Carlos Receives a Prosthetic Hand In Reynosa

Over the weekend we accompanied Carlos to his final fitting for his prosthetic hand. Carlos was injured in a factory accident in 2008. His job involved operating a machine that put LG logos onto flat screen TVs. Carlos was asked to begin working on this machine his second day on the job. He hadn’t even completed his paperwork when his accident occurred. Carlos was just 3 days shy of his 19th birthday when his right arm and all of the fingers on his left hand were amputated as a result of the accident.

Carlos did not receive a cash settlement for his accident. All that he received was a small monthly disability pension from the government. Carlos has had the same prosthetic hand since his accident occurred over 7 years ago. The fingers have since fallen off and are held together with electrical tape. Thanks to generous donations from the public we were able to replace Carlos’ worn out prosthesis with a new one.

Despite the severity of his accident, Carlos was able to recover in the years following his accident. He is now married and has two young children. Carlos and his wife operate a small pet supply shop in Reynosa.

We hope that by sharing stories like Carlos’ we can create awareness among consumers about the conditions in offshore factories. Carlos’ story is not unique and these types of tragedies occur often.

It is time for consumers of products made in offshore factories to ask questions about where their products are made. It is time for us to ask corporations what the wages are in their factories and what kind of compensation they are giving to injured workers. It is time for us to ask how much effort they are putting into ensuring their worker’s safety in their offshore factories. It’s time for all of us to demand a living wage and a safe working environment for all workers everywhere.