By the time emergency responders arrived, the teenager was already dead. The scene was one of horror and trauma, with visibly shaken workers gathered outside the facility. Tina’s Burritos--a budget frozen food brand which markets its products with the slogan “Made in California”--has issued no public statement on the death of its employee.
That a teenager was sent into a confined industrial machine to clean it without elementary safeguards is a damning indictment of the conditions faced by millions of workers, especially the youngest and most vulnerable. These basic safety procedures have been known for decades. That they were not in place indicates that speed, cost-cutting and disregard for human life took priority. The absence of emergency kill switches, proper LOTO systems, or basic operational oversight suggests not just management negligence, but an entire economic system built on criminal disregard for workers’ lives.
The case at Tina’s Burritos follows a similar pattern as the Esparto fireworks explosion earlier this month, which killed seven workers—many of them young, low-paid laborers. Both incidents occurred in California, which despite its immense wealth and resources ranks second only to Texas in the number of workplace fatalities in the United States.
At the same time, the administration launched a campaign to normalize and expand child labor. Republican-led states across the country, emboldened by Trump’s return to power, have rolled back child labor laws and legalized the employment of minors in hazardous industries. The goal is to prepare young workers early for lives of brutal exploitation. The death of a 19-year-old janitor in a meat processing plant is not an aberration. It is a preview of what this system has in store.
It was in LA. The presence of illegal immigrants, typical in food processing, may have acted as a reason to not report safety issues to the management or OSHA.
A worker reports a safety issue to OSHA, other workers have BPS come after them, the factory closes down and everybody loses their jobs, worker responsible gets fired, or whatever are all reasons why a safety violation would not get reported.