Subcontractor Tells Fukushima Workers To Hide Radiation Exposure

First time accepted submitter fredprado writes "Apparently at least one subcontractor hired to clean up the Fukushima site has been urging their workers to put their radiation detectors lined under lead shieldings. A diagram can be seen here. The authorities decided not to prosecute him, even after one employee presenting them recordings of him trying to talk the said employee into it."

Comments

Re:This is why we need more unions and more worker

[jfengel]

And how are they supposed to do that? Individual workers calling their Senators up on the phone, each one of them telling the Senator something slightly different from the last one? Senators don't take phone calls from workers. They take phone calls from executives.

Actually, they don't take phone calls from either. They take phone calls from lobbyists, people with whom they have a relationship and who have worked with them before. Corporate management has plenty of money to hire them. Individual workers don't.

They can, however, get together and pool their money to hire a lobbyist. We should make up a name for such a unified group of people.

Doesn't work.

[rsilvergun]

Really. It doesn't. Globalism Breaks Capitalism. Period. It's that simple. You are completing on the global stage. Your employer is not. You can't win. You can't keep up. They will import desperate workers from impoverished countries. You will compete with them for food and shelter. Automation makes you disposable and obsolete. You can't work elsewhere, because there are very few jobs (automation) and there are lots of people to do those jobs (globalism).

Free market Capitalism is fundamentally broken. Adam Smith wasn't a futurist. He had no vision. Ayn Rand was just a little woman afraid of a nasty dictator. Get over your fear, and learn to face facts. Adam couldn't, Ayn couldn't. Can you?

Re:Doesn't work.

[rrohbeck]

Many people have recognized this.
And many intellectuals have come to recognize Karl Marx as what he was: A great economist.

Re:Doesn't work.

[sjames]

It's worth noting that Smith strongly advocated market regulation. He warned that inadequate or incompetent regulation of the market would lead to exactly the sorts of problems we're having now. He further warned against anything like corporate personhood as that would remove moral thinking from economic decisions.

The so-called proponents of Smith's Capitalism are VERY selective about which parts they implement and 100% of his warnings have fallen on deaf ears. They are just as bad as the fundamentalist Jihadists who like to skip over all the bits about not killing 'people of the book'.

Re:Doesn't work.

[mwvdlee]

No. On the contrary. You need a government to tell COMPANIES what they can and cannot do.

Governments are supposed to represent the citizens, therefore they should do whatever best helps their citizens.

If that means companies have to comply to all kinds of rules and regulations then I see no problem in that. Companies wouldn't mind either, because they are not living things. Managers and shareholders might not like it, but they're citizens like everybody else, and their well-being is no less of more important than that of anybody else.

Re:This is why we need more unions and more worker

[ohnocitizen]

Unions can curb criminal behavior on the part of corporations. Of course, unions being organized power, are also susceptible to being abused as well. Arguing against having any watchmen at all is a bit silly, but we need to also consider who watches the watchmen.

Re:one good result:

[circletimessquare]

it's ok to think the government would do a poor job at providing for our health

but it's insane to think corporations would do a better job

therefore, you choose government

for example, those europeans with universal healthcare live longer than americans, and pay less for their healthcare

because the american model is not about our health, it is about maximizing profit

Re:This is why we need more unions and more worker

[artor3]

This is why we need more unions and more workers rights.

and they should be able to use contractors and subcontractors to get out being liable.

Actually, in the US, this kind of ridiculously dangerous behavior would be covered by OSHA laws.

OSHA laws which only exist thanks to unions.

Re:This is why we need more unions and more worker

[Yvanhoe]

You are talking about America. In most countries, what Americans call "lobbying" is called "corruption" ans is illegal.

Re:This is why we need more unions and more worker

[riverat1]

By that logic corporations should also be illegal.

Re:one good result:

[lessthan]

Because I have better things to be doing. (Like posting on Slashdot.) The problem with self-reliance is that it requires you to be an expert at everything you do. Not just proficient, but an expert. If the healthcare company includes a screw-you clause and you miss it, then you are screwed. Think of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The insurance companies sold many people hurricane insurance. A lot of people lost their houses to the storm surge, which the insurance claimed was "flood damage" and, if you didn't have flood insurance, you were out of luck.

Re:one good result:

[shutdown -p now]

Yes, insurances can be tricky and sometimes companies find loopholes to screw you, but, on the other hand, governments are incapable of providing a service with similar or better quality in high population countries. The only countries where public health care really works are countries where the population is relatively small.

This is manifestly false. As GP noted, all first world countries with public healthcare show better bang for the buck in that department than does US with its privatized healthcare model. This is regardless of whether they are countries of 3 million or 80 million.