人兽性交

For , it arrived too late. In February of last year, she was working the day shift at an auto parts factory in Cusseta, Alabama, when the machinery malfunctioned. When Elsea鈥檚 team called maintenance, no one showed up. But her team had a quota to meet. 鈥淲e were always trying to make our numbers,鈥� says Elsea鈥檚 coworker, Amber Meadows. Eventually, under pressure, Elsea grabbed a screwdriver and tried to clear the problem herself.

The machine roared to life, and she was impaled with a pair of welding tips. Elsea was unable to move or speak, trapped until an emergency crew finally freed her. She died the next day.

Elsea鈥檚 family, and other workers who suffered serious workplace injuries in factories in the Deep South, told their stories to Peter Waldman, who about the heavy price of Alabama鈥檚 auto boom for Bloomberg Businessweek. This factory growth, he writes, is 鈥渏ust the kind of manufacturing renaissance President Donald Trump and his supporters are looking for 鈥� except that it epitomizes the global economy鈥檚 race to the bottom.鈥澛�

He describes low pay, high turnover, and scant training as part of Southern parts suppliers鈥� scramble to compete against suppliers in Mexico and Asia. 鈥淭he pressure is wreaking a different American carnage than the one Trump conjured at his inauguration: OSHA records document burning flesh, dismembered body parts, a fall into a vat of acid. They read like Upton Sinclair.鈥�

That鈥檚 not too different than what we found in 2013 when the 人兽性交 investigated poultry processing plants in Alabama. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a house of pain in there,鈥� said Kendrick, a deboning worker who was warned he would lose his job if he notified his boss of his injuries.

His injury wasn鈥檛 an exception: Almost three-quarters of the poultry workers we interviewed described suffering a significant work-related injury. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported an injury rate more than for poultry processing workers than in the U.S.

鈥淯nfettered by serious regulation and blessed with a vulnerable workforce,鈥� we wrote in 2013, 鈥渇lawed policy, lack of oversight and weak enforcement has allowed exploitation to thrive.鈥�

It is confounding that against this backdrop of widespread, significant injuries, less than two weeks after Trump promised 鈥渏ustice for the American worker,鈥� Republicans to revoke one of the few federal regulations that punish companies which fail to protect their workers.

Specifically, they voted to revoke the Obama administration鈥檚 executive order, which prevented the federal government from awarding contracts to companies that underpay or discriminate against their workers, or endanger them by violating workplace safety standards.

This week, the Trump administration the measure revoking Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces into law. Now, if a company doesn't protect its employees, its eligibility to receive millions of dollars directly from the U.S. government will be untouched, and vulnerable workers have even fewer protections against discrimination, mistreatment, and the kind of perilous, potentially fatal situations in which companies put Elsea and other workers in the Deep South.

鈥淭hey treat people like interchangeable parts,鈥� a former Huntsville, Alabama, factory manager 奥补濒诲尘补苍.听听

Without the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces order, companies are free to do so while getting rewarded by the federal government.

The Editors

PS. Here are a few more reads worth your time.

• by Stephen Woodman, Religion News Service
• by Sean McElwee and Jason McDaniel, The Nation
• Civil asset forfeiture: Tracking the cash seized by police in a Deep South state where transparency is not required by Will Tucker, 人兽性交
• by Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press

人兽性交鈥檚 Weekend Readings are a weekly summary of the most important news reporting and commentary from around the country on civil rights, economic and racial inequality, and hate and聽extremism. Sign up to receive Weekend Readings every Saturday morning.