Germany – Red League: Leaflet on the Death of a Worker in Bremen

We hereby share an unofficial translation of a leaflet published by the Red League (Roter Bund) on October 23.

To the Workers at the Freight Transport Center

We want to express our dismay and our solidarity to the family and colleagues of the young worker who lost his life last week at the freight transport center. It is gruesome for such a young life to end from one day to the other.

We did not know the colleague. When we heard the news we asked ourselves how “voluntary” a 24-year-old ends up having to work on Hebero boats in the middle of the night during the week. The death of the young colleague is not only tragic, we believe it to be an expression of the fact that to some people money is more important than human lives. Everybody knows that there is high pressure in the logistical sector, because the exploitation by some financial kings is especially grave here. This high stress increases the risk of workplace accidents. We all know the presentations that bore you to tears instead of practical instructions, and a rushed “it just has to work like this,” and a lot is ignored in questions of workplace safety.

Year after year there are hundreds of deaths by workplace accidents, as for example four years ago when a driver was struck dead by a container. Last year a worker died in April while dismantling the ferris wheel at the Osterwiese [translator’s note: local yearly festival]. The worse jobs we work – the higher the exploitation – the higher the mortal danger.

What did the colleague die for last week? So that tall shelves could be filled with merchandise to be quickly sold or installed, so that more millions and billions can flow into the pockets of a handful of board members and bankers, that live in the lap of luxury paid for by our work! Who cares about the colleague? Not even a public statement! They only care about their numbers, to benefit the most they can from the work that we do! One can feel that in logistical work very directly – second by second, pallet by pallet, from life to death. We say that this was not a tragic accident. We say it was

MURDER THROUGH WORK!

We denounce the ones for whose profits this young worker had to give his live and demand a public statement!

RED LEAGUE