There are times when her wrist still hurts, especially when she has to pull hard on the material she is working on. She cannot open a soda bottle and is known to spill coffee because she has no feeling in her hand. These individual incidents are indicative of larger problems. Health insurance can cost up to 33 percent of after-tax wages for many workers. Repetitive motion injuries are the rule rather than the exception at the Derby factory, and the company shows a complete unwillingness to provide some sort of compensation to their workers.
Workers are frightened to report their injuries because of intimidation and lack of job security.
Many people feel that they would not be able to meet the new standards because of the injuries that they have suffered. Currently, only four unpaid sick days are allowed per employee per year, and must be requested 16 to 24 hours in advance regardless of emergency circumstances. New Era is now proposing to provide only one sick-day per year. A member of management was even heard to remark that the company wanted to get rid of the 'deadwood,' or employees who have suffered injuries and cannot produce as fast as they used to.