Prokopio: "… Workers must be responsible for health and safety as well as the company."
My name is Prokopio. I’ve worked in electronics for over 10 years. I’m a supervisor in the crystal-growing department. We make silicon wafers for computers. We use arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, boron and other chemicals. When my youngest sister, Lu, started asking me about my health and safety, I didn’t take her seriously. Lu is young, single and idealistic. I, on the other hand, have responsibilities, including raising three children. I’ve worked really hard to give them the best education in Catholic schools and college in the future. SO in answer to Lu’s questions, I would joke around. I’d come home from work after 11pm, she’d be up drawing or something, and we would end up talking about work late into the night.
Lu was always curious about my job and sharing things she was learning at SCCOSH. One time I helped Lu move back home from down south. That drive usually takes forever, but it passed really quickly because she ran through a questionnaire about health and safety. Her questions kept me in deep thoughts as I drove the monotonous highway. I started to realize the importance of those questions. I started remembering things and relating many incidents, that we are not properly protected at work, then and even now. I remembered that the shop walls once were white and now are black.
At work last year, I had chest pains, dizziness, and shortness of breath. Doctors rushed me to emergency for heart attack. I was 36. They placed tubes in my heart to release any blockages, but found nothing. Doctors couldn’t explain the cause. They asked me about my family history but not about chemicals at work. My company said the incident was not work-related and I paid the $6,000 hospital bill out of my own pocket. Later on, of course, it was Lu who asked about my chemical exposures. Then she found out that antimony causes heart attack-like symptoms and even cancer. She urged me to face the situation–not quit, but to try to improve the health and safety.
I came to work with different eyes, nose, and ears. I started to pay attention to my environment and my co-workers, talking to them one on one or as a group about wearing masks gloves, safety glasses. I urged them to take breaks, lunch, and dinner outside the building for fresh air, because we have inadequate ventilation for chemicals dangerous to health. I feel for the workers I supervise. I know that live and work in so much fear from management. On top of this, they are in so much danger and receive very low pay. And without workers in good health, the company will suffer.
Lu helped me understand that workers must be responsible for health and safety as well as the company. Since my position is higher than my workers are, I made it my responsibility to speak for them at our staff health and safety meeting, echoing the questionnaire Lu had asked. I felt knowledgeable as I spoke about helath and toxics. I also said "We talk about health and safety all the time but we are not really doing anything about it. We’ve talked about the ventilation system for years and years, yet nothting has been done. " Two weeks later, after seven years of this company’s operation, the ventilation system was finally installed. I also urged that we thorughly educate all employees about health and safety. AN hour and a half meeting doesn’t address the reality of what workers need to understand.
I want a good future for my children. I don’t want them to work anywhere that exposes them to chemicals and to live in fear of management. They must feel they are part of America whether documented or undocumented. I also dream of an alternative to working for a company all my life. The collective of our whole extended family (including my parents and sisters) has been to have a restaurant. After years of dreaming and planning, we have pulled together and can say "WE DID IT!" I wish for all workers to have health and safety, to follow their hearts, to dream their dreams and make them into realities.
