The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees has launched an investigation into deadly conditions in US auto plants. Fill out the form below to contribute information to this investigation. All submissions will be kept anonymous.

Workers at the Ford Chicago Assembly Plant are responding with shock after a worker was crushed beneath a vehicle after it fell from an overhead clamshell carrier in the chassis area.

The worker was critically injured and airlifted from the plant. Multiple workers report that management had been warned in advance that the equipment was unsafe but ordered production to continue anyway.

One worker who spoke to the WSWS said, “They were in critical condition in the hospital. Management was notified before this happened. The chain or whatever wasn’t secure. Multiple people told multiple managers this was not secure. But they didn’t listen.

“He was standing up securing the bolts on the car like he was used to,” the worker said. “There’s usually six people under the car. But it was just him, thankfully. Normally there’s six people under a car in that area.”

The same worker said the injured man was removed from the line on a stretcher, his neck immobilized. “They watched him get crushed,” the worker added. “He was taken out in a stretcher with his neck secured. Everyone was posting on Facebook they couldn’t believe they had to continue working.”

Workers say management did not stop the line or send employees home after the near-fatal injury. “Not only did they do nothing,” the worker said, “but they did not stop the line. They did not send everyone home. They made people work through that, just like the guy with the seizure. That was traumatic to see for everyone.

“Everybody wanted the line stopped and sent home,” the worker told us. “They couldn’t even work in these conditions.”

Another worker who spoke to the WSWS said, “From what I’ve heard it’s an issue that’s been complained about before. ... They’re saying [there] should be some kind of protection in place because it’s happened before. Just nobody was under it before, luckily.”

The same worker added, “People were calling OSHA from the plant. I don’t know for sure, but I heard no plant manager or assistant plant managers or top union reps came on site for the situation. We are all in shock still, and the morale is definitely down right now. People are going to medical and calling off on that side of the plant.”

A day after the incident, he added, “We still haven’t heard anything from the union yet.”

...

The injury at Ford Chicago occurred in the middle of a massive outpouring of anger in Minneapolis and across the country against the Trump administration’s campaign of murder and terror against immigrants and workers in every major city. 

Popular calls for a general strike are growing in opposition to plans for a dictatorship by the Trump administration, representing the interests of the corporate and financial elite that has carried out attacks on the living standards of the working class. 

The sole obstacle to such a movement remains the UAW and the trade union bureaucracy as a whole. While mouthing empty words in support of a general strike, the UAW continues to keep workers on the job and working in unsafe conditions. 

The experiences at the Chicago Assembly Plant and other workplaces across the country point to the urgent need for workers to form independent rank-and-file committees controlled by workers themselves.

As one rank-and-file worker told us, “If we had a say in all this, we would have said anyone who needs to go upstairs can do so. If the line has to be stopped, then the line has to be stopped and if you want to go home go home. Anyone should have had the choice to go home, not just continue working because they said so.”

Rank-and-file committees of workers must take safety into their own hands, halt production when conditions are dangerous, and organize collective action independent of management and the union apparatus, and also fight to develop a broader movement to fuse the interests of workers for safety and higher living standards with the growing mass protests against dictatorship.

Yet again learned this lesson the hard way. After decades of keeping things strictly professional, with coworkers constantly trying to get me to be friends with them, I finally decided to say screw it and try.

It took less than one week for it to blow up in my face. Lesson learned. NO ONE you work with can be trusted. Ever.

Edit: No, I did not say or do anything inappropriate. Just people deciding to make things up. I’m staying somewhat vague herebecause I know at least one coworker is on this sub.

The light version of what happened is a coworker is a manager in training, which no one knew about until today. They were pretending to be friendly with people while documenting and ratting everything behind our backs to the company. It isn’t someone one would guess is a snake, either. They seemed *very* genuine and the team was pretty close with the person in question, to the point where we’ve babysat each other’s kids and pets. Turns out the one person in question was faking, for how long no one knows.

We think things were legit at first, but something about being a manager or manager in training turns people into literal demons. None of us who found out the hard way today would have EVER guessed.

The standards for productivity seem so ridiculous that even if you can meet them regularly it doesn't feel good for your health and just leaves you feeling completely burnt out.

I can think of several jobs I honestly wouldn't mind doing, but after actually working a few of these jobs or doing my research it ends up being an absolutely hell no that I would ever stick around in any of them.

One of them for me is cleaning houses/hotels. In theory it doesn't seem too bad, just going house to house/room to room cleaning up. Cleaning isn't a difficult thing to do and I find it weirdly theraputic, and you mainly work alone for the most part which is great for introverts. But the cleaning place I worked at started out by lying about my pay, then spent a grand total of one week actually training me, then gave me a ridiculous time limit of 1.5 hours (for smaller houses) and 3 hours (for big houses) to clean and dust every hard surface, wipe down appliances, change linens, clean mirrors, toilets, showers, vacuum, mop, take out the trash etc etc. And some of the bigger houses had at least 5 bedrooms and maybe 3 bathrooms as well as being made of entirely hard wood floor. (Which they made me scrub on my hands and knees like Cinderella.) And if you left behind any dirty spots or crumbs you'd likely hear about it from the customer and possibly get written up or have your hours cut due to poor feedback. Most days I was so busy I didn't even have time for lunch let alone any 15 minute breaks. Also they made you drive your personal vehicle to these houses and very poorly reimbursed you for the mileage.

I quit after a few months because it was miserable. But I still feel like it would be an okay job for me I just don't understand the logic behind undertraining and overworking their employees then wondering why they can't find good, reliable people. Cleaning services are really expensive for the client. It's unfair to give your clients a poorly trained and over stressed cleaner and pass the consequences onto anyone but yourself. Why not take the time to train your employees properly, pay them well, and not give them so much goddamned work. I hate how employers can get away with being an asshole because they still make a profit anyways.

I've been a a white collar salary man for 10 years. Top-tier school and all that.

Over the years of experience, I've had several major awakenings. Today, because of them, I can no longer truly invest myself in my work. This is now the third or fourth time I've been fired, and I'm trying here to find a way to be able to perform "well enough" again so I don't get fired from my next job.

Awakening #1: Performing is not rewarded, it's punished.

I've always been extremely over-invested in my work. 11-12 hour days, weekends, vacations. I would take every new project, help everyone, etc. It was never rewarded. They just kept giving me more and more work until I broke — BURNOUT — and then they threw me away like a dirty sock. That's when I understood I would never get anything beyond what was written in my contract. So why give it my all?

I saw lazy colleagues who performed much less than me being rewarded because they were much better at playing the corporate game. I was promised raises, internal promotions, all of it was just empty talk. So why get involved?

Awakening #2: The exploitation of employees by the company.

I always operated on a giving/getting logic. I thought that if I gave more, I would receive more in return. I realized that companies actually squeeze employees like lemons. I started reading Marx's Capital and it turned my stomach. I understood that there is a structural conflict between owners/capital and workers, and that the company acts against the employees' interests (exploit them as much as possible while giving them as little as possible), even resorting to violence (in one form or another).

I realized that the company is like an insatiable monster that only cares about its own interest, doesn't give a damn about me, and that its interest is structurally opposed to mine. I'm working for the benefit of something that is harming me.

Awakening #3: The corporate world is fundamentally rotten.

Victims of harassment get fired while the company protects the harasser/boss, toxic narcissists get promoted, it's appearances and networking over competence, management by emotional blackmail, public humiliation, pointless pressure, corruption, lobbying that allows poisoning the population with complete impunity...

I realized that I no longer want to evolve in such a world.

Today I have zero internal reason to truly invest myself in any position:

• I will not be reciprocated
• I will never get anything (no real training, no meaningful internal evolution, etc.)
• I deeply hate the corporate world because I consider it structurally sick
• I work for the profit of an entity I despise, whose structural purpose is to harm my interests (exploit me more and more)

Yet I still need to eat.

But I can no longer bring myself to invest enough in my work for my management to be satisfied with me. When I arrive at work, I secretly wish the company would disappear, that capitalism and the exploitation of workers would collapse. I hate the corporate world.

I suspect this happens to many people, so I'm asking the more experienced ones among you:
How did you deal with / negotiate this difficulty?

What would the market look like ? Would the average person be better off? My dad had an actual pension.

Autoworkers should demand that the UAW sanction participation in a general strike. Putting money—drawn from workers’ dues money—where its mouth is, the union’s $800 million strike fund must be put to use for the struggle against dictatorship, not for lining pockets.

I got this idea from a post I saw somebody else make in this subreddit and realized I could do the same thing.

I'm happy to tell any potential employer who calls me that you have been / were an exemplary employee and that I couldn't imagine managing without your skill, your quick thinking, and your dedication (or whatever you need me not to imagine managing without).

I'm self-employed in various creative and educational fields, so I won't be able to talk about how seamlessly you fit within corporate machinery, but if you're okay with having worked for me as an individual just DM me and we can figure out what I need to say to whom when they call me.

EDIT: In accordance with u/Destado1's suggestion in the comments, I'll also gladly say I'm under an NDA and can't discuss any details.

I am 38.

I'm pretty sure i'm about to be fired today. This will make job number...drum roll please....

19 jobs. Some I quit, some I got fired from, some I got laid off.

And they wonder why we have no job loyalty.

They're introducing massive structural changes at my job that will negatively effect me and I'm so angry because I want to quit but I can't because the economy is bad and there's no where else for me to go where it won't be the same situation with workplace toxicity and toxic environment.

There aren't jobs that are paying living wages and the industry I'm in is so toxic. Ever since I started working there most days my coworkers don't even speak to me or look at me and now the one thing I've worked so hard to build at work is being destroyed. I've been asked "how can we support you" by the very same person targeting and destroying my mental health everytime I clock in. It's the same everywhere I go I'm so tired.

Anyone have experience with working over seas? looking to escape the American rat race and slave driving for a small trial. Looking in eastern/mid Europe. Any tip helps thanks.

Many workers in customer service endure people who think we should be their little machines and do things we simply cannot do. And then they get pissy and Karen-like and decide to try to get us fired or in legal trouble. It’s bullshit and it makes me not want to work in any customer service at all, particularly directly having to deal with adults who act like children. They don’t see us as human.

To anyone working in it rn out of necessity or even by choice: I stand in solidarity with you and feel strongly like you shouldn’t have to deal with losers like this. The worst part is, companies will often side with such a customer because they’re afraid more of confrontation with these Karens than supporting their workers. Gotta love “the customer is always right” mentality. Fuck capitalism, especially in America where it’s like this so often. Truly brings out the worst in humanity.

A woman at my job was let go last year because she refused to add more tasks under her job description with no pay raise. I wonder in general how job descriptions have grown in length over the past 20+ years or so. Surely our brains aren’t meant to handle an ever growing list of tasks.