I work at a lumber mill and load logs on a machine for cutting. Some logs weigh three tons or more and when I load them they can rebound and roll off the machine. I loaded a log last week that rolled off the machine and nearly hit one of my coworkers. I've seen this happen over and over again and I've also had logs roll back and nearly hit me. The incident last week terrified me as the guy helping me barely avoided losing both legs or worse and I had to take a break to calm down as I was shaking with fear. Our machine at work is really made for cutting smaller logs and there's better and safer options but they won't upgrade to something that is safer and better at cutting larger logs. I just feel like it's a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt or killed.
I used to work at a gas station and that is also a dangerous job. When I was working there (mid 2005-07) more gas station clerks were killed on duty than police officers in the US but there was no awareness or effort to reduce the inherent dangers of the job because it would have cost the owner money.
So don't tell me that capitalists, business owners and bosses take all the risk. Workers risk life and limb every day to manufacture goods and provide services. While I'm loading three ton logs on a machine made for logs half that size the owners and my boss are sitting in comfortable offices doing nothing. They tell us to do things that aren't safe and have no real idea of how things actually work or what it takes to keep things running.
I have no idea why workers can't at the very least organize for safer conditions. I hear talk about it but nothing ever materializes. Why do we only have two parties in the US and neither of them represents workers? It's BS and it's time to get something going because they don't care about workers and won't spend a dime to make a dangerous job just a little safer. I don't want to die at work and I don't want anyone I'm working with to be killed for a product that is not necessary for anything but the profit of a tiny few. This country is terrible and for decades workers just took it and then acted like suffering at work is honorable. Something has to give or it will only get worse.