I work for Packaging Concepts LTD 25 Wellington Road in Lincoln, Rhode Island. Last evening (December 14, 2007) on our second shift a young man was nearly cut in half by a CNC machine he is currently in the hospital in critical unsatisfactory condition.
After taking this man to the hospital it was found out that he was an illegal alien and totally inexperienced when it came to running this machine.
My heart and prayers are with this man.
This, however, is an incident that could have been avoided if the company had taken steps to insure he was a legal immigrant.
I fear that the fact he was illegal will get buried under the rug and the company will go unscathed from wrong doing.
I am writing this letter in hopes that the immigration department will investigate this incident to keep the same sort of thing from happening again by brining the company into complying with immigration checking.
The prognosis for this young man is not good and there is a good possibility he will die.
I am writing to you to urge you to investigate this matter so that the same horrible incident will not happen again
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this is not the immigration department and your “letter” doesn’t state any direct connection between illegal aliens and workplace accidents.
MY LETTER IS ABOUT A CONFIRMED ILLEGAL ALIEN NEAR DEATH LEG DECAPATATED DISEMBOWELED WHILE RUNNING A CNC MACHINE FOR MY COMPANY WHICH HE WAS NOT QUALIFIED TO RUN.
IF HE DIES THIS WILL BE MURDER IN MY BOOK AS SOMEONE LET THIS MAN SLIP THROUGH THE SYSTEM.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ILLEGALS ARE ALLOWED TO SLIP THROUGH THE SYSTEM BECAUSE SOMEONE IS MORE INTERESTED IN MAKING A DOLLAR THAN OBEYING THE LAW.
THIS MAN MAY ACTUALLY DIE AND BE BURIED WITH A FALSE NAME.
HE HAS NO FAMILY HERE AND NO ONE TO VISIT OR SEE HIM (HE IS NOW IN A COMA)
THERE IS NO WAY THAT THIS WILL EVER BE MADE RIGHT, WHILE EVERYONE STANDS BY AND DOES NOT CARE MY COMPANY IS QUICKLY POO POOING THIS MATTER AND SWEEPING IT UNDER THE RUG AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND WILL GET AWAY WITH THIS UNLESS SOMEONE STEPS IN AND CAREFULLY SCRUTINIZES THIS SITUATION
DENNI
DENNIS on December 18th, 2007 at 5:51 pm | Link
Dennis,
Just out of curiosity, is there a newspaper report or anything on this accident? It seems like something that would have been reported. It would be interesting to see what they are saying about it.
well Yes this company does need to be held accountable for hiring an illegal alien these kind of companies are costing Americans countless millions of dollars. Since this guy is not a citizen of the USA he should not have the rights of a citizen. I kinda saying he got what he deserves when he broke the law coming into this country, then broke the law by working in this country without a work visa.Now he is in a hospital using up taxpayer dollars with injuries caused by his own ignorance. Most compute numeric controlled machines (CNC) are designed to completely be enclosed when operating and will not start until it is closed. Were the guards and safey features of this machine disabled or did the fool crawl into the machine to see if he could use it as a carnival ride.
Break the law suffer the consequnence In colorado we have what is called the Make my Day Law you can shoot to kill anyone who passes the threshold of your door uninvited. You likely would not even stand trial. My point break the law by entering a house with unlawfull intent get shot.
Same with your guy break into a country where you don’t belong, understand very little of the language and suffer the consequences.
You need to take your letter to first Osha, (im sure they are allready involved) and then to INS.
mark on December 18th, 2007 at 11:47 pm | Link
THIS HAS TO BE THE BEST KEPT SECRET I HAVE SEEN NOTHING IN THE NEWS PAPER AT ALL.
IT MAY HAVE BEEN AND I MISSED IT. THE COMPANY IS TRYING ITS DAMDEST TO SWEEP THIS UNDER THE CARPET.
THREE LINE SUPERVISORS KNEW THIS GUY WAS ILLEGAL.
THE WOMAN WHO TAKES CARE OF THE TEMPS KNEW HE WAS ILLEGAL.
THEY TELL ME I WOULD BE SUPRISED HOW MANY ILLEGALS ARE WORKING THE PRODUCTION FLOOR.
I KNOW THAT THEY GUY BROKE THE LAW AND YES HE IS USING UP MY TAX DOLLARS BUT HE IS HUMAN AND THIS SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED TO HIM AND WOULD NOT HAVE IF SOMEONE DID THEIR JOB AND CHECKED BEFORE PASSING HIM THROUGH THE SYSTEM
THEY AMPUTATED HIS LEG YESTERDAY, I CRIED.
DENNIS
DENNIS on December 20th, 2007 at 6:06 pm | Link
Your story sounds a lot like a scene depicted in “Fast Food Nation,” the book by Eric Schlosser.
I certainly have no way to judge if this is authentic. It could be a hoax. It seems fishy that nobody has reported this anywhere but on this website.
Because it is remarkably similar to the story in Fast Food Nation, it makes me suspicious about it.
THIS IS NO FICTIONALIZED STORY.
OSHA HAS BEEN ALL OVER THIS HAS INVESTIGATED AND CLEARED THE COMPANY TO RUN THEIR CNC MACHINE AGAIN. I FEAR THAT NOW THAT THEY HAVE WHAT THEY WANT THAT THIS WILL ALL BE FORGOTTEN.
THIS IS NOT FICTION AND I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE BOOK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT (NOT MUCH TIME TO READ)
I HAVE CONTACTED A FEW PEOPLE BUT I ALSO MUST BE CAREFUL AS MY WIFE AND I STILL WORK THERE AND DO NOT WANT TO LOSE OUR JOBS.
I WROTE THIS AND THE PREVIOUS LETTERS HOPING SOMEONE WILL BELIEVE ME AND STEP IN AND HELP.
SOMEONE DOWN THE LINE LET THIS GUY SLIP THROUGH THE SYSTEM AND ALOT OF PEOPLE WHERE I WORK KNEW HE WAS ILLEGAL BUT NO ONE SAID A THING. EVEN AT THIS POINT IN TIME THE COMPANY ADMITS THAT THE NAME THE GUY WAS USING WAS NOT HIS REAL NAME.
WHEN THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED THE COMPANY HAD NO CONTACT INFO ON THE GUY BECAUSE HE WAS A TEMP, SO THE PLANT MANAGER AND THE PRODUCTION MANAGER GOT ALL OF THEM TOGETHER AND SAID THAT THEY KNEW THAT ALOT OF THE TEMPS WERE NOT USING THERE REAL NAMES BUT THAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO THEM THEY WOULD NEED TO CONTACT SOMEONE SO IF THEY WOULD WRITE DOWN THE NAME THEY ARE USING AAND THEIR REAL NAME THEY SWORE THEY WOULD NOT REVEAL THIS INFO TO THE GOVERNMENT. THE LADY IN CHARGE OF TEMPS THE DAY AFTER THE ACCIDENT ADMITTED THE MAN WAS ILLEGAL, THREE LINE SUPERVISORS KNEW HE WAS ILLEGA, HELL THE GUY WORKING FOR ME KNEW HE WAS ILLEGAL, AND THEY TOLD ME I WOULD BE SUPRISED AT HOW MANY ILLEGALS WE HAD WORKING ON OUR PRODUCTION FLOOR.
(FLASH….UPDATE….
MY WIFE JUST CALLED FROM WORK AND SAID THAT THE INCIDENT HIT THE FRONT PAGE OF THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL AND WAS ON THE NEW LAST NIGHT…FOR ANT DOUBTING THOMAS’S OUT THERE,,,, NOW CAN I GET SOMEONE WHO CAN HELP ME STOP THIS INJUSTICE?
I UNDERSTAND THE MAN WAS NOT SUPPOSE TO BE HERE IN THIS COUNTRY AND I UNDERSTAND HE HAD NO BUSINESS BEING WORKING IN MY COMPANY BUT HE LOST HEIS LEG, HAS NO MANHOOD LEFT HE WAS DISEMBOWELED AND HIS STOMACH WAS EFFECTED Also.
HE IS IN A COMA AND WEATHER OR NOT HE LIVES IS STILL QUESTIONABLE.
HE IS A HUMAN BEING AND AS WRONG AS HE WAS DID NOT DESERVE TO HAVE SUCH A THING HAPPEN TO HIM AND I BELIEVE THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE GUILTY OF HAVING LET THIS HAPPEN AND MANY OF THEM ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS.
IF THIS MAN DIES IT WILL BE MURDER IN MY BOOK AND I HOPE THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE PUNISHED AND THE COWORX TEMP AGENCY AND PACKAGING CONCEPTS LTD ARE MADE EXAMPLES OF FOR OTHER COMPANIES AND FOR OTHER ILLEGALS.
DENNIS
DENNIS on December 22nd, 2007 at 7:05 am | Link
If osha has been on it an cleared the company to run then you can rest assured they are not doing anything wrong! Osha does not play games. Something like this would result in millions of dollars of fines.
You give this story but you give no details except that he is an illegal. The more you talk about this story the more unbelievable it becomes.Com forth with some details and maybe you will gain some credibility.
First I think you will find most Americans have very little sympathy for these invaders.
Second these people can get false documentation to appear legal on the books of companies. And whether he is legal or not really has no bearing on whether the accident could have been prevented.
third as many before have said this is not a the place to get help. go to osha goto ins goto the media.
mark on December 22nd, 2007 at 10:40 am | Link
Thanks to Dennis for reporting this on mybiggestcomplaint.com. The Providence Journal has finally covered this accident and I would bet it was entirely (or mostly) because he was willing to say something here.
Despite what we all think about the illegal immigration issue, this is a tragedy for everyone. Perhaps, we should close this thread.
http://www.projo.com/news/cont.....039d1.html
Worker trapped by machine, severely injured
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Providence Journal
Not really a tragedy for everyone but certainly a tragedy for a criminal and probably for the company.
As for the Providential journal - yeah the article states many previous violations but all in concerns with Methylene Chloride a far cry from improperly protected equipment. I still ask what did this guy do crawl on this machine thinking it would be a cool carnival ride?
And as far as the sources of the Providential journal article fearing immigration? Every step further this story gets the more it smells of an agenda. And yeah sadly as it may seem many agendas have death, dis dismemberment and harm stamped all over them.
mark on December 22nd, 2007 at 5:49 pm | Link
This appeared in the providence journal a couple weeks later:
Condition of injured factory worker upgraded
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 29, 2007
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The condition of Leonardo Cos, a Guatemalan native who lost a leg and buttock after an accident at a Lincoln manufacturing plant on Dec. 14, has been upgraded from critical to serious at Rhode Island Hospital.
Cos, 32, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was working on a second shift at Packaging Concepts Ltd. when he became caught in a machine. Coworkers hit a safety switch and freed him, according to a police report. Rescue personnel took him to Rhode Island Hospital’s emergency room.
Carlos Avila Sandoval, Guatemalan consul general for Rhode Island, said Cos had regained consciousness this week, after apparently being in a coma since the accident.
“He woke up and spoke to us a little bit from time to time,” said Avila.
Avila, who visited Cos yesterday and Thursday, said he does not believe Cos understands the gravity of his injuries. Avila said doctors told him Cos’ leg was amputated because a major artery was severed; Cos also suffered devastating injuries to his lower torso and buttock.
Said Avila, “He’s alert … he’s doing well — I quote ‘well’ — considering what happened to him.”
Avila added: “The role we can play here is to see that those rights that he has as a worker, even though he has no legal papers to stay in the country, are respected.” He said it is also his job to assist any Guatemalan national in this area who needs help, regardless of legal status, particularly if they have no next-of-kin to call on.
Cos’ wife lives in Guatemala. In a recent phone interview through interpreters, the wife said the couple has six children, and they were “very very poor.” She said she is receiving regular updates from his doctors at Rhode Island Hospital.
Two people who spoke to The Journal on condition of anonymity gave different accounts of the accident:
This week, a man with knowledge of the accident said Cos fell forward into the machine, and that his stomach was cut and his leg was severed — or nearly severed.
Earlier, a friend of Cos and former employee of the company, said he learned from eyewitnesses that Cos was pinned face-up onto a steel conveyer-like table, and his stomach was cut by blades pressing down from above. He too, said Cos’ leg was severely injured and an artery was cut.
Both men described the machine as a “CNC,” or a computer-numerically-controlled” machine. They explained that an operator can key in an order placed by a company, and the CNC machine will produce accordingly. The company, at 15 Wellington Rd., manufactures display cases, store fixtures and office furniture, according to corporation records.
A Lincoln police report states that Cos became crushed between a moving portion and stationary portion of a routing machine, and that rescue personnel told the police “that the victim’s injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.”
According to Chief John McCaughey of the Lincoln Rescue department, Cos’ stomach “came in contact with a high-speed mechanism of a machine” during the accident. Cos suffered multiple injuries “to the torso area.” The full report has not been released.
Company officials have declined to discuss the accident. It is now under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration division of the U.S. Department of Labor.
“We are gathering information to determine whether or not there are violations, and that process is still ongoing,” said Ted Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman in Boston. “We’ve been on-site, and we may be back on-site.”
Packaging Concepts Ltd. has been cited for numerous serious OSHA violations since 2002, including for exposing workers to methylene chloride, a potential occupational carcinogen, and for failing to make clear “the techniques to be used to lock or tag out each type of machine.”
John Chavez, also an OSHA spokesman in Boston, was asked whether safety guards and “lock-out tag-out” procedures would prevent a worker from being trapped in a machine.
Chavez said “lock-out tag-out … refers to specific practices and procedures to safeguard employees” from accidental start-up of a machine during service or maintenance. Machine guarding “is a separate issue which would also be looked at as part of an OSHA accident investigation involving a machine.”
On Thursday, company president Leonard Grossman issued a statement expressing “deep concern for Mr. Cos and his family.”
“Our heartfelt best wishes go out to him for recovery from this terrible accident,” Grossman said.
The company is cooperating with OSHA officials in their accident investigation, “therefore it would be inappropriate for the company to comment further about the matter at this time,” Grossman said.
Roland on March 4th, 2008 at 7:35 am | Link
I work for a major hospital and we are seeing a steady increase in the number of illegal (undocumented, as we classify them) aliens hurt on jobs. Mostly Mexicans and South Americans. The employers drop them off at the emergency room then haul ass (keeps them anonymous). These people are amassing LARGE hospital bills that our state will ultimately have to eat. Unfortunately they are our modern day slaves.
I hope the company above is held responsible for the health care cost associated with their negligence.
What baffles me most is that our “too busy to care” citizens are allowing this to go on??????
Ray on April 30th, 2008 at 11:42 pm | Link