#dangerous work

[tech-crew-confessions]

So I work in the large live production, concert/sport side of tech crew, stage hand life.

I came from the small independent theater stage hand life...

Different beasts entirely, however, one is not better or more stressful than the other.

The biggest thing these two environments share

That thing, that big dangerous thing over there...hanging over your head or humming with electricity. Yeah, that!

It can and will kill you....dont touch it.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“The first steelmaking corporations, of course, had done more than simply change individual work processes. They had brought most of them together in huge sprawling complexes that tightly linked each phase of production with the others. Individual departments and processes within departments nonetheless retained some distinctive rhythms and occupational requirements. Some processes were normally continuous, notably the coke ovens, blast furnaces, and open-hearth, while others, especially the smaller rolling mills, were based on batch production. Some, like blast furnaces and rolling mills, required steady, routinized feeding of furnaces or machinery, while others required more erratic bursts of frantic exertion, especially tapping furnaces. There was, in short, a great variety of work in a steel plant that did not necessarily lead to a common occupational experience for the industry's workers.  

In many ways, the sum of all the technological innovations was greater than its parts. Besides the changes in individual stages of production, it was the thorough integration of the plants that was so remarkable. Every plant was a maze of tracks for numerous railways, cranes, and conveyers. Raw materials moved along these to coke ovens and blast furnaces; liquid pig iron was swept off to the open-hearths at the end of giant cranes; steel ingots were shunted off to the rolling mills, where cranes and conveyors carried the steel forward. In contrast to past practices, there was far less remelting and reheating of the metal as it moved through the plants. Early twentieth-century steelmaking did not involve an assembly line, but there was definitely an integrated flow-through. For the most part, moreover, the plants ran continuously throughout the year, rather than on the seasonal basis that had characterized much nineteenth-century production. In fact, several departments ran non-stop twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Mechanization therefore brought not only greater volume of production from the new facilities, but also greater speed and intensity and, for the workers, greater pressure to keep up. ... Most contemporary reports nonetheless emphasized how the Canadian steel industry, like its American counterpart, had been transformed by the machine. The Journal of Commerce's editor, A.R.R. Jones, applied the label "gigantic automaton" to the "typical all-round Canadian steel plant" that he visited (clearly Stelco's Hamilton plant), in which "the labor in every branch of the industry consists mainly in the supervision and maintenance of machinery." What was missing from these glowing descriptions of mechanization was what the steelworkers who worked with this new technology every day had discovered. It was remarkably dangerous. The intense heat from furnaces alone could inspire fear, but the showers of sparks from ladles of molten metal could actually sear the flesh of nearby workers. Photographs of steel production from these early years indicate how little protective clothing or equipment was used. The noise could be similarly fearsome. One man described how on his first day in Algoma's plant he could not hear a train that he suddenly discovered was passing inches from his back. Not surprisingly, an American writer found that many of the steelworkers he met had hearing problems. If the men were not dodging locomotives or machines whose tracks criss-crossed the plants, they were scampering out of the way of ladles, moulds, and great hunks of glowing steel that soared through the air at the end of giant cranes. For one Stelco worker, the first day on the job was "like entering another world." For another man at Algoma, this mechanized work world seemed like "organized confusion." Stress would inevitably become a new occupational hazard in such a fearsome workplace.”

- Craig Heron, Working in Steel: The Early Years in Canada, 1883-1935 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988), p. 48-49.

[anarchistfrogposting]

I don't consider myself an anarchist but i'm pretty sympathetic, there's just some stuff i'm not sure yet would work well under anarchism as i understood it after reading the bread book.

What would incentivize people to work, for example, at oil rigs away from their communities doing dangerous work?

Would it be that they'd have a smaller expectation for how long they're suposed to work? Like, instead of you working 9-5 for 8 months instead you work 9-5 for 4 months and then can just do things you like the rest of the year?

Yes hi hello! This post re-emerged from the depths of accidental deletion!! I’m getting the bus to go get a burrito so let me talk about this one!!

Kropotkin actually talked about dangerous work; after all, some work is just inherently and unavoidably a bit more dangerous than others: so what’s the point? Why bother?

To start, resource extraction is going to be inherent to any industrial economy, but it’s worth pointing out that when you eliminate a lot of overproduction, an inefficiency inherent to capitalist economy, the demand for extraction is going to shoot down in a big way. That’s a big reason why a lot of the more hardcore environmentalist movements have been radical leftist ones; it’s features inherent to capitalism which are bringing about the downfall of the environment which sustains us.

Another big consideration to make is that a lot of the danger of these fields arises solely because the demands of the profit motive incentivise management to overwork/underpay/cut back on or wholesale eliminate critical safety measures; there’s a reason why unions and collectives in those fields are such critical players in the constant battle to keep people safe.

There are quite a few fields in the domestic/public sector, as well (think electricians, certain waste management professions etc.) which are (and were more so in the past) fairly dangerous but are not generally regarded as such because they’re regulated well in the public domain/have very strong unions/have otherwise strong safety regulation.

This stuff gets safer and safer as we improve the automation of our economy, as well.

It’s worth remembering as well that those remote professions and operations are, in a way, their own communities, as well, and for some people travelling long distances away for more lonesome work is quite an attractive prospect; I once knew a geologist who said he found the relative isolation quite peaceful. My great grandad did some remote mining and he always talked quite positively about it when I knew him (although this is very anecdotal - if anybody in the field wants to weigh in I’d be more than happy to hear what you think).

About hours as well;

If there’s no profit motive, then industrial processes are going to be driven by how to do them as safely, efficiently, and easily (among other stuff). The demand for hours is going to be a lot less tough because you’re going to be able to have more workers and source better equipment without worrying about how it will cut into your bottom line; so yes, the hours will be shorter and the shifts less demanding, with a greater support network and safety network when shit hits the fan. All of this, of course, makes this kind of work a lot more attractive.

But what about dangerous work in general? Why would anyone put themselves in danger?

You just have to look at the tremendous danger that volunteers face to understand that humans don’t really need a profit motive to put their lives on the line to better their communities and the world, or to feel part of something greater than themselves. Not everyone is going to want to do that, and that’s ok, but some people really derive a lot of happiness and fulfilment from dangerous work.

Humanity is flexible and diverse; working together to champion that is our strength, and it always has been.

[sweet-harmony]

“Do something everyday that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.” ~Mark Twain

…never say that cleaning windows is a relaxing job…

@sweet-harmony

[a-typical]

Yuriy while sandblasting the radioactive scrap metal. (Photographer, Pierpaolo Mittica.)

Inside the zone tons of metals lie abandoned, but over the years all this rusty gold has not gone unnoticed, and more or less illegally was recycled and today continues to be. Tons of metal leave the area each month. Since 2007, the Ukrainian government has legalized the recycling of radioactive metals with the blasting method. The workshop is close to the never finished number 5 and 6 reactors of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a huge warehouse where twelve men clean and recycle radioactive metals. Their work is terribly dangerous, almost a death sentence in slow motion, as it forces the workers to continuously inhale radioactive particles like caesium, strontium and plutonium.

From the project "Chernobyl Stories" The Ukraine 2014-2019. (source)

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Steel workers at work on the Cities Service Building, with City Bank in the background, 1925.

Photo: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images/Fine Art America

[milk-carton-whump]

What’s your favorite sense? Sight, smell, sound, hearing, touch?

Personally? Uh I like them all?? Lol but I guess my hearing. I don't like not being able to hear. Especially at work. I roll down the window to our truck to make sure I can hear and not die. Lol

[therealbillwilliams]

Bts XF s11 update

Chris Carter has threatened to release rogue bees into any M&S sex scene attempts in the next 8 episodes

I am afraid it is going to be exceedingly difficult to film s11e5 this way and I have asked my PA to order protective netting