Some 90 percent of all traded goods that are shipped from one part of the world to the other are transported by water . As corporate appetites for profits have increased , so has globalized trade . And , safety concerns have taken a back seat , as per an investigation published by Jacobin .
In 2023 , the U . S . Department of Labor investigated a complaint against Maersk and concluded that the company had violated the Seaman ’ s Protection Act by retaliating against a whistleblower employee . At stake was the fact that , as per the Labor Department , “ Reporting Policy requires seamen to report safety concerns to the company and allow it time to abate the conditions before reporting to the [ U . S . Coast Guard ] or other regulatory agencies .” In other words , Maersk , which is one of the world ’ s top shipping companies , tried to protect itself from government regulators .
A similar scenario of compromising safety in service of profits has unfolded at Boeing , one of the world ’ s top airplane manufacturers . After an Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024 was forced to make an emergency landing when the Boeing 737 Max plane lost a panel mid-flight , the New York Times published a bizarrely headlined story : “ Boeing Faces Tricky Balance Between Safety and Financial Performance .” The story points out a conundrum for Boeing ’ s executives : “ Should they emphasize safety or financial performance ?”
The Times explained that , for years , the company “ put too much emphasis on increasing profits and enriching shareholders with dividends and share buybacks , and not enough on investing in engineering and safety .”
It ’ s worth stating the obvious : An unsafe aircraft is not an aircraft ; it ’ s a death trap . And yet , within a capitalist framework , everything boils down to a cost-benefit analysis . If the cost of safety for companies like Boeing or Maersk outweighs the financial benefits , it ’ s simply not worth it for executives and shareholders . While the Alaska Airlines flight thankfully did not result in any deaths this time , hundreds of people on board 737s in 2018 and 2019 were not so lucky . Workers at Boeing factories in Washington and South Carolina , where aircraft are assembled , are required to work at breakneck speed and compromise on safety to churn out planes as fast as possible .
Who pays the price for such corporate hubris ? Vulnerable workers and the public . In the case of the Baltimore bridge accident , all 22 workers on board the Dali were of Indian origin . Their quick thinking in notifying authorities that the ship lost power helped ensure that casualties were minimized . As of this writing , they remain trapped on board the ship with one worker having been treated at a hospital for minor injuries .
66 x The Trial Lawyer
Meanwhile , the six people who are presumed dead and two who were rescued from the frigid waters were all immigrant workers from Mexico and Central America , working on the bridge as part of a construction crew .
These are the same sort of people who suffer racist attacks and ridicule from white supremacist forces in the U . S . A right-wing outlet posted a virulently racist cartoon of the Dali ’ s crew on social media . And only weeks earlier , Georgia ’ s unhinged ultraconservative Congressional representative Marjorie Taylor Greene heckled President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address about a white woman who “ was killed by an illegal ” in an attempt to whip up anti-immigrant frenzy .
Greene appeared utterly unconcerned about the fact that construction workers in the U . S . hail disproportionately from Latin American immigrant communities and many die from work-related injuries . According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , in 2022 , “ Foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 63.5 percent ( 792 ) of total Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities ( 1,248 ).”
Taxpayers also pay the price for corporate profiteering at the expense of safety . The U . S . Army Corps of Engineers is apparently footing the bill for the massive cleanup operation from the Baltimore bridge accident . President Biden also announced that the federal government would “ pay the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge .” Meanwhile , Grace Ocean Private , the Singapore-based company that owns the Dali , is expected to invoke a centuries-old maritime law to limit its liability — the same law that the owners of the RMS Titanic used to limit their liability .
In the case of Boeing , the state of Washington in 2013 gave the company the largest ever tax break in the state ’ s history in exchange for housing its factory and spurring the creation of jobs . The cost to taxpayers was nearly $ 9 billion . And , then because Washington ’ s governor failed to make job retention a condition for the massive tax break , Boeing had it both ways when it cut its labor costs by slashing about 15 percent of its workforce in the state a few years later . Washington eventually eliminated the tax break but Boeing still reaps tens of millions of dollars in other state-level incentives tied to aerospace manufacturing .
It ’ s critically important to contextualize accidents that are the result of corporations putting profits over safety and people . These incidents are not isolated or unpredictable . They are the cost of doing business — a cost that the rest of us pay for in money and lives .
In 2023 , the U . S . Department of Labor investigated a complaint against Maersk and concluded that the company had violated the Seaman ’ s Protection Act by retaliating against a whistleblower employee . At stake was the fact that , as per the Labor Department , “ Reporting Policy requires seamen to report safety concerns to the company and allow it time to abate the conditions before reporting to the [ U . S . Coast Guard ] or other regulatory agencies .” In other words , Maersk , which is one of the world ’ s top shipping companies , tried to protect itself from government regulators .