Thu
May 26 2011
07:58 am
Man killed on Henley Bridge project was an undocumented worker
By: R. Neal

More details emerge about the tragic accident on the Henley Bridge project that claimed the life of a second worker in four months.

The victim was an undocumented worker from Mexico. His son, also undocumented, was also working on the project when his father was killed. He said he and his father had discussed quitting the job because it was too dangerous. The son also says they and other illegal immigrants had worked on other projects for the contractor.

KNS with the sad story...

Topics:
redmondkr's picture

Thank You KNS

Submitted by redmondkr on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 9:16am.

I have to give my Blind Hog Award to KNS for having the decency to disable comments on that sad news.

They treated the man with the respect he deserved for doing his best to support his family.

R. Neal's picture

They treated the man with the

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 9:25am.

They treated the man with the respect he deserved for doing his best to support his family.

I agree wholeheartedly. And on disabling comments.

Hopefully they will do a follow up on this contractor. Safety violations. Workplace fatalities. And now getting caught hiring undocumented workers. One of whom got killed on their work site. Good luck to the poor guy's family getting justice.

They really ought to be in some deep shit, but given our current wink wink nudge nudge regulatory environment in TN I wouldn't bet on it. A couple of fines and it's business as usual.

Virgil Proudfoot's picture

Straight out of the Woody Guthrie songbook

Submitted by Virgil Proudfoot on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 9:35am.

Is this the best way to repair our big bridges? For profit-driven American companies to exploit hard-working decent Mexicans and other Latinos, their bodies left like dry leaves on the ground?

Maybe our national anthem should be changed to "Deportees."

R. Neal's picture

Exactly, VP. From what I'm

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 10:00am.

Exactly, VP.

From what I'm reading, the poor guy didn't even speak English. So how does a foreman or safety man tell him "hey, clear the deck, there's a crane coming over your head with several tons of concrete." How does he understand what they are being told at safety meetings? Etc. I doubt they have translators.

And bonus, if undocumented workers spot job site hazard, do you think they are going to report them? Not if they don't want to get deported.

P.S. I guess it also helps get the low bid if you're hiring undocumented workers willing to work for lower wages than a local or (heaven forbid) union guy. Wonder if they have W4s for all their workers?

Somebody's picture

Road and bridge projects

Submitted by Somebody on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 1:14pm.

Road and bridge projects usually have federal money in them, which would mean Davis-Bacon wage rates apply. Unless they were paying cash under the table (and if they were, why would they even need his false documents?), this man was probably not working for substandard rates.

Andy Axel's picture

Davis-Bacon schedule in Knox

Submitted by Andy Axel on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 2:43pm.

Davis-Bacon schedule in Knox County for highway work:

(link...)

$7.62/hr for a Group 1 Laborer up to $16.60/hr for electrician work.

Have any idea what his skills classification was?

As long as we're speculating, he was possibly earning $0.37/hr above federal minimum wage, which works out to less than $15,000 annually assuming full time.

(But, of course, no one would dare screw him out of overtime so long as all of his "papers" were in order & whatnot.)

Pam Strickland's picture

Just read the KNS story. Very

Submitted by Pam Strickland on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 1:03pm.

Just read the KNS story. Very touching. Must say it brought a tear. And, hooray for disabling the comments. The commenters over there frequently have trouble with simply humanity.

rocketsquirrel's picture

this is a very interesting

Submitted by rocketsquirrel on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 2:43pm.

this is a very interesting tidbit from a KNS story:

"TDOT officials initially identified Estrada-Jimenez as "Rodolfo Bustillos," but later retracted that statement, saying it was based on incorrect information provided by Britton Bridge.

How do you do that? release a name, and then oops, not him? and the name was released by TDOT.

fischbobber's picture

When I Retire

Submitted by fischbobber on Thu, 2011/05/26 - 8:30pm.

When I retire , hopefully with a pension if the Republicans don't steal it, I'm going to tell the stories and explore the ones like this. It's worse than you think.

lovable liberal's picture

When did it become the social

Submitted by lovable liberal on Sat, 2011/05/28 - 4:21pm.

When did it become the social norm for people to hate anyone different? Didn't we get beyond that? Norms had changed for the good in one small way - it was no longer PC to say n------ any more, so all that hate had to go somewhere else.

Rush Limbaugh and his nasty ilk are the forward artillery spotters for the 101st Chairborne.

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