Doing work Americans won’t do? Typical of the Washington Compost. I see
people of all races and nationalities doing road work on racist highways
and bridges. If not for timely action by police there would have been
Americans who will do work Americans will and don’t do falling into that
channel. These liberal dumbasses just can’t help themselves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/migrant-workers-baltimore-bridge-collapse/

--
If you are better off today than you were three years ago, you are probably
an illegal alien.

On 3/28/2024 11:49 AM, George.Anthony wrote:
> Doing work Americans won’t do? Typical of the Washington Compost. I see
> people of all races and nationalities doing road work on racist highways
> and bridges. If not for timely action by police there would have been
> Americans who will do work Americans will and don’t do falling into that
> channel. These liberal dumbasses just can’t help themselves.
>
>
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/migrant-workers-baltimore-bridge-collapse/
>

I would have liked to read this story. Can't get past the signing up
thing. Can you copy and paste here what is written?

--
Stand With Israel!

George.Anthony wrote:
> Doing work Americans won’t do? Typical of the Washington Compost. I see
> people of all races and nationalities doing road work on racist highways
> and bridges. If not for timely action by police there would have been
> Americans who will do work Americans will and don’t do falling into that
> channel. These liberal dumbasses just can’t help themselves.

IMLM! IMLM!
ILLEGAL MIGRANT LIVES MATTER
(woke T-shirt)

And it's past time to inspect all bridges - and ships - for systemic
racist tendencies and then hold them accountable.
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/migrant-workers-baltimore-bridge-collapse/
>

--
bill
Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

On 3/28/2024 12:27 PM, sticks wrote:
> On 3/28/2024 11:49 AM, George.Anthony wrote:
>> Doing work Americans won’t do? Typical of the Washington Compost. I see
>> people of all races and nationalities doing road work on racist highways
>> and bridges. If not for timely action by police there would have been
>> Americans who will do work Americans will and don’t do falling into that
>> channel. These liberal dumbasses just can’t help themselves.
>>
>>
>>
>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/migrant-workers-baltimore-bridge-collapse/
>>
>
> I would have liked to read this story.  Can't get past the signing up
> thing.  Can you copy and paste here what is written?
>

Early Tuesday morning, a panicked voice awoke Maritza Guzman de
Villatoro. A bridge in Baltimore had collapsed, her daughter shouted. A
familiar pit soon formed in her stomach.

Last March, a speeding car plowed between highway barriers on the same
Baltimore highway and killed six workers, including Villatoro’s husband
and brother-in-law. That crash along Interstate 695 was about 20 miles
from the bridge. Now, a massive ship stacked with containers had crashed
into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse. Six workers,
all native to Latin America, were lost in the Patapsco River and
presumed dead.
Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter
in your inbox every weekday morning.

One of the victims, Miguel Luna, came from the same area in El Salvador
as Villatoro and her husband, near the southeastern city of Usulutan,
she said.

“We leave with so many dreams,” she said, her voice trembling. “Here,
immigrants have the hardest times and do the hardest jobs, and then
we’re the first to break.”
Skip to end of carousel
Baltimore bridge collapse
Get the latest news on the collapse of a major bridge in Baltimore.
End of carousel

The latest deaths underscore a truth that relatives of victims in both
tragedies say is too often taken for granted — that immigrants are some
of the most vulnerable, least-protected workers in the United States.

While full details about the victims in the bridge collapse have not
been released to the public, they are known to be natives of Mexico,
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Two workers were quickly rescued,
but the search for others was ongoing. Authorities announced Wednesday
they had recovered two bodies, those of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35,
of Baltimore and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md.

Some 130,000 immigrants work in the construction industry in the
Baltimore and Washington regions, making up 39 percent of the workforce,
according to Casa, a Maryland-based Latino and immigration advocacy
organization. Latin Americans are one of the fastest-growing
demographics in the region, surging by 77 percent in Baltimore during
the 2010s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Many who are recent immigrants face the economic hardships that come
with seasonal and temporary work and the threat of immigration
enforcement, all while enduring blazing heat, speeding drivers and the
disdain of those who want to see a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Maynor Suazo Sandoval, among the six bridge workers presumed to be dead,
came to the United States illegally, said his nephew Hector Guardado —
though Suazo Sandoval’s employer said he was working in Baltimore
legally. Suazo Sandoval, Guardado said, was contributing to the economy
in ways many citizens are not willing to.

“The kind of work he did is what people born in the U.S. won’t do,”
Guardado said by phone from Honduras. “People like him travel there with
a dream. They don’t want to break anything or take anything.”

The men were supporting families both in the Baltimore region and in
their home countries, said the Rev. Ako Walker, pastor of Sacred Heart
of Jesus, a Catholic parish in southeastern Baltimore that serves a
largely Hispanic population.

“It’s important to realize that families lost their breadwinners,”
Walker said.

The role of immigrants at the center of the two incidents, separated by
a year and a matter of miles, has already prompted calls from Maryland
leaders and immigrant groups to better protect them — even if it wasn’t
clear how to accomplish that.

“There’s certain occupations where we understand there’s dangers
associated with it,” Gov. Wes Moore (D) said. “For someone filling
potholes, you don’t think that’s one of those professions. It’s
something we have to have a more aggressive approach to.”
Emergency personnel work at the scene of a fatal crash along Interstate
695 on March 22, 2023, near Woodlawn, Md. (Julio Cortez/AP)

But federal data shows that Hispanic workers face disproportionately
high fatality rates, especially in the construction industry.

While foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers made up 8.2 percent of
the U.S. workforce in 2021, they accounted for 14 percent of workplace
deaths, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And these deaths
have been on the rise — from a reported 512 deaths in 2011 to 727 in
2021, the highest on record.

The construction industry is especially dangerous for foreign-born
Hispanic and Latino workers, 274 of whom died in 2021. The group
accounted for 7.9 percent of the industry’s workers but 26.3 percent of
deaths from falls, slips and trips in 2020.

Gustavo Torres, Casa’s executive director, said the repeated tragedies
stressed the need for legislation to better protect vulnerable workers,
though he did not offer specific proposals. Without action, he said,
similar tragedies will keep occurring.

When asked about how immigrant laborers might be better protected,
officials in the Moore administration pointed to legislation they are
proposing to improve safety in highway work zones. Their bill would
improve driver education, increase enforcement of work zone speed limits
and raise fines for motorists who flout them.

But Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D), a former traffic engineer, acknowledged
those policies would not have stopped a ship from hitting a bridge, and
that, somehow, that risk would need to be addressed in future reforms, too.

“We’re going to have to make sure maritime safety is also part of that,”
Miller said.

At the same time, for most workers who are undocumented, worries about
deportation or detention are a lingering concern, according to a recent
national survey by KFF and the Los Angeles Times.

Timothy Young, a spokesman for the Baltimore-based immigration services
nonprofit Global Refuge, said sometimes those in the country without
documentation do not seek medical treatment for fear of being deported.

“You can put your head down, go to work every day, follow the law and
still live with that specter hanging over your head,” Young said.

The bridge workers were full-time employees at Brawner Builders, all
with several years of experience there, said Jeffrey Pritzker, executive
vice president at the Hunt Valley, Md.-based company. They were not
members of a union, and as employees received what Pritzker called “a
substantial benefit package,” declining to provide details. He said
Brawner does not employ any undocumented immigrants.

The company “will ensure that the families of these deceased employees
will be well taken care of,” Pritzker added. He declined to answer
questions about what support or money the company would provide, but
said Brawner would ask the Moore administration to memorialize the men
on a plaque when the bridge is replaced.

As of Wednesday evening, a GoFundMe organized by Latino Racial Justice
Circle, a nonprofit, had raised more than $72,000 for the victim’s
families, surpassing its $60,000 goal.

After the I-695 crash last March, Villatoro said she felt a similar
surge of support. But within weeks, she felt alone. She worries the same
will happen to the bridge workers’ families.

“I hope the community does more to take care of its Hispanic community
and its workers,” Villatoro said, “so that we can do the hard work, but
with more protection and without being left helpless to fate.”

Last year, she said, a cousin of Miguel Luna, one of the bridge victims,
expressed condolences for her husband’s death on Facebook. This week,
she found herself scrolling through her Facebook friends and clicking on
the woman’s profile.

“I wrote her saying I’m sorry, that I know the feeling,” Villatoro said.
And that “sometimes the hardest part is waiting and waiting.”

Teo Armus contributed to this report.

On 3/28/2024 8:08 PM, George Anthony wrote:
> On 3/28/2024 12:27 PM, sticks wrote:
>> On 3/28/2024 11:49 AM, George.Anthony wrote:
>>> Doing work Americans won’t do? Typical of the Washington Compost. I see
>>> people of all races and nationalities doing road work on racist highways
>>> and bridges. If not for timely action by police there would have been
>>> Americans who will do work Americans will and don’t do falling into that
>>> channel. These liberal dumbasses just can’t help themselves.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/migrant-workers-baltimore-bridge-collapse/
>>>
>>
>> I would have liked to read this story.  Can't get past the signing up
>> thing.  Can you copy and paste here what is written?
>>
>
> Early Tuesday morning, a panicked voice awoke Maritza Guzman de
> Villatoro. A bridge in Baltimore had collapsed, her daughter shouted. A
> familiar pit soon formed in her stomach.
>
> Last March, a speeding car plowed between highway barriers on the same
> Baltimore highway and killed six workers, including Villatoro’s husband
> and brother-in-law. That crash along Interstate 695 was about 20 miles
> from the bridge. Now, a massive ship stacked with containers had crashed
> into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse. Six workers,
> all native to Latin America, were lost in the Patapsco River and
> presumed dead.
> Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter
> in your inbox every weekday morning.
>
> One of the victims, Miguel Luna, came from the same area in El Salvador
> as Villatoro and her husband, near the southeastern city of Usulutan,
> she said.
>
> “We leave with so many dreams,” she said, her voice trembling. “Here,
> immigrants have the hardest times and do the hardest jobs, and then
> we’re the first to break.”
> Skip to end of carousel
> Baltimore bridge collapse
> Get the latest news on the collapse of a major bridge in Baltimore.
> End of carousel
>
> The latest deaths underscore a truth that relatives of victims in both
> tragedies say is too often taken for granted — that immigrants are some
> of the most vulnerable, least-protected workers in the United States.

ILLEGAL immigrants might be vulnerable. Legal immigrants really have
the same rights as anyone else, and there are lots of them.

> While full details about the victims in the bridge collapse have not
> been released to the public, they are known to be natives of Mexico,
> Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Two workers were quickly rescued,
> but the search for others was ongoing. Authorities announced Wednesday
> they had recovered two bodies, those of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35,
> of Baltimore and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md.
>
> Some 130,000 immigrants work in the construction industry in the
> Baltimore and Washington regions, making up 39 percent of the workforce,
> according to Casa, a Maryland-based Latino and immigration advocacy
> organization. Latin Americans are one of the fastest-growing
> demographics in the region, surging by 77 percent in Baltimore during
> the 2010s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In my area, there is also a large increase in Latinos in the
construction industry. In Chicago, for example, they've taken over the
drywall sector, replacing a white European workforce. Concrete workers
are very similar. There's a shitload of them, and they stick together.

> Many who are recent immigrants face the economic hardships that come
> with seasonal and temporary work and the threat of immigration
> enforcement, all while enduring blazing heat, speeding drivers and the
> disdain of those who want to see a crackdown on illegal immigration.

I grew up in this industry in the Chicago area. I don't remember
whining about it like this, though.

> Maynor Suazo Sandoval, among the six bridge workers presumed to be dead,
> came to the United States illegally, said his nephew Hector Guardado —
> though Suazo Sandoval’s employer said he was working in Baltimore
> legally. Suazo Sandoval, Guardado said, was contributing to the economy
> in ways many citizens are not willing to.
>
> “The kind of work he did is what people born in the U.S. won’t do,”
> Guardado said by phone from Honduras. “People like him travel there with
> a dream. They don’t want to break anything or take anything.”

I will admit, it is getting harder to find people willing to do physical
labor. The pay is very good, but you have to work. If you have a
supply of people eagerly looking for work, there is little incentive for
going out and recruiting like thy used to do. Personally, I didn't care
what race my employees were, as long as they worked. It is also true to
some extent that "natives" are getting a feeling of entitlement, that
foreigners don't seem to have. Culture rot. First question a white guy
asks is what time is break. I know immediately he probably won't last
long. It's not that white guys can't be found to do the work. It's
that they seem to be becoming more and more incapable of being an
acceptable employee. When you fire them, they have no idea what the
reason could be.

A good example is carrying water on a hot day. Yes, there are
requirements for providing water. Yes, I carried water in my truck for
the men to drink. But when you get ready to work, and you know it's 95
and humid that day, you would think you should carry something to drink
in case you get thirsty. I would always ask the guys who refused to
carry any if they thought they weren't going to get thirsty today just
to see what they would say. Inevitable the answer always was that I was
supposed to provide it. I would then go check on something else and get
back there when I could.

> The men were supporting families both in the Baltimore region and in
> their home countries, said the Rev. Ako Walker, pastor of Sacred Heart
> of Jesus, a Catholic parish in southeastern Baltimore that serves a
> largely Hispanic population.
>
> “It’s important to realize that families lost their breadwinners,”
> Walker said.

Bleeding heart shit. I'm sorry for their loss, and hope they can find
peace and move forward. Making it about race and immigration lessens my
sympathy. But, it's what everyone does now. They were a victim of a
terrible accident, not a victim because of their race or citizenship status.

> The role of immigrants at the center of the two incidents, separated by
> a year and a matter of miles, has already prompted calls from Maryland
> leaders and immigrant groups to better protect them — even if it wasn’t
> clear how to accomplish that.
>
> “There’s certain occupations where we understand there’s dangers
> associated with it,” Gov. Wes Moore (D) said. “For someone filling
> potholes, you don’t think that’s one of those professions. It’s
> something we have to have a more aggressive approach to.”
> Emergency personnel work at the scene of a fatal crash along Interstate
> 695 on March 22, 2023, near Woodlawn, Md. (Julio Cortez/AP)
>
> But federal data shows that Hispanic workers face disproportionately
> high fatality rates, especially in the construction industry.
>
> While foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers made up 8.2 percent of
> the U.S. workforce in 2021, they accounted for 14 percent of workplace
> deaths, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And these deaths
> have been on the rise — from a reported 512 deaths in 2011 to 727 in
> 2021, the highest on record.
>
> The construction industry is especially dangerous for foreign-born
> Hispanic and Latino workers, 274 of whom died in 2021. The group
> accounted for 7.9 percent of the industry’s workers but 26.3 percent of
> deaths from falls, slips and trips in 2020.

Safety should be a consideration with no regard to anything. It is
either safe or not. I have seen many, many accidents over the years.
Some deaths. Almost all of them were caused by something the victim did
that they shouldn't have. Everyone is ultimately responsible for their
own safety.

> Gustavo Torres, Casa’s executive director, said the repeated tragedies
> stressed the need for legislation to better protect vulnerable workers,
> though he did not offer specific proposals. Without action, he said,
> similar tragedies will keep occurring.

I fail to see how this in any way relates to a ship hitting the bridge.

> When asked about how immigrant laborers might be better protected,
> officials in the Moore administration pointed to legislation they are
> proposing to improve safety in highway work zones. Their bill would
> improve driver education, increase enforcement of work zone speed limits
> and raise fines for motorists who flout them.