Ford's battery flagship socked by mold sickness, workers say

"Despite months of worker concerns, managers waited until early February to take basic precautions against the mold"

Doesn't this indicate that the union was raising concerns and needed to push for action?

Mold is no joke. I knew a guy that died after working in moldy conditions. He was old, and pneumonia.

A definition from google "medieval" -> primitive or very old fashioned. The implication is that those running the operation have an old or primitive mindset or safety standards.

"Ford's Battery Flagship" - even after reading the article I'm still not sure what this is. "flagship" is used only in the title and nowhere else. Based on my knowledge of Ford, I would assume their "flagship" would be the F150, but this article seems to be talking about some sort of battery factory that a South Korean company is building?

Similarly, "socked by mold sickness" is a weird phrase. Feels like an inappropriate use of "socked" here. If the project is delayed because workers are getting sick, just say that.

The title strikes me as a failed attempt at clickbait, and immediately makes me distrustful of the rest of the article, which is confirmed by the "all over the place"ness that you mentioned as well.

Personally, have more issue with the automaton-like reactions of the workers. 1000 workers, who are holding fundraisers to help each other find other work, and recover from illnesses, smell mold so strong it "hits you when you walk by the plant, and yet almost no personal responsibility.

Have to be forced to wear masks. Don't just buy bleach and nuke the area into oblivion. Boxes had large Do Not Bring Inside, boxes are brought inside. Obviously illegal behavior. Where's the documentation of provable illegalities? Every phone's got a camera with timestamps. (also a serious issue with the military barracks situation. You went home to this every night? Took years and a Reuters expose? [1]).

However, still sympathetic. "Electrical workers complained to foremen." Objects replaced just prior to safety inspections. Months of mold complaints, largely ignored. 12 health or safety investigations, half closed, half limbo. Must be infuriating working in technician industries. Reuters investigation of SpaceX was basically a deja-vu story. "Bad safety results? Stop reporting." [2] These days it seems better to go to a journalist, than the safety agencies, they're far too financially motivated. "Good for Kentucky business. Die of mold? We'll give you a plaque somewhere, in a decade or two once the money's extracted."

[1] https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/02/16/military-fami...

[2] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-m...

b) there’s not a lot of money in being a commie journalist so this is probably some volunteer.

c) I live in Kentucky and had not heard about this.

d) re Kentucky, this place is wet

Maybe. But the situation sounds unlike any modern workplace I know of:

> Worker complaints piled up until, on December 8, Abel management hired the firm Environmental Testing & Consulting of Kentucky to take “limited samples” for mold. Their report, sent to Abel less than one week later, found seven types of mold inside the wooden crates, including three in “heavy” concentrations. It also noted an “intense mold odor” inside the containers.

> To limit exposure, the report included a recommendation for handling the wooden boxes: “DO NOT PUT INSIDE.”

The author was just trying to convey that these days we remediate mold issues, where as in medieval times mold was just something you lived with because you had bigger issues.

They were trying to juxtapose the fact that the this was suppose to be a modern state of the art battery manufacturing facility with the fact that they were being told to just live with the mold.

Imagine they popped open a crate and it was infested by rats. Would management have just told them to work around the rats?

I'm not sure why this is top comment, it's detractive of discussion.

A better solution would be to summarize your findings, and state that the article was poorly written. 'Socking' the author is clearly anti-discussion, distracting, and not worth the toxicity other than a quick offhand remark to accompany an opinion that talks of the main topic at hand

https://inthesetimes.com/article/left-wing-union-afl-cio-imp...

The CIA helped them rise to power and retain it while also taking away from the workers.

There is no incentive for a union to care about safety concerns. they have a monopoly.

Good opportunity get to every nook and cranny and etc.

If even they can't, what chance do the rest of us have :/

If a slight mildew issue broke out in your office all hell would break loose. All work would stop until everyone was remote and a hazmat mitigation company would be brought in by management after a few emails got around.

Go on, explain to us why these workers should just suck it up.

Anecdotally, my understanding is the flu itself isn't what's dangerous to at risk populations. Its' the pneumonia that you're much more likely to get.