Speaker 1: Futuro investigates Investida.
Speaker 2: This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and
Speaker 2: Kurturre Latino US Latin Latino USA.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa.
Speaker 2: We bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered
Speaker 2: to you, overlooked by the rest of the media, and
Speaker 2: while the country is struggling to deal with these, we
Speaker 2: listen to the stories of Black and Latino.
Speaker 1: Studios United Latino Front.
Speaker 2: A cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria ino Jossa Noaan.
Speaker 2: When powerful hurricanes, wildfires, or floods destroyed communities across the
Speaker 2: United States, scores of workers emerge from around the country
Speaker 2: ready to clear and rebuild. And dear listener, you might
Speaker 2: not know this, but it is in fact Latino immigrants
Speaker 2: who are the ones more than likely to perform the
Speaker 2: hardest cleaning tasks after natural disasters. In the process, though,
Speaker 2: they're also unknowingly exposed to harmful toxins, toxins that can
Speaker 2: make them sick years after finishing the job. La camo,
Speaker 2: that's Mariano, an undocumented immigrant from Ponduras. He said his
Speaker 2: dry throat hurts and he's always coughing sometimes to the
Speaker 2: point of triggering an asthma attack. Mariano is fifty years old.
Speaker 2: We're not going to reveal his last name in order
Speaker 2: to protect his identity. He was repeatedly exposed to mold
Speaker 2: when he cleared debris from nine her Kanes in Louisiana
Speaker 2: and Florida, and dear listener, mold can contribute to pulmonary
Speaker 2: disease and also to asthma. Still, Mariano says the labor
Speaker 2: contractors hiring him over the years did not provide something
Speaker 2: as basic as a proper mask or any other kind
Speaker 2: of protection or training that could have minimized exposure. Mariano
Speaker 2: was exposed to three of the most common toxins in
Speaker 2: post disaster work sites, asbestos, lead, and mold. While lead
Speaker 2: and asbestos are regulated by the federal government, those standards
Speaker 2: are generally not enforced in the wake of a disaster,
Speaker 2: and mold, which is ubiquitous after hurricanes, is not regulated
Speaker 2: at all. Mariano said his only resource was to put
Speaker 2: himself in God's hands, and while the industry Mariano joined
Speaker 2: almost twenty years ago keeps expanding, no one is tracking
Speaker 2: how exposure from disaster to disaster impacts workers' health, at
Speaker 2: least not until now. From Futuro Media and PRX It's
Speaker 2: Latino USA. I'm Maria no Josa Today Toxic Labor, a
Speaker 2: first of its kind investigation into how prolonged exposure to
Speaker 2: toxins affects the health of workers who rebuild American cities
Speaker 2: after natural disasters. This is a special episode by our
Speaker 2: own Futuro Investigates, in collaboration with the Center for Public
Speaker 2: Integrity and Columbia Journalism Investigations. We'll tell you why immigrant
Speaker 2: workers man reconstruction sites are left to fend for themselves
Speaker 2: while their labor fuels a booming and loosely regulated industry
Speaker 2: that neglects them. We're going to start today in New Orleans,
Speaker 2: home base to many restoration workers since Hurricane Katrina ravaged
Speaker 2: the city in two thousand and five. Our investigation was
Speaker 2: kicked off over a year ago by a team of
Speaker 2: fellows from Columbia Journalism Investigations. They were focusing on climate change.
Speaker 2: Then investigative reporter marines A. Mulio with the Center for
Speaker 2: Public Integrity joined the effort, and the entire team traveled
Speaker 2: to Fort Myers, Florida and New Orleans last year. Now,
Speaker 2: Marinez is with me in the studio to talk about
Speaker 2: this reporting. Ola Marinez, Hi, Maria. So your team traveled
Speaker 2: to these places that have been pretty much devastated by hurricanes,
Speaker 2: and what you find is, in many ways, Frank, what
Speaker 2: I saw myself almost twenty years ago when I went
Speaker 2: to New Orleans as a television correspondent for PBS after
Speaker 2: Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 1: My house is underwater.
Speaker 3: I have me and my husband, a three year old
Speaker 3: and a newborn.
Speaker 1: So we're done week.
Speaker 3: I know where to go nowhere.
Speaker 1: I go up homelows.
Speaker 3: That's all I had.
Speaker 1: That's all I had.
Speaker 3: So we wanted to see if and how workers doing
Speaker 3: the hardest job cleaning up after major destruction have access
Speaker 3: to training and protective equipment that could limit their exposure
Speaker 3: to toxins that can make them sick. Maria, these workers
Speaker 3: are still neglected. We learned that when we went to
Speaker 3: New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Hey day, we're not.
Speaker 3: It's a sunny spring day in March, and a few
Speaker 3: men are playing dice in the parking lot of a
Speaker 3: home improvement store. It's only eleven am, but the men
Speaker 3: still here. They would likely not find work today. That's
Speaker 3: because employers usually pick up laborers by sunrise for a
Speaker 3: full day's work. I'm here with a colleague to interview
Speaker 3: workers and document talks and exposure over time. We want
Speaker 3: to ask them about their access to training and protective equipment,
Speaker 3: because those safety measures can lessen their risk. Already, not
Speaker 3: far from the men playing dice, I meet Roberto, a
Speaker 3: forty seven year old immigrant from Honduras. He is piercing
Speaker 3: black eyes hidden behind a baseball cap. His muscles are
Speaker 3: outlined in the long sleeved shirt he's wearing on this
Speaker 3: hot day to protect himself from the sun. Unlike other
Speaker 3: workers around him, hesitant to talk with me, Roberto proudly
Speaker 3: tells me how he helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina
Speaker 3: in two thousand and five. He was exposed to asbestos
Speaker 3: multiple times while demolishing structures.
Speaker 4: Meet personas Blancas, La Guia Americana, Guillavess, B Cortino, and
Speaker 4: Slippery and Amantras.
Speaker 3: While cleaning up after Katrina, Roberto says his boss ordered
Speaker 3: him to bag debris filled with asbestos without protection. He
Speaker 3: told me he suspected it was dangerous when he saw
Speaker 3: American workers and Katrina volunteers wearing white hazmat suits and
Speaker 3: masks to do the same job as an undocumented immigrant.
Speaker 3: He said he felt he couldn't demand protective equipment to
Speaker 3: limit talks and exposure. Dozens of workers told me the same.
Speaker 2: After major disasters. Newly arrived immigrants like Roberto are lured
Speaker 2: by the promise of a job that pays over a
Speaker 2: minimum wage and also offers perks like overtime pay and transportation.
Speaker 2: And because of climate change, this industry is actually booming.
Speaker 2: It moves one hundred and fifty billion dollars every single year.
Speaker 1: Just in the last four years, there have been at.
Speaker 2: Least eighty one major storms, floods, and wildfires across the US.
Speaker 2: These have cost nearly one thousand deaths and left at
Speaker 2: least five hundred billion dollars in damages.
Speaker 5: While the forecasters say that Hurricane Laura, which has made
Speaker 5: land in Texas and Louisiana from the Gulf of Mexico,
Speaker 5: could cause a storm.
Speaker 6: Search Hurricane Ida making landfall in south east Louisiana as
Speaker 6: a powerful Category four st war treacherous night ahead for
Speaker 6: Florida as darkness begins to fall and Hurricane Ian continues
Speaker 6: its catastrophic rampage.
Speaker 2: While restoration efforts from these disasters employ more and more
Speaker 2: Latino immigrants to clean and rebuild. There is no federal
Speaker 2: or state data available that tracks how many of these
Speaker 2: workers get sick, and there's no government aid agency or
Speaker 2: advocacy organization that has studied how prolonged exposure to toxins
Speaker 2: from cleaning disaster after disaster could impact a worker's health.
Speaker 3: So the team from Columbia Journalism Investigations and I spent
Speaker 3: months reporting on this unprotected workforce, interviewing dozens of workers
Speaker 3: and digging through hundreds of pages of documents. Since there
Speaker 3: was no data, we had to build our own to
Speaker 3: understand the scope of the problem. We methodically documented workers'
Speaker 3: experiences mariat. Their stories were difficult to hear.
Speaker 2: And you know, Tokayah, I know exactly what you mean,
Speaker 2: because back in two thousand and five, when Katrina happened,
Speaker 2: I reported on the huge immigrant labor force that was
Speaker 2: suddenly brought into New Orleans, and it was a similar
Speaker 2: story of these workers not being protected. I mean, I
Speaker 2: remember vividly seeing scores of Latino men cleaning up the debris,
Speaker 2: and not once in all of the time that I
Speaker 2: was reporting in New Orleans. Did I see any of
Speaker 2: them wearing any kind of protective gear? And I specifically
Speaker 2: remember talking to one worker from Nicaragua. He took me
Speaker 2: to where he was staying at the end of a
Speaker 2: very long work day, and he showed me this really
Speaker 2: beat up bible where he kept his most prized possession,
Speaker 2: which were the photos of his kids. And I remember
Speaker 2: him looking at this and crying and describing how looking
Speaker 2: at these pictures allowed him to get through what he
Speaker 2: described as hell on earth.
Speaker 1: Hm.
Speaker 3: He sounds like Marino, the worker we heard at the
Speaker 3: top of the show. When I asked him if he
Speaker 3: received training or had access to protective equipment that could
Speaker 3: have helped minimize exposure to dangerous toxins, he said a
Speaker 3: prayer was his only protection. The reality, Maria, is that
Speaker 3: these workers are just as vulnerable now as they were
Speaker 3: almost twenty years ago when you first reported on the issue.
Speaker 1: Which is not the way it's supposed to go.
Speaker 2: When journalists, investigative journalists uncover a problem, a labor abuse,
Speaker 2: it's supposed to get better. So the fact that after
Speaker 2: twenty years we're basically telling the same story is incredibly problematic.
Speaker 2: And when we come back we're going to hear from
Speaker 2: Mariano again. He's going to tell us how cleaning hurricane
Speaker 2: after hurricane has taken a toll.
Speaker 1: On his body.
Speaker 2: Stay with us, Yes, Hey, we're back, dear listener, and
Speaker 2: we're taking a closer look at how workers' health is
Speaker 2: impacted from tocsin exposure during natural disaster cleanup.
Speaker 1: In the comfort of his home.
Speaker 2: Now, Mariano, the immigrant that we heard from earlier, shared
Speaker 2: in detail his experiences working in this cleanup industry for
Speaker 2: almost twenty years. And you were there with him, Marinez.
Speaker 3: Yes, Maria. We arrived at Mariano's home on a Thursday
Speaker 3: evening in March of twenty twenty three. It's a single
Speaker 3: story house about five miles from downtown New Orleans. Similar
Speaker 3: structures are squeezed in together, lined along the block, with
Speaker 3: a small patch of grass by the front door. We
Speaker 3: walk in through the small living room with a black couch,
Speaker 3: yellow pillows, and a multicolored lamp. The word home is
Speaker 3: spelled on the wall. The O is replaced with a
Speaker 3: green wreath. Offers us something to drink as we sit
Speaker 3: around the small kitchen table next to the refrigerator. At
Speaker 3: just five feet he stands strong. He moves his large
Speaker 3: hands when he speaks to emphasize something important. He wears
Speaker 3: his black hair and a tapered bus cut, revealing his
Speaker 3: car in the back of his head. It's an unwanted
Speaker 3: souvenir from a fall off a roof while he was
Speaker 3: working after Hurricane Michael in twenty eighteen. The contractor that
Speaker 3: hired him didn't give him a safety harness. When I
Speaker 3: ask Mariano how many hurricanes his helped clean, he gives
Speaker 3: me a long list.
Speaker 7: Okay in the Matthew in the Harvey, Harvey I I
Speaker 7: in Florence, Flora.
Speaker 3: Mariano invites his older brother Santos to join our conversation Wela.
Speaker 3: The brothers work together for most of the time. Those
Speaker 3: checks the long list too. Thendala yea, He's cleared debris
Speaker 3: from ten hurricanes. Santos is a sixty year old father
Speaker 3: of six. He's a few inches taller than his brother. Today,
Speaker 3: he wears a baseball cap that covers his gray hair.
Speaker 3: He's an avid soccer player with a round belly. The
Speaker 3: brothers had been living in Dallas when they decided to
Speaker 3: seek work after Katrina. They arrived in New Orleans in
Speaker 3: a greyhound bus with just a backpack and a sleeping
Speaker 3: bag they used to keep warm while sleeping in a
Speaker 3: city park. A week after arriving, they were hired and
Speaker 3: housed at a downtown hotel. There was plenty of work.
Speaker 3: Hurricane Katrina damaged and estimated one hundred and thirty four
Speaker 3: thousand and homes in New Orleans alone. Santo still remembers
Speaker 3: the stench, a rancid mixture of mold and dead bodies.
Speaker 3: He even made up his own ward in Spanish to describe.
Speaker 7: It maloloro apistosidad stinkiness.
Speaker 3: The stench forced them to throw away his donated clothes
Speaker 3: every day. He remembers the unsettling destruction and long hours
Speaker 3: of grueling work and limited access to food. He said
Speaker 3: that labor contractors that hired him and his brother did
Speaker 3: not teach them how to properly protect themselves from repeatedly
Speaker 3: being exposed to asbestos, lead, and mold again among the
Speaker 3: most common kinds of toxins found in post disaster sites.
Speaker 3: Government research shows that exposure to even small doses of
Speaker 3: asbestos can cause mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer, and
Speaker 3: chronic exposure to lead can cause reproductive issues, kidney problems
Speaker 3: and seizures, while mold can contribute to pulmonary disease and asthma,
Speaker 3: and so we needed to verify the exposure. We asked
Speaker 3: Santos and Mariano to share information regarding places they've worked
Speaker 3: and medical records.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yon.
Speaker 1: Plancha. It took me.
Speaker 3: Months of calls and voice messages before I could truly
Speaker 3: understand the dire conditions the brothers faced. One day, Santo
Speaker 3: sent me a video of an abandoned house in New
Speaker 3: Orleans he was about to demolish to show me the
Speaker 3: growing mold.
Speaker 2: You don't know.
Speaker 3: The video was just under two minutes. I repeatedly paused
Speaker 3: to process what I was watching. I could see the
Speaker 3: growing mold all over the walls. It made me concern
Speaker 3: for the brothers. I remember meeting Santos in person and
Speaker 3: immediately noticing his breathing problems. He has constant asthma attacks,
Speaker 3: and he has adopted a nightly ritual of deavin vapor
Speaker 3: ub under his nose to help suothe the cough. Twenty
Speaker 3: minutes into our conversation, when we were talking about access
Speaker 3: to healthcare, he told me he only has access to
Speaker 3: a community clinic, staph by volunteers. We were forced to
Speaker 3: take a break after he started coughing.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: Dear listener, there is no federal or state data to
Speaker 2: show how many disaster restoration workers get sick every year,
Speaker 2: but Marinez and her team were able to document for
Speaker 2: the first time that the brothers symptoms after a prolonged
Speaker 2: exposure to toxins were not unique, right, Marines.
Speaker 3: Yes, and we did that with the help of a
Speaker 3: unique questionnaire our team created. It was with the guidance
Speaker 3: from occupational health and safety specialists, environmental researchers, and other
Speaker 3: academic experts. We wanted to quantify exposure over time and
Speaker 3: symptoms associated with asbestos, lead.
Speaker 7: And moldsinas angos, amiato, estos, ot to.
Speaker 4: Mo and peace more fabartament generally.
Speaker 1: The more.
Speaker 2: That was mariaes in the middle of an interview with workers,
Speaker 2: asking them whether they've been exposed to toxins, and each
Speaker 2: of them answering yes and yes. You also heard a
Speaker 2: female voice there, because there are women who are doing
Speaker 2: this hard work too. They are not as many as men,
Speaker 2: but they are definitely part of this growing labor force.
Speaker 2: So this is the first time that workers prolonged toxin
Speaker 2: exposure and associated health symptoms are being documented in this way, Marianez,
Speaker 2: Let's share with our listeners the findings that you came
Speaker 2: up with, Maria.
Speaker 3: We interviewed one hundred Latino disaster restoration workers in Florida, Louisiana,
Speaker 3: and Texas. We asked them about toxin exposure, access to
Speaker 3: personal protective equipment, and training, and a let me give
Speaker 3: you a detailed breakdown, Maria. Seventy two workers reported being
Speaker 3: exposed to mold, fifty two said they were exposed to asbestos,
Speaker 3: and forty eight told us they were exposed to lead.
Speaker 3: Most workers experience health symptoms toxicologists say can be linked
Speaker 3: to those toxins, including skin and eye irritations, respiratory problems, headaches,
Speaker 3: and others developed chronic illnesses like asthma and vision.
Speaker 7: Loss Alsium capa identifica toxinus.
Speaker 2: So with these numbers, you actually now have some hard
Speaker 2: data that's documenting this reality that we've been reporting on
Speaker 2: for decades.
Speaker 3: Now, that's right, Maria. In the case of Santos and Mariano,
Speaker 3: nearly twenty years of chasing work after hurricanes, it's taking
Speaker 3: a toll on their bodies. The brothers not only have
Speaker 3: ongoing breathing problems. They also have been hospitalized following work accidents.
Speaker 3: One such accident left Santos temporarily blind, while another left
Speaker 3: Mariano in a coma for multiple days after he fell
Speaker 3: off a roof in Panama City, Florida. But still it's
Speaker 3: probably their respiratory issues that indicate the most enduring health effects.
Speaker 3: When working after Katrina, Santos lived with hundreds of workers
Speaker 3: housed in rows of triple bunk beds in close proximity.
Speaker 3: He noticed a striking cough trend. Yeah. Santos recalls workers
Speaker 3: lining up to shower as early as two am and
Speaker 3: hearing coffin and unison. He described it as quote an
Speaker 3: orchestra of roosters and chickens.
Speaker 4: No, no, hi, HESSI.
Speaker 1: You know Marinez.
Speaker 2: Years later, researchers did come up with a different name
Speaker 2: for it. In fact, they called it katrinakof, referring to
Speaker 2: bouts of sinociitis and inflamed lungs. And it's all documented
Speaker 2: in a study of almost eight hundred New Orleans area
Speaker 2: workers surveyed between two thousand and seven and twenty ten,
Speaker 2: This by researchers from two lane schools of medicine and
Speaker 2: public health and tropical medicine.
Speaker 1: So, dear listener, you might.
Speaker 2: Be saying, isn't there a federal agency responsible for making
Speaker 2: sure that workers are protected and well? The answer is yes,
Speaker 2: it's the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA that
Speaker 2: is supposed to do just that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: After Katrina, the costliest storm in US history, OSHA used
Speaker 2: a new approach for monitoring post disaster work sites.
Speaker 1: It was first created as.
Speaker 2: An emergency response to the cleanup efforts from the nine
Speaker 2: to eleven attacks, and it meant suspending enforcement of workplace
Speaker 2: standards after disasters. Yes, suspending enforcement of workplace standards after disasters,
Speaker 2: and instead they usually only are now handing out advice
Speaker 2: on quick ways to fix health and safety hazards solutions.
Speaker 2: In fact, that might prove insufficient, right.
Speaker 3: My dear, But only two years after Katrina, experts from
Speaker 3: UCLA warned that this approach left Latino workers and I
Speaker 3: quote unprotected. Their studies showed barriers like language and legal
Speaker 3: status left workers unable to negotiate workplace safety.
Speaker 2: And the study also warned that the negative impact of
Speaker 2: OSHA's policies on workers' health could be quote duplicated throughout
Speaker 2: the country unquote, without rigorous over.
Speaker 3: And yet after months of digging, our team found that
Speaker 3: OSHA continues to implement this same post Katrina policy that
Speaker 3: favors fast recovery over worker safety, ignoring years of federal
Speaker 3: research on workplace safeguards.
Speaker 2: And in an internal OSHA report, the agency argued that
Speaker 2: just giving advice to employers would in fact address dangerous
Speaker 2: hazards while avoiding the long bureaucratic process of issuing a
Speaker 2: formal citation. But the reality is that without enforcing existing
Speaker 2: labor standards, there are no other ways to pressure contractors
Speaker 2: to fix those health and safety hazards. So to get
Speaker 2: a sense of how the policy is implemented on the ground,
Speaker 2: we spoke with an OSHA employee who has visited hundreds
Speaker 2: of post disaster work sites since Katrina. We're gonna call
Speaker 2: him Brian, and we're protecting his identity because he's not
Speaker 2: allowed to speak with the media. Brian described a work
Speaker 2: site in New Orleans where none of the workers had
Speaker 2: the protective equipment that they needed.
Speaker 6: When we talked to them, the owner told us he
Speaker 6: yelled at us, you're going to screw the recovery. We
Speaker 6: cannot comply with OSHER because it takes too much time
Speaker 6: and costs too much money.
Speaker 2: That is not Brian's real voice. One of our colleagues
Speaker 2: at Latin USA has recorded his answers just as he
Speaker 2: said them to us. Brian told us that he and
Speaker 2: his colleagues face hostility from contractors. One time, one called
Speaker 2: a colleague of Brian's quote an ignorant broad Still, there's
Speaker 2: little that they can do in response. Once, when a
Speaker 2: contractor refused to provide protective equipment, Brian says, he thought
Speaker 2: to himself.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, if this was an enforcement inspection, every
Speaker 6: one of the hazards that we're finding would be a
Speaker 6: wilful violation because the man is saying he's refusing to
Speaker 6: comply with OSHA. He knows what the regulations are and
Speaker 6: he's refusing to comply.
Speaker 2: Listening to Brian, I had to ask, do you think
Speaker 2: you're able to do your job regarding a disaster if
Speaker 2: you don't have that enforcement tool to literally force employers
Speaker 2: to keep their workers safe.
Speaker 6: It's frustrating. Sometimes it's frustrating because we talk to them
Speaker 6: and we give them information, and when we leave, we're
Speaker 6: wondering if they're going to comply or they're just going
Speaker 6: to ignore it.
Speaker 3: Maria, what Brian told you echoes what our team found.
Speaker 3: Nailing down OSHA's approach to monitoring post disaster work sites
Speaker 3: was difficult, but once we did it, with the help
Speaker 3: of public records, we were able to analyze how it
Speaker 3: was implemented on the ground. Powerful Hurricane Ian gave us
Speaker 3: that opportunity. Ian devastated southwest Florida in September twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: and it was the most recent disaster during our reporting.
Speaker 3: We reviewed reports and found that Ocean inspectors often spend
Speaker 3: only about fifteen minutes in each of the hundreds of
Speaker 3: work sites they visited. While inspectors did flag hazards like
Speaker 3: roofing without a harness, all they did was handout information
Speaker 3: material and they did most of the inspections from outside
Speaker 3: the structures. They rarely went inside to review the work practices.
Speaker 1: So they go and hand on information.
Speaker 2: And what happens to the companies that received this quote
Speaker 2: unquote advice or guidance from these Ocean inspectors.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a difficult question to answer. The agency has
Speaker 3: poor record keeping, It doesn't track activities related to its
Speaker 3: post disaster policy. Or companies violations across disasters, and it
Speaker 3: is so important, Maria to have those records because it
Speaker 3: can help spot potential troubled companies.
Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, no matter what
Speaker 2: guidance Oshaw offers, the guidance only works if the employer
Speaker 2: is deemed responsible for keeping workers safe. So we're going
Speaker 2: to meet the person who created OSHA's post disaster policy.
Speaker 2: Our team interviewed John Henshaw, who wrote the guidance during
Speaker 2: the George W. Bush administration when he was the Department
Speaker 2: of Labour's assistant secretary.
Speaker 3: That's right, Mada. We visited him last March in his
Speaker 3: Sanobel Island office in Florida. Hi, Maria and I see you.
Speaker 8: Good to meet you.
Speaker 3: Thanks for our team connected with Hanshaw and his current
Speaker 3: role as Senebel Island City council member. We spoke just
Speaker 3: months after Hurricane Ian devastated his community in September twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two. When Henshaw welcomed us into his office, I
Speaker 3: noticed the conference room's walls covered in nine to eleven
Speaker 3: photos and memorabilia. He spoke about the nine to eleven
Speaker 3: cleanup in detail, as the terrorist attacks set the tone
Speaker 3: for a new federal approach post disasters. He enthusiastically shared
Speaker 3: his praise and respect for first responders.
Speaker 8: We were fortunate that we were working together on the
Speaker 8: same issue. Protect the workers, make sure we don't lose
Speaker 8: another life, rescue as many people as we can, and
Speaker 8: recover as quickly as we can, So everybody was on
Speaker 8: the same page.
Speaker 3: Then he offered a different perspective on the workers cleaning
Speaker 3: and rebuilding his wealthy island.
Speaker 8: Oftentimes you have unskilled people, and many of them, and
Speaker 8: I'm sure we had a good number here recent immigrants
Speaker 8: who have a different risk tolerance than maybe we have
Speaker 8: in the United States.
Speaker 2: This is a statement that is just hard to hear,
Speaker 2: to say that just because they're immigrants, they're recent immigrants,
Speaker 2: they have a different risk tolerance. I think everybody wants
Speaker 2: to work in safe conditions and be alive at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, right.
Speaker 3: Mighty yat yes. And he also downplayed the skills and
Speaker 3: needed to clean and rebuild.
Speaker 8: Just not a skilled labor. It's really just knocking down
Speaker 8: drywall and pulling it out and hauling off to the curve.
Speaker 8: So it's more of a labor kind of laborer's kind
Speaker 8: of work. As opposed to any kind of skill.
Speaker 3: When we asked him about hurricane recovery efforts, this is
Speaker 3: what he said, I.
Speaker 8: Put myself in the employer's shoes, the employers talking to
Speaker 8: the to the homeowner's Where the pressure is, Ohshad, It
Speaker 8: should be holding the employer accountable for doing it, doing
Speaker 8: what they need to do, do it right now. The
Speaker 8: employer is saying I got to deal with my client
Speaker 8: and they're putting pressure on me to get it done.
Speaker 2: What about putting yourself in the shoes of the workers.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's frankly shocking to hear the former assistant
Speaker 2: Secretary of Labor for OSHA speaking like this about who
Speaker 2: matters most workers or employers.
Speaker 3: We also reached out to the current OSHA leadership multiple
Speaker 3: times we shared our findings, but the agency declined to
Speaker 3: make Assistant Secretary Douglas Parker available for an interview. Instead,
Speaker 3: they provided a written statement stressing that quote, employers have
Speaker 3: the responsibility to protect workers from deadly hazards such as mold, asbestos,
Speaker 3: and lead. Ultimately, though OSHA defenses pol let's.
Speaker 2: See a policy that, as we just heard earlier from Brian,
Speaker 2: our source at OSHA, a policy that employers basically sometimes
Speaker 2: just ignore, leaving workers like brothers Mariano and Santos again
Speaker 2: unsafe and unprotected. So, dear listener, as we're unpacking this huge,
Speaker 2: multi billion dollar disaster recovery industry, you might be wondering
Speaker 2: about how companies hire workers but avoid having to provide
Speaker 2: let's say, training and protective equipment. Who's trying to solve
Speaker 2: this problem? In fact, and who is profiting? That's coming
Speaker 2: up after the break, stay with us, not Bayes. Hey,
Speaker 2: dear listener, welcome back. And before the break, we heard
Speaker 2: about how OSHA, the government agency tasked with protecting workers,
Speaker 2: often suspends the enforcement of labor standards after disasters hit.
Speaker 2: The agency offers employers guidance onhealth and safety hazards, rarely
Speaker 2: issuing citations, just offering advice. This ultimately leaves workers unprotected
Speaker 2: and exposed to harmful toxins that can make them sick.
Speaker 2: But where do the workers doing this toxic labor come from?
Speaker 2: That supply chain is more complicated than just employers and workers.
Speaker 2: In fact, most workers are hired by labor brokers that
Speaker 2: provide the manpower for companies receiving those lucrative cleaning contracts.
Speaker 2: And ultimately letting those companies off the hook because of
Speaker 2: those brokers, which leaves immigrants like Mariano and Santos unprotected
Speaker 2: and vulnerable.
Speaker 3: That's right, Maria and Santos told me that he kept
Speaker 3: working even after he felt sick. Within two years of
Speaker 3: grueling work demolishing moldy structures and being exposed to asbestos
Speaker 3: and led, he needed an inhaler for the first time
Speaker 3: in his life.
Speaker 4: Yemerguerdo yang is aima reguerdo.
Speaker 3: He remembers the year well. It was two thousand and seven,
Speaker 3: the same year his mother died thousands of miles away
Speaker 3: in Hondudas. Cleaning after hurricanes became Santo's livelihood in the US,
Speaker 3: but he was familiar with their destruction long before. It
Speaker 3: was the wrath of Hurricane Mitch that forced them to
Speaker 3: migrate to the United States.
Speaker 5: In late October nineteen ninety eight, a tropical storm in
Speaker 5: the Southwest Caribbean suddenly intensified into one of the strongest
Speaker 5: hurricanes this century. A meteorologists called it Mitch.
Speaker 3: Midge destroyed on Nuras in nineteen ninety eight, causing more
Speaker 3: than five thousand deaths and over four billion dollars in
Speaker 3: economic losses. It contaminated the Chulutika River, where Santos used
Speaker 3: to fish for work. Then one of his sons needed
Speaker 3: surgery a year later. Without a source of income to
Speaker 3: feed his children and the urgency to pay for health care,
Speaker 3: he decided to migrate north. He first settled in Texas,
Speaker 3: then moved to Louisiana. Mariano, his younger brother, joined him
Speaker 3: a few years later in two thousand and five. Now,
Speaker 3: Mariano also suffers from the long term effects from being
Speaker 3: exposed to toxins.
Speaker 4: Muraya nosalez uryan as an inclusive tango, the opianzo catango
Speaker 4: burke no aventida.
Speaker 3: Mariano said he often wakes up in the middle of
Speaker 3: the night tasting a salty liquid, only to realize his bleeding.
Speaker 3: He doesn't know if he's coming from his nose or mouth.
Speaker 2: I'm imagining that this is a quite lonely experience is
Speaker 2: for them because these health conditions, I mean, they realized
Speaker 2: that no one is actually documenting what they're feeling until now.
Speaker 3: Yes, and Maria, you should know that there is an
Speaker 3: overlap with your reporting from almost two decades ago. A
Speaker 3: third of the workers we interviewed actually worked on Katrina
Speaker 3: in two thousand and five, and today, while companies are
Speaker 3: profiting off of disasters, workers are still facing similar challenges.
Speaker 3: I saw it myself when I was reporting in Florida.
Speaker 3: It was months after Hurricane Ian made landfall in the
Speaker 3: state in September of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 9: It's hell on earth as Hurricane Ian slams into Florida.
Speaker 2: And you know, those images from Hurricane Ian were particularly devastating.
Speaker 2: The storm's deadly winds ripped so many homes to shreds,
Speaker 2: lifted entire buildings off the ground, left miles of homes flooded.
Speaker 2: One hundred and fifty p people were killed during inan
Speaker 2: and it coused one hundred and twelve billion dollars in damages.
Speaker 3: And just like after other natural disasters, workers came looking
Speaker 3: for jobs. We went to Fort Myers in southwest Florida
Speaker 3: to see how the industry operates.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 3: It's just after sunrise and a weekday in March. I'm
Speaker 3: standing in the parking lot next to a gas station
Speaker 3: where small groups of day laborers wait for jobs. It's
Speaker 3: been six months since Hurricane Ian ravaged the city of
Speaker 3: about eighty six thousand residents in September of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: Now the work is dwindling. When a white pickup truck
Speaker 3: stops dozens of immigrants crowded. They're wearing dirty jeans, tennis
Speaker 3: shoes instead of the construction boots needed to avoid injuries,
Speaker 3: and they have no other protective equipment. A young man
Speaker 3: who appears to be in his twenties hangs off the
Speaker 3: driver's window. He holds a navy blue backpack and stands
Speaker 3: taller than the men around him competing for the same job.
Speaker 3: What do you need, boss, he asked the driver. After
Speaker 3: negotiating the raid, the driver tells the men hovering around
Speaker 3: only one. The lone worker hops inside. Disappointed, the rest
Speaker 3: of the sun kissed laborers walk away to wait for
Speaker 3: another truck. Most of them are newly arrived and undocumented
Speaker 3: immigrants from Honduda's Guatemala, Haiti and other countries. Most are
Speaker 3: afraid to speak with us about talks and exposure.
Speaker 4: Used the Epistamosati help, yes.
Speaker 3: What was going to be?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 3: I spoke with a teenager from Watemala of Mike, who's
Speaker 3: looking for work. He's five three. I only know because
Speaker 3: he's my height. He was worried about going to work hungry.
Speaker 3: He described the unique stomach pains brought on by hunger.
Speaker 3: Only those who have experienced it can recognize it, he said.
Speaker 3: Then he showed me the apple in his backpack, his
Speaker 3: only meal for the day. The risk of being exposed
Speaker 3: to dangerous toxins was not on his radar.
Speaker 2: Marinez, you know, I remember hearing about those same hunger
Speaker 2: pains and the fear of deportation back when I was
Speaker 2: in New Orleans in two thousand and five after Katrina,
Speaker 2: And so again, it's just alarming to hear how these
Speaker 2: same conditions are repeating decades later.
Speaker 3: That's true, Maria, But now there are people who are
Speaker 3: trying to help, even if it's mostly other workers. We
Speaker 3: saw it on display last March in New Orleans.
Speaker 4: The DNA.
Speaker 1: Who Knows.
Speaker 3: Volunteers from the grassroots organization Familias Unidas and Excion handed
Speaker 3: out construction masks, COVID tests, and provided information through their
Speaker 3: community health program known as PROMOALD. The focus is to
Speaker 3: promote workers' health. The organization also holds workplace safety training.
Speaker 3: Mario Mendoza founded the organization with his wife, Lidicia Casildo.
Speaker 3: They both worked in cleanups after Katrina and quickly realized
Speaker 3: immigrants needed a support system. They've stepped in to feed
Speaker 3: and help evacuate undocumented immigrants during natural disasters.
Speaker 4: Perro Mics and the.
Speaker 3: Mariio is wearing a bright green T shirt promoting a
Speaker 3: campaign to allow undocumented immigrants to get a driver's license
Speaker 3: in Louisiana. His short salt and pepper hair is a
Speaker 3: messy from when he puts his breading glasses on his head.
Speaker 3: He told me he was tired of waiting for change.
Speaker 3: He realized he needed to step up and speak up
Speaker 3: and organize for better working conditions system.
Speaker 4: There is the piece, soa Mario said.
Speaker 3: The system is not designed to help undocumented workers. He said, quote,
Speaker 3: they don't care about the workers, They just care about
Speaker 3: their labor.
Speaker 2: So what Mario told you, Maria Nez, speaks to how
Speaker 2: this industry has shielded companies from accountability and this is
Speaker 2: how they do it. No special certification is needed to
Speaker 2: join the disaster restoration business, which attracts traditional construction companies,
Speaker 2: and since most workers are hired through labor brokers. As
Speaker 2: we said previously, the companies don't have to worry about
Speaker 2: worker safety because they weren't the ones who actually hired
Speaker 2: the workers, making matters worse. The sector has gone largely
Speaker 2: under the public's radar.
Speaker 3: So to understand this industry, let's focus on one company
Speaker 3: as an example.
Speaker 1: Will you serve Pro.
Speaker 3: It's a popular disaster restoration company worth a billion dollars.
Speaker 3: It lends its name to over two thousand franchises worldwide,
Speaker 3: and in twenty twenty, the COVID pandemic created a unique
Speaker 3: opportunity for workers to demand personal protective equipment and better
Speaker 3: working conditions.
Speaker 2: And that was the case of a group of workers
Speaker 2: who traveled to Michigan after a dam failed from unseasonably
Speaker 2: heavy rains. Workers filed a lawsuit against serf Pro Industries,
Speaker 2: the national corporation, the serf Pro franchise in Michigan, and
Speaker 2: several subcontractors. They alleged that they were denied proper health
Speaker 2: and safety gear as they toured down water logged buildings
Speaker 2: filled with mold. The workers also argued that their employers
Speaker 2: violated the public Health Executive Order signed at the time
Speaker 2: by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in order to stop the
Speaker 2: spread of the coronavirus. John Filo is with the Detroit
Speaker 2: based Sugar Law Center. He represents the workers, and he
Speaker 2: said the system makes it hard to hold those big
Speaker 2: companies accountable for worker safety.
Speaker 9: That company divorcing itself from any sort of responsibility to
Speaker 9: the workers artificially right by entering into a contract with
Speaker 9: a subcontractor who's a labor broker, who then in turn
Speaker 9: entered into another contract with another sub broker, And each
Speaker 9: step down the line, what you see is the next
Speaker 9: lowest company has far less capacity to, let's say, and
Speaker 9: implement health and safety concerns.
Speaker 3: Serf Pro Industries, based in Tennessee, argued that it had
Speaker 3: no legal duty to the workers hired by self contractors.
Speaker 3: The company went as far as calling the workers quote
Speaker 3: total strangers in a court filing, and the judge presiding
Speaker 3: over the case cited with serf Pro saying that it
Speaker 3: only had jurisdiction over the local franchise.
Speaker 9: What the court is saying is that despite them having
Speaker 9: franchises literally that are serving every county of this state,
Speaker 9: our clients would have to go to the home county
Speaker 9: of serf Pro in Tennessee to sue them, in this case,
Speaker 9: a county where none of them live, where none of
Speaker 9: them worked, where none of the injuries occurred that has
Speaker 9: no connection whatsoever the so then it's the hometown of
Speaker 9: the people who are being sued that's offensive.
Speaker 2: Serf Pro declined to answer any specific questions related to
Speaker 2: the lawsuit, saying that as a franchiser, it quote does
Speaker 2: not provide contract or subcontract any direct services and thus
Speaker 2: is not responsible to workers. The franchise and subcontractors denied
Speaker 2: the allegations. Now, this profitable business model has made disaster
Speaker 2: restoration companies desirable targets for acquisition, according to a twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three report by the Equity Stakeholder Project. The report
Speaker 2: shows how private equity firms acquired seventy two disaster restoration
Speaker 2: companies over the previous three and a half years. Doesn't
Speaker 2: specify how much money is there, but we know it's
Speaker 2: in the billions. For example, Blackstone, the king of private equity,
Speaker 2: paid over a billion dollars to acquire serve Pro in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. On the federal level, there are some efforts
Speaker 2: to help these workers.
Speaker 10: People aren't asking the roofer or whoever is rebuilding your
Speaker 10: home what their immigration status is. They're just very grateful
Speaker 10: that somebody is helping them to rebuild.
Speaker 2: This is Congresswoman Promila Giapaul, a Democrat from Washington State,
Speaker 2: and last September, Giapaul reintroduced the Climate Resilience Workforce Act,
Speaker 2: which she first presented in twenty twenty two in the
Speaker 2: House of Representatives. In a first her proposal would establish
Speaker 2: a temporary immigrant status for these restoration laborers.
Speaker 10: I'm hoping to start with doing field hearings where we
Speaker 10: invite our colleagues across the aisle to come as well,
Speaker 10: and to hear from Republicans and Democrats how undocumented immigrants
Speaker 10: have been building their community back but have little to
Speaker 10: no protections from the dangers of their jobs, like physical risks,
Speaker 10: but also employers who stiff them on pay.
Speaker 2: The bill has forty three co sponsors so far, but
Speaker 2: it hasn't moved past committee. It doesn't address OSHA's role
Speaker 2: in all of this either, And I asked Representative Jayapaul why.
Speaker 10: I think once we get the program, we can also
Speaker 10: make sure in other bills that we're addressing some of
Speaker 10: the oversight and accountability. But this is really a workforce establishment,
Speaker 10: you know, a pathway workforce, pathway establishment bill. And if
Speaker 10: we can get this done, listen, if we can add
Speaker 10: some of those accountability provisions that would be great.
Speaker 2: Now, it is good news to hear that someone in
Speaker 2: Congress is concerned about the safety of these immigrant laborers.
Speaker 2: But after listening to Mariano and those talk about the
Speaker 2: incredible toll that this work has taken on them, it's
Speaker 2: clear that the issue isn't moving with the urgency that
Speaker 2: it needs in order to address specific toxin exposure. As
Speaker 2: an example, in March, the federal government announced a ban
Speaker 2: on the only type of asbestos still used in the country.
Speaker 2: It's known as white asbestos, and it's commonly present in
Speaker 2: construction material.
Speaker 1: But it took more than thirty years to issue this rule, and.
Speaker 2: It could take up to twelve more years for all
Speaker 2: companies to stop using the dangerous carcinogen.
Speaker 1: So the problem just continues.
Speaker 3: Today. Santos and Mariano still work together on disaster cleanup,
Speaker 3: but now they wear protective equipment they can afford.
Speaker 2: Ja. Yes, yes, Marco Wante.
Speaker 3: Santos recently sent me a video proudly showing me him
Speaker 3: and his brother at a work site wearing masks and
Speaker 3: gloves they bought themselves to lessen talks and exposure, and
Speaker 3: Mariano is also working for Resilience Force. It's another workers
Speaker 3: rights organization advocating for restoration workers, and Mario the worker
Speaker 3: and activists is still focusing on creating strong mutual aid
Speaker 3: in his community, a lesson he learned at home back
Speaker 3: in Ondudas. He remembers sitting under a mango tree while
Speaker 3: enjoying the shade and savoring the fruit together. Mario's father told.
Speaker 4: Him abe sizu testova para tusijo tusi, who's tutinus cazimbra
Speaker 4: para futuu lu.
Speaker 3: His father told him his great grandfather planted the tree,
Speaker 3: knowing he wouldn't get to taste the mangos himself, but
Speaker 3: his family would. The takeaway from Mario is clear, you
Speaker 3: plant the seats of community and then you wait for
Speaker 3: the fruits of their labor.
Speaker 2: Toxic Labor is a project of Futuro Investigates in collaboration
Speaker 2: with the Center for Public Integrity and Colombia Journalism Investigations.
Speaker 2: This investigation was reported by marines A Mulio, Samantha McCabe,
Speaker 2: Janelle Redca, and Shaque Juang. It was edited by Mcnelie
Speaker 2: Torres from the Center for Public Integrity and Kristin Lombardi
Speaker 2: from Colombia Journalism Investigations. This episode was produced by Marine Sa,
Speaker 2: Mulio Noor Saudi and Broxa na Guire. It was at
Speaker 2: A did by Andrea Lobez Crusado, scoring and sound design
Speaker 2: by Jacob Rossari. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebou and
Speaker 2: Julia Caruso. Peter Nubitt Smith did fact checking for US
Speaker 2: legal review by Michael Rothberg. The Public Integrity team also
Speaker 2: includes Matt de Rienzo, Janine Jones, Ashley Clark, Vanessa Friedman,
Speaker 2: and Charlie Dodge. To find out more information about toxic
Speaker 2: labor and read our web article, visit Futuro investigates dot
Speaker 2: Org Again, that's Futuro Investigates dot Org.
Speaker 1: The Latino USA team also.
Speaker 2: Includes Victori Estrada, Renaldo Leanos Junior, Rodi Matt Marquez, Marta Martinez,
Speaker 2: Mike Sargent, and Nancy Trujillo. Penilee Ramirez is our co
Speaker 2: executive producer. Our marketing manager is Res Luna. Our theme
Speaker 2: music was composed by Zane Rouinos. I'm Maria Ino Josa,
Speaker 2: your host and co executive producer, and we'll see you
Speaker 2: on our next episode and.
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Speaker 3: Tao Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and W. K. Kellogg Foundation,
Speaker 3: a partner with communities where children come first.