Need for job, different view of risk creates dangerous work conditions

Dirty, dangerous and demeaning.

“We call them the ‘three D jobs,’” said Michael Flynn, Cincinnati-based coordinator of the Occupational Health Equity Program with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, who has studied issues affecting Hispanic workers in the United States.

Mr. Flynn’s work incorporates statistics with what he understands about the culture, painting a bleak picture of workplace safety for such non-English-speaking workers.

For example, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of Hispanic construction workers in 2013 were not citizens; and 75% of Mexicans working in the United States surveyed by their government — the Mexican census agency Consejo Nacional de Población — in 2010 reported that they work for companies with fewer than 50 workers. According to data compiled by NIOSH, that means they are less likely to be trained, as the data shows that only 28% of those working with such small firms receive safety training.

“If you are coming across the border undocumented, and facing dehydration and kidnapping, and you come to a job site (where someone) says ‘It’s dangerous to not wear a hardhat,’ it’s different from your view of danger,” he said. “Many have that different view of danger.”

In more than 100 interviews with Spanish-speaking immigrant construction workers, Luz Marin, an assistant professor in the Department of Safety Sciences with Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s College of Health and Human Services in Indiana, Pennsylvania, said immigration status also is a factor in safety training.

“They are afraid to lose their jobs and they don’t want to speak up” about unsafe conditions and hazards on the job, said Ms. Marin. “Fear of retaliation is a big issue, and this is a barrier for Hispanic workers to report. It’s not only losing their jobs, it’s their immigration status” that could be called into question.

Mr. Flynn said such fear leads to silent conformity.

“How do these workers sell themselves? Very hard workers who complain less. Whether it’s economic or immigration pressure, or cultural or political, all of those things put them in a vulnerable situation and encourage them to work hard and complain less.”

The Spanish-speaking population will continue to rise, according to experts.

Between 2008 and 2018, the Latino share of the total U.S. population increased to 18% from 16%, and Latinos accounted for 52% of all U.S. population growth over the period, according to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, which compiles data for policymakers and others.