Fayette Janitorial LLC employed 15 children to clean dangerous equipment at a Perdue Farms plant in Virginia and nine to clean a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork plant in Iowa.
Last summer, a 16-year-old migrant was killed at a Mississippi slaughterhouse when he was sucked into a machine that he was cleaning.
Setting aside his age, why was he cleaning it while it was operating in the first place? Like, I’d assume that that isn’t okay and that seems more concerning than whether the guy is 16 or 18.
googles
According to the company, he said that he wasn’t a minor when applying. I’ve got no idea what their ability or responsibility is by way of validating that:
In the company’s release, provided Thursday to USA TODAY, Mar-Jac said “this individual’s age and identity were misrepresented on the paperwork.” The name of the staffing company was not identified.
“Although the investigation is still ongoing, it appears now that this worker is less than 18 years of age and should not have been hired,” the company said. “Mar-Jac MS would never knowingly put any employee, and certainly not a minor, in harm’s way.”
…but age aside, they should be able to tell whether anyone is cleaning a machine while it’s operating.
And it looks like some other people (not minors) also died shortly before that:
In 2020, a 33-year-old was killed after he and another person were “horse-playing with machinery” in the battery-charging room of the facility, Hattiesburg police said at the time. In June 2021, a 48-year-old died after he was injured in an incident involving heavy machinery.
I assume that the company isn’t encouraging horseplay, and I’ve no idea what drove the machinery accident, but that still seems like it’d be getting into the frequency where I’d want to know why people of any age are getting killed.
There’s already locks for cleaning and repairing machinery. You have your own personal lock that cannot be opened by someone else. If there is more than one person working on the machinery, as long as there is one lock still, you cannot start the machine.
It’s a simple process that doesn’t cost much, but it is staggering the place where they don’t have that , or people not putting their lock because it takes time.
Setting aside his age, why was he cleaning it while it was operating in the first place? Like, I’d assume that that isn’t okay and that seems more concerning than whether the guy is 16 or 18.
googles
According to the company, he said that he wasn’t a minor when applying. I’ve got no idea what their ability or responsibility is by way of validating that:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/20/mississippi-mar-jac-poultry-plant-worker-death/70438611007/
…but age aside, they should be able to tell whether anyone is cleaning a machine while it’s operating.
And it looks like some other people (not minors) also died shortly before that:
I assume that the company isn’t encouraging horseplay, and I’ve no idea what drove the machinery accident, but that still seems like it’d be getting into the frequency where I’d want to know why people of any age are getting killed.
There’s already locks for cleaning and repairing machinery. You have your own personal lock that cannot be opened by someone else. If there is more than one person working on the machinery, as long as there is one lock still, you cannot start the machine.
It’s a simple process that doesn’t cost much, but it is staggering the place where they don’t have that , or people not putting their lock because it takes time.
I like your method of inquisition.
Yeah. Seriously. I’m done internetting. Just following this person now.
Needs more burning needles under the fingernails, like all good inquisitions have.