Stories from a 3rd World Factory Worker

dCynicalOptimist

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I have been lurking for a long time, and I noticed that work stories seem to be making a comeback. I decided to step in and offer my own stories from a regular line worker in a factory in what you 1st Worlders call a "developing economy" (read: cesspool of humanity). This isn't your comfy summer job, I was down there in the factory floor, in a tropical country with absolutely no ventilation, and surrounded by machinery.

The factory I was in made sauces, everything from gallons of ketchup to packets of soy sauce.

As always, please forgive me for any grammar and spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.

This one was shocking.

Happened to a friend of mine. I was working one of the ketchup sachet machines, where they get a plastic film and use super heated blades to cut them and seal them into packets. They tend to get jammed an awful lot and the only way is to reach your hand into them to pull the film out. Mind you, the machine is not turned off (they take a long time to heat up and the delay would be unacceptable to management) and we got the time our pulls to make sure our fingers are not chopped off. One of my friends was not so lucky and his fingertips got cut off. Instant cauterization.

First you cut hole in the box...

On a lighter note, apparently there is a particular way to pack boxes into a pallet for shipping. Apparently, I was able to grasp such fine and mystical art. Which is something that eluded most of my colleagues. My boss was suitably happy for my performance.

What a Drag...

This happened to me right before I left, I was placing packets from the (finger-murdering) packet machine into boxes into a conveyor belt for distribution. My hand slips under a chute and gets caught by the silicone conveyor belt and dragged. It took a while before they got the belt to shut off but I had my entire hand almost stripped of my skin. Felt like it was on fire for days after that. I was lucky the conveyor belt wasn't powerful enough to have ripped my arm off.

About food.

Our cafeteria was outsourced to a different company, I found out later that they served the same food to us as the local state penitentiary. Note, there were several prison riots beforehand because of the low quality of the food being served. And after eating that for two years, I kind of sympathize with that.

BEST DAY EVER

One day a delivery truck was delayed and we had no more ingredients to keep production up so we spent the day fucking around. I got the hand pallet mover and rode that bitch like a scooter all day. Childhood wish fulfillment!

Cat Tax!

More accurately its an ocelot! They are native to my country and we call them jaguatiricas.

GimboSlice

Ur inglish iz phine

10 years ago |

SuperBobKing

The pink color of their suits comes from their diet.

MyInboxIsSadAndEmpty

I can confirm that pallet jack riding is the best goddam thing. By far the best part about working in shipping.

NNomas

I'll never use a Ketchup packet again.

Redmancometh

Except for the food this just sounds like regular "work in a factory." Been there, done that, hope you don't anymore OP.

Volvo101010101

I am so sorry you had to work like this. I work as an operator in a chemical plant and i would never work or allow work on a machine 1/2

f00g3n

BABOO!!! Also those factories sound super fucked up.

warbringerii

Are you from Brazil?

Nadodan

With the finger coating off machine could they just get you one of those graspers people who can't move use, to reach in their for you?

noblespaceplatypus

you...you have lived the dream of riding the hand pallet! I salute you and award you a +1

It is a glorious feeling, 10/10 would ride into battle.

BTkang

#3, logistics-wise proper stacking is actually pretty important: a) they hold together better during shipping, 1/2

2/2 B) stacking correctly on a pallet can help cutting shipping costs, if you can maximize the use of a pallet, less pallets needed

Vykoz

IS THAT BABOU!?

freedomofnow

Wow thank you so much for sharing this! It's very important we know where our food comes from and how we treat everyone involved!

StarrryNight

And this is capitalism before workers rights. yay.

malexmatt

This is Brazil, they've got those. They're just also pretty poor so they have to be pragmatic about enforcement.

46853

M8 Brazil is socialist

emi8ly

Knife goes in, guts come out. Knife goes in, guts come out.

repurposedschleem

I call bullshit on those machines (not OP's experience), there will be a way to stop the blades moving without them cooling down.

ratfinkfuck

ENJOYING YOUR KETCHUP YOU MONSTER?

LaBix

I worked for a food factory in the UK for a few months. I sliced my hand open and bled over a lot of food. My super wouldn't shutdown 1?

Because he assumed I was Polish. Instead he gave me a glove to wear. Several boxes of contaminated with blood garlic bread shipped.

Mimsey

But remember kids: Regulations stifle business growth and should be thrown out. - Republicans since about the 1980s.

graehall

The corners that can be cut, will be cut, at the cost of human health and life. That's business. I so dislike those who stifle regulation.

ARandomStranger2020

#2 is sadly funny in that if it were in the 1st world they would have had to shut the machine down anyway to clean and sanitize it.

PaulyBallnuts

english not first language post with great grammar gets a -1 for lying

and i lied i didnt -1

UserSubmitedBard

i'm from Argentina(sorry x crap english) i used to work in a factory,a co-worker looses 4 tooth in the factory,is slavery pay in some facto.

keyserv

Your English is too good to be from a third world factory worker.

EDUCATION MOFO, but seriously, study hard because it allowed me to move on to better things.

GuyInTheBack

You are actually really smart. Have you ever been to the usa? You seem to know our slang

Razorface

As someone that worked with one of those finger murder machines bravo for keeping your digits.

329

cocoakoumori

In my dad's bookbinding factory, a guy actually lost 3 of his fingers in a machine used to cut paper. They found the fingers... eventually.

I once saw a guy punch one of his fingers off on an industrial steel punch. 4 tons of pressure came down and knocked most of his pinky off.

Thanks, I just want to find whoever made these machines and shove a broom so hard their ass that very time they sneeze dust will come out.

185

dbqp

Why didn't you used something like a stick/pliers/tool to reach that thing near the blades instead of your hands?

WhySoSirius

Or shove that broom up your managers' asses, who valued their money over you not getting your fingers chopped off

I'm with you on that. Same with industrial shrink wrappers. Fuck those things.

ProfessorDumbledoge

Your English is fucking brilliant. I love this.

funkymonkeee

Haha man you deserve comment of the day for this shit :)

skimmy1ger

1/2 - I worked for years as machine-maintenance in a big food-company, I can tell: it's all about maintenance. Do it right and noone has to

2/2 - stick his fingers in a running machine to solve a problem, that wouldn't exist with proper maintenance.

bingobangosugarinthegastank

Jaguatiricas is Portuguese, you are from Brazil!

foxhuntjp

by the way he mentioned riot , food and penitentiary on same sentence i guessed that he was brasilian, but was sure when he said jaguatirica

dlw45

My initial thought with food at the factory was India. Then read more, had almos the same thought process. Jaquariticas clicked for me too.

Fun fact: juagua meant feline in Guarani but was also used for the newly arrived dog. Jaguarete means true cat later shortened to jaguar.

Bingo!

JoelGrosso

In Argentina we call it yaguareté

frejathorshammer

I'm glad you're okay now! And that you didn't lose any body parts. Especially that.

My fingertips thank me too

Beepity

Yes. Your fingertips. That is definitely what had been referred to. We were certainly not making obtuse jokes about genitals, not us.

elduquedelaspasas

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

blitherypoop

Back in the early 40's my grandmother did factory work in NYC. She lost an entire pinkie finger to one of the machines. She was maybe 1/2

aeahmg

years old when that happened.

2/2 seventeen. It's a shame that safer working conditions here just pushed the problem to another part of the world.

Pengarr

I mean I guess the plus side is that if you bleed into the ketchup, nobody's gonna notice.

SuckAnElf

"Natural flavoring"

infiniteflux

We probably ate that one dude's fingers and many others over the years.

At heinz, no one can see you bleed...

But seriously, I didn't work for Heinz, working for them is a priviledge where I come from.

I used to sell servers to Heinz in a call center job in a past life, before they got bought out.

WellIBeDamned

Thank you for including the stories in your post and not just asking if we'd like to hear them

221

pIanetarysociety

hey would you like to hear a comment that I have come up with based on this post?

BLAU619

What's up with this lately ??

monuke

Time investment. Why spend 3 hours putting together a post no one wants to hear when you can do a 30 second check first?

Seahorn

Double the post double the points!

Yep, annoys the shit out of me. Just spit it out already!

Jdonkay

What country did you work in?

Somewhere big cats are native to

Are you not allowed to say? :(

I am not OP. You should ask OP

SwiftMustacheMan

Sigh. Theses fucking industries. People loosing fingers so our fatasses can throw those packets in the trash.

ThisIsGod

Hey, at least the suffering is happening to bring you delicious ketchup. I don't hear you complaining about ketchup.

MWisBest

What if the only ketchup I get is out of big plastic bottles?

Then you're lying because you know you're attracted to the travel size forbidden fruit.

Morebetternow

He has spoken.

[deleted]

10 years ago (deleted May 25, 2018 10:13 PM) |

Fuck that meritocratic statement. People have to live but shouldnt risk loosing limbs for it.

chiefs86

Certain industries are more dangerous than others I'm afraid. Mining, industry, commercial fishing... dangerous ways to make a living.

still. Security is always a priority. No matter the industry. When it can't be helped, like firefighting that's sometging else.

But when you cut in security to save money... all bets are off.

I feel ya there. I don't have anything against cutting safety in particular, but I've always found cutting corners and doing things (1)

(2) improperly to save time, money, or product will *always* come back to bite you in the ass in some way.

omlettedubromage

As you comment through your mobile phone that was likely made in a sweatshop. Just sayin.

I do know that.

Besides, I don't have to boycott every fucking things in my life because I don't agree about the fact that conditions are unnaceptable.

Yes, you do. Vote with your wallet, man. I personally don't care about 3rd world factory conditions, so I consume without remorse!

I don't vote with my wallet so shove yours up. I want luxuries, But I'm ready to pay a lot for good conditions.

sexysexyhungarians

I think that is pretty much voting with your wallet, if you choose an alternative to support their policy of providing good work conditions.