A 22-year-old man died earlier this morning after falling into a tortilla mixing machine at the Tortilleria Chinantla factory in East Williamsburg. According to the Daily News, he was "crushed" when he "fell into a waist-high tub that was mixing dough about 2:25 a.m." The half-dozen other workers at the plant were unable to pull him out, and police pronounced him dead at the scene.
The Tortilleria Chinantla employee was pinned by a metal blade which was not sharp but powered by a strong motor. Police don't suspect criminality, but are investigating whether the plant had any safety violations. The tortilleria has been operating out of Brooklyn since 1992.
[UPDATE] Workers' rights campaign Focus On The Food Chain released this statement about worker Juan Baten's death:
We are deeply saddened by the killing early this morning of a young immigrant worker, Juan Baten, at a non-union Brooklyn food processing facility, and are extremely concerned about how workplace conditions may have led to his death. While it's too soon to make specific conclusions about the crushing death at the Chinantla tortilla factory, Focus on the Food Chain organizers report that the workplace appears emblematic of the adverse conditions facing immigrant workers in a large swath of processing and distribution companies that supply food products to many of New York City's markets and restaurants.
Tortilleria Chinantla is located in the heart of an industrial zone of food sweatshops in Brooklyn and Queens marred by long hours through the night, under-staffing, and inadequate training and other safety precautions for workers, who are mostly recent immigrants from Latin America and China. The thousands of workers in this sector play a critical role in the food supply chain; they prepare, process, and deliver food in bulk where it ends up on our plates in restaurants or in grocery store aisles. Yet, it is largely an invisible workforce where many unscrupulous employers engage in wrongdoing far from the public eye. The Focus campaign is investigating the death at Tortilleria Chinantla and will continue shedding light on the conditions facing these workers as well as the organizing, legal, and advocacy efforts to create good, safe jobs in the sector.
