For workers, onsite injuries rewrite permanently the meaning of the sweat they freely
sacrifice in performing their jobs.
Although they’re allowed to sweat all they want, site bosses won’t let them use the
bathroom on the clock. Workers hired from Southeast Asia to build high-rises and
highways in Taiwan live in crowded cement dorms where emergency exits open
in fancy, well-kempt reception rooms. Some shocked by high voltage electric lines
lose limbs; some suffer ruptured eardrums or irreversible hearing loss because of
construction site noise. Taiwan’s immigrant workers will live the rest of their life with
the physical scars of working here.
While physical deformities are shocking to see, and stigma and prejudice are divisive,
glimmers of hopeful, restorative light remain. Joining together, the powerless can fight
the injustice of their situation, raise their voices to resist discriminatory treatment,
shake the foundations of class and gender oppression, and end the loneliness felt by
victims of an unfair system.