my wife worked on an oil rig in Wyoming out of high school because there aren’t a lot of jobs that pay that well for someone without access to college. She was a driller and then a supervisor after the crew supervisor was killed during their shift. She saw multiple people die and loose limbs and she got pretty bad ptsd from watching a friend get decapitated by a chain that went loose and catching his head in her hands.
Shifts are often 20+ hours at a time with an 8-10 hour break between shifts for at least two weeks at a time and then a week off. Rigs are normally understaffed which make it worse and a lot of people on rigs turn to drug use just to be able to stay awake during their shifts. But it’s a job that pays a lot in rural and low income communities for people who don’t have a lot of options. A lot of people go in knowing they’ll maybe die but at least their families won’t have to work afterwards because of life insurance policies from the companies they work for.
I know this post was probably just meant as a joke post the whole thing with Joe Biden and fracking but like sometimes it shows that people who post these things don’t know a ton about what they’re talking about. It remains one of the most lethal jobs worldwide. Switching from oil/natural gas to sustainable energy sources will take time to transition and right now we have millions working in drilling with odds stacked against them. Republicans don’t care about oil workers’ lives because they can be used to make a profit and the left hates them because of a career they didn’t have a lot of choice in choosing.
The oil field is like the military where largely low income and marginalized individuals get preyed upon by an organization that doesn’t care if they live or die. Fracking and drilling being bad for the planet and needing an end and oil workers being worthy of concern because their lives are treated as disposable are two ideas that can coexist.
class solidarity must extend to ALL workers, not just workers of sectors you approve of.
People dont realise that you cant just replace fracking jobs with green energy and expect everyone to jump on board. Unless a huge amount fo resources are directed at low income areas (which never happenes), and that goes towards education and training in the eco sector, these people will be left jobless.
Yall Americans jump on board when the brits complain about Margaret Thatcher. But do remember why we do? The most infamous thing she did was shut down the UK’s coal mines without giving the low income workers any support. Changing energy sources is inevitable as society progresses. But conservative treating the working class like shit always seems to continue.
This is why trump won is 2016. The racists were always gonna vote for him. But it’s the poor workers in the rust belt that really voted trump in. The Republicans would rather kill the environment than giving money to the working class. The Democrats would rather lose the election than give money to the working class. Neither of them want to do the only thing that could save this situation and the plant.
To the poor working class it looks like Democrats want to destroy the only livelihood they have access to - this is what we should focus on changing in our policies if we want to start making inroads in the communities that were so influential in the Labor Movement.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
