NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — April 25, 2014 — To improve safety in industries dominated by immigrant workers, a local group will try to recruit city companies to sign a workplace code of conduct.
"We want the fish companies to take measures so there are no more deaths, no more accidents," said Adrian Ventura, director of Centro Comunitario Trabajadores.
The campaign was announced at CCT's Acushnet Avenue office on Thursday, with more than two dozen people present along with state workplace safety advocates. In addition to fish houses, recycling companies and temp agencies also will be approached.
Ventura's organization is collecting testimonies of those injured at SouthCoast companies, where he says unsafe conditions sometimes prevail as employers fail to take responsibility for those injured on the job.
The code of conduct would guarantee that companies will abide by federal and state health and safety regulations, providing training and safety equipment to all employees, CCT said in a news release.
The campaign will play out over the coming months, Ventura said, presented by the workers to their employers.
"I know they will be retaliated against, but it doesn't matter — we need to face this situation," he said.
Jim Kendall, executive director of New Bedford Seafood Consulting, advocates for worker safety in the fishing industry. He said the best way for immigrants to protect themselves is by fixing their immigration status, which can make them vulnerable.
"They're their own worst enemy by being in the positions where they're always going to be taken advantage of," Kendall said.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times