nation-x

That is an easy judgement to make until your get screwed over by the company that you work for if you get hurt at work (for example). I have family and more than a dozen friends that have gotten hurt at work and later been totally screwed over by the company and workers comp. The ones that came out ok were union members... the rest got fucked including my Dad who had his left leg crushed at work when a ladder he was climbing up broke and he fell 30 feet. Later ended up having to spend his retirement on medical treatments that the company should have paid.

My Dad is a big dude - 6' 3" 300 lbs. He isn't fat... he is just big. I have seen him pick up the back of an S-10 pickup truck before. The company argued that he was overweight and got his leg crushed because of it. He had requested a new ladder 2 weeks before this happened because the one they provided was getting old and they told him to deal with it. The company approved doctor told him that he would never walk on that leg again and his own doctor said he would but needed surgery. Workers comp refused to pay for the surgery and told him that he had the right to appeal and the company told him that they would fight the appeal... he is a Republican and didn't appeal... he just used his own retirement to pay for it and he can still walk today. He never was able to get a job in the same field...

Another friend of mine is an electrician and he had something similar happen to him... he had a ladder break and he broke his collarbone and it did damage to the nerves in his shoulder. They tried every dirty trick in the book including saying he was on drugs... fortunately, he had gotten a drug test at the hospital that proved their assertion false (it is standard procedure for the ER to do a drug test). They fought but he was a member of a union and they represented him at no cost... and he ended up winning in the end. They paid all of his medical cost plus lost wages.