The writer, Gabriel Winant, says many Americans die at work, and that the US Supreme Court, dominated by right-wing judges, will have a devastating impact on their rights. He wonders if things are getting worse.
In an article published in The Guardian, he tells the story of the black truck driver Alphonse Madden, who was driving a truck loaded with meat through Illinois in the winter of 2009 when the trailer brakes froze.
While the driver was waiting for his company's road service to repair the trailer brakes, he found that the heat in the truck cab was not what it should be.
Madden felt sleepy while the temperature was below freezing. When he awoke several hours later, he discovered that the road service for repair had not yet arrived. Some parts of his body were numb and he was stuttering from cold weather.
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The driver was only to remove the trailer from the trailer and drive it to safety.
Although he soon returned to pick up the shipment and complete the task, the employer "Trans Am" attacked him and complained through a lawsuit.
President Donald Trump appointed Judge Neil Gorstsch in the Supreme Court in 2017.
While the two other judges of the commission ruled in favor of Madin, Gorsch noted that the statute does not protect workers who refuse to operate equipment because of safety concerns.
The writer says Madin eventually won the case, but American workers are now living in Judge Gorstich's world.
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According to a report by the American Labor Federation and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (IFLA), five thousand and 190 workers have died in the US in 2016, and between 50,000 and 60,000 workers die each year, Work injury or illness.
The real estimate is between 7.4 and 11.1 million or work-related illness, the author says.
It is not surprising that colored workers and migrants are more vulnerable to injury, illness or death - because of their jobs - than white workers. The number of injuries caused by violence in the workplace has also increased significantly in the last decade.