Eli Zidel

Vos - English III

Since the mid eighteen-sixties, at the start of the American Industrial Revolution, a major
portion of the American workforce has worked in factories. Factory workers have been the
backbone of the American economy for generations. They built tools to make harvesting raw
resources easier and more efficient, jumpstarted the automobile industry with the assembly line,
and built railroads to allow for westward expansion and to drastically lower the cost to transport
goods. Without laborers such as these, America would not have developed into the economic
powerhouse it is today.
With every generation of workers, more changes come to how they are treated. Ever
since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was formed in nineteenseventy one under the Nixon Administration, workers have received better protection from the
mistreatment of bosses on their employees. Employees no longer need to fix problems in the
workplace themselves because they are now protected under a government organization. One of
the many things that OSHA has done is make sure that workers are properly compensated for
their time and effort and have a safe place to work in. This increase in safety [has] reduced
[deaths in factories] by more than 66 percent and [injuries] by 67 percent" (Occupational Safety
& Health Administration). If workers are put in a dangerous situation that results in injury,
whether it be on or off the job, they are provided with medical insurance and are given time off
from work to recuperate (Organized Labor). Workers are protected from accidental occurrences
that would have resulted in the loss of their job in the past. In addition to this, most nonagricultural workers receive an average of two to three times the minimum wage (Kurian).

Industrial workers are able to provide for their families due to the benefit of higher wages.
Overall, working conditions are safer and workers are treated better than they were in the past.
Despite the many protections that workers and consumers currently receive, it was not
always like this; in the past, most workers were not kept in safe environments. Their bosses felt
that their workers were expendable because there were many unemployed people who were
willing to work the same job for less money. As a result, the health of consumers was not a
major concern; it was cheaper and more efficient for companies to leave products unchecked.
The negative effects of industry existed as a result of the desire for money above public safety,
which impacted the health and well being of workers and consumers.