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Antiwork

Woman killed cleaning machine at pizza plant

I worked in sanitation at a food processor decades ago. The job has been popping up in stories a lot lately, most kids as young as 10 working in the wee hours of the morning. The story, though, is about a woman who had her head stuck in a machine that was running while she cleaned it. She was working through a temp agency, but the company she was assigned to not only didn't train her properly, but they didn't train her co-workers to turn the machine off in an emergency. I worked at one company through a staffing service and saw it happen. The one trimmer machine was an accident waiting to happen. First thing they taught the kid working the machine is how to override the safety switch by blocking it open with a 2X4. When the machine would get clogged, the supervisor was supposed to clean the…


I worked in sanitation at a food processor decades ago. The job has been popping up in stories a lot lately, most kids as young as 10 working in the wee hours of the morning. The story, though, is about a woman who had her head stuck in a machine that was running while she cleaned it. She was working through a temp agency, but the company she was assigned to not only didn't train her properly, but they didn't train her co-workers to turn the machine off in an emergency.

I worked at one company through a staffing service and saw it happen. The one trimmer machine was an accident waiting to happen. First thing they taught the kid working the machine is how to override the safety switch by blocking it open with a 2X4. When the machine would get clogged, the supervisor was supposed to clean the clog, and he never shut the machine off. The kid operating the machine decided to clean the clog himself. That switch override? Nah, he never shut the machine off. The roller grabbed him and started pulling him in. I ran around to the other side and kicked the board out, trying to keep the damage to him to a minimum. They basically had to disassemble the machine to release him. He didn't lose his arm, but he wasn't able to work for a long time afterwards.

Workers comp? Nope. Drug test show marijuana in his system. He was smoking pot on his lunch break. I ran into him several months later, and he admitted that to me. No, I didn't get hired full-time. Too bad OSHA never asked me about it.

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