about all safety procedures that I could, but the safety button did NOT work. Prior to me the same machine grabbed and squeezed hands of several (I believe 6) other people, however they forgot to turn switch the safety button (the machine starts beeping and flashing red, so a lot of people go into a panic mode and hence forget).
After my incident, the bosses decided to put on another safety, that was more analog in nature, but because due to its weight, they took it off.
2 weeks ago I noticed it and put another safety on, just a spring and tape and magnets. It basically weighted nothing, but did look ugly-ish. So they took it off and I was told by a boss (that is in charge of this thing) to stick to my job. This boss literally told me that “officially there are only 3 victims and no one got seriously hurt”. A roundabout way of saying that unless someone gets very seriously hurt, they wont lift a finger. I angrily complied with the “stick to your job” part and started writing the dangerous conditions on paperwork for the machines (which I interpret as “a mistake” on the machine and thus has to be noted). There's 3 machines of this type here, but only one so far squeezed hands.
Until this night, when another student had her hand squeezed on another machine of the same type.
I now have in mind 3 courses of actions:
1. Call an institute for work safety and beg them to come. Problem is they might just say they are understaffed and the factory can cover up the dangerous conditions.
2. Call a lawyer. Problem is that they are expensive here and so far not a lot of victims would want to comply.
3. Call some news broadcaster and hope they cover the story. Same problem as above.
In addition to this, I guess we could start an union, but people are indifferent about it. Also, I'm just a student and not officially employed by the company, but rather thru a student service.
Is there anything I could do (other than quitting and finding another job, trust me, I'm on that) to force the company to get serious about safety? I know that the ideal outcome would be getting that boss fired, but I know he'll cover up his own ass so this is the best I can hope for.