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He Died Building a Ship for the U.S. Government. His Family Got Nothing. (www.propublica.org)

submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

On the morning of Jan. 22, 2024, Elmer De León Pérez descended deep into the bowels of a ship that he was helping to build in Houma, Louisiana. Pérez was a welder, working to construct one of the U.S. government’s most sophisticated ships, an $89 million vessel for tracking hurricanes and conducting oceanographic research. It was funded by President Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation.

When emergency workers found his body, Pérez was already showing signs of rigor mortis. A coroner’s report would note that he was wearing a red hoodie, plaid pajama pants and brown steel-toed boots, and that a “copious amount of clear fluid was noted to the mouth and nose,” as well as on the sleeve of his shirt. The coroner concluded that Pérez “died as a result of bilateral severe pulmonary consolidation and edema” — fluid in the lungs — and “copper and nickel intoxication.” (The ship, like many, used copper-nickel alloys as a coating because they resist corrosion from salt water.)

But Pérez wasn’t working directly for Thoma-Sea; he was employed by a contractor. So when he died, Thoma-Sea paid nothing. Not to his family, including the partner that survived him. Not to his toddler son. Not even to help send Pérez’s body home to Guatemala. Instead, his family borrowed money and desperately tried to raise the rest online. Family members said they haven’t heard anything from Thoma-Sea since Pérez died.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

Oh yes, this is a good point, make the work visas more available, then everything can be properly documented.

Another idea would be requiring independent contractors to carry their own insurance and provide documentation for it in order to be employed by a company. That way they have life and health benefit coverage, and we don't necessarily have to get rid of the independent contractor category for this type of work.

Then we just have to push the companies to pay higher wages in order to cover the workers' extra cost... which could be done by increasing minimum wage for all work.