Construction Workers Wanting Basic Necessities

The Deputy Director of the Workers Defense Project, Emily Timm, defended the Day of the Fallen protest in her editorial on TribTalk. The Day of the Fallen is a day that construction workers march down Congress Avenue. They voice their frustrations with Texas government regarding how high the death rate is working in construction. It is because of Texas' failure to provide safety training and they want Texas government to provide workers' compensation.

Timm's target audience would be other construction workers and anyone interested in creating a safe workplace for all of Texas' employees. With Timm being the Deputy Director of the Workers Defense Project, I do find her credible but I also believe her editorial to be extremely bias. Her editorial was only one sided and she gave no insight on the why factor. Timm could have explained why is it that "Texas is the only state in the country that doesn't require employers to provide workers' compensation"? Her editorial should have offered more background information and cold hard facts. She spent half of the article giving a specific example of a certain families' situation. Instead if she would've provided more information I believe her editorial had potential to have a greater impact on the reader.

However, I do agree with Timm's viewpoint. Construction workers' fatality rate spiking as high as 585 from the year 2007 to 2011 is unheard of. Compared to California with only 299 during that time. Knowing that California had a larger construction workforce than ours at this time and yet they still had fewer fatalities, tells us we are doing something wrong.

Texas should provide a safety training to construction working, at the bare minimum. Requiring employers to provide workers compensation and rest breaks should also be included in running their business and corporation.

According to the Burnt Orange Report, National Rifle Association (NRA) board member, Charles Cotton, made controversial comments protesting the bill to end corporal punishment in schools. He mentioned that "a good paddling now just may keep him from having to put a bullet in him later." He believes if you prevent a child in grades K-5 from acting out, by using force known as corporal punishment, then it will later decrease the crime rates in Texas. Yes. Let's stop violence, with violence.

Physical force or abuse, at any age, is only going to cause a downward spiral of negative outcomes. It's interesting that Cotton believes more violence will lessen future violence. When in reality, it'll just create more hatred and negativity in the adults of tomorrow.