Many of us have horror stories that include all of the above, and all occurring on the same day.
The most memorable one for me was when I was working as a temp for a company that supplied the big 3 automakers with chrome pieces for the vehicles. They will remain nameless as I don't want to end up floating in the toxic waste they crank out by the swimming pool load every day (I've clearly been watching too much of the series "Damages" )
I was a second shift forklift operator on the shipping dock of this company, located "somewhere" in mid-western Michigan. The company often had 5 gallon cans of cyanide and these "mini-kegs" of sulfuric acid stacked on pallets and then stacked top of each other. No, I am not kidding. Not sure what they used it all for, but I believe it was used in the chroming room.
This chroming room had some nasty chemical soups that would have to be disposed of, and they dumped it into a sealed bin that had to be kept closed, as prolonged contact with air would cause it to burst into flames. Niiiicccee.
They also had these big flat open air containers that they would fill to about a foot from the top with chemical sludge waste and about once a month, a truck with a boom lift would come in, pick this massive dumpster up with a crane and load it on the back of a truck. This was accomplished by hooking the crane's lift hook into a set of chains in the center of the dumpster and then just gently lifting and swiveling the mess onto the back of the truck.
Trouble was, the container, even tho it was filled with liquid, wasn't particularly equal in the weight distribution, since some of the waste that was dumped had thick sludge. Because the forklift trucks could only dump on one side and towards one end of the container, it often was heavier on one side and end than the other.So one day I was on duty when the boom-truck arrived to put this bubbling, smoking witches brew monstrosity onto the truck.
As the crane lifted the container, it tilted, spilling about half of the contents onto the floor. The foreman, obviously scared, ordered all of the "temporary" employees to the shipping dock over the loudspeaker. He then gave the 8 or 9 of us stupid enough to show up push brooms and rubber knee boots and instructed us to "sweep it into the floor drain."
One of the guys went down into the soup and began sweeping the muck and within minutes was bright red, gasping for air and came running out of the mess. His boots were smoking and the bristles on the broom were....gone.
The Foreman began yelling at us to "get down there and clean it up," and I told him to "f*ck off," threw the broom down and promptly left the premises. Not sure about the rest of those poor saps, but after seeing those smoking boots and the bristles of that broom turned into slush, there was no way on God's green earth I was going to get anywhere near that shit.
I reported the company to the EPA the following day. Not sure they ever did anything; I drove by that plant often and the hundreds and hundreds of 55-gallon drums of waste chemicals were still stacked outside the dock. The area 1000 feet in any direction around those barrels looked like something out of a post nuclear war landscape, and I often wondered how many people were permanently damaged by the work they did in that factory.
I lost my job at the temporary service for "failing to perform the job assignment."
It's probably why I'm still alive to write this today.
If you've got a story, please share it with the folks at Pro Publica. You could save someone's life, and at the very least, you may make temporary work a little better for those coming after you...
Have You Worked With a Temp Agency? Help Us Investigate
Have you worked with a temp agency as a worker, recruiter, or client company? We’re trying to gain a broad perspective. Do you have any tips about issues or situations we should investigate? We want to hear from you.
Tell us your story below (your information will be kept confidential) or contact reporter Michael Grabell directly at Michael.Grabell@propublica.org.
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¿Ha trabajado con una agencia temp? Ayúdenos a investigar.
Hoy hemos publicado una investigación sobre las agencias de trabajo
temporal en Chicago y el submundo de intermediarios de empleo (conocidos
como “raiteros”) que reclutan y transportan a sus trabajadores. El
reportero Michael Grabell habló con trabajadores temporales que ganaban
menos del sueldo mínimo después de tener que esperar horas sin cobrar y
también pagar tarifas por el transporte al trabajo o para recibir su
cheque de paga.¿Ha trabajado usted con una agencia temp (de trabajo temporal) como trabajador, reclutador o empresa cliente? Estamos intentando conseguir una perspectiva amplia. ¿Tiene usted alguna pista sobre asuntos o situaciones que tendríamos que investigar? Queremos que se ponga en contacto.
Cuéntenos su historia en el espacio debajo (su información será mantenida en la confidencialidad) o contacte directamente con el reportero Michael Grabell a Michael.Grabell@propublica.org.
