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PrintFor an entire year, Rosario Ramirez has avoided the Brooklyn tortilla factory where her long-term boyfriend and the father of her baby died in a terrible accident.
But she returned Tuesday to say a candlelight prayer for Juan Baten, as family friends questioned why the factory's owner is fighting to pay less in federal fines and hasn't helped the family financially.
Baten, a 22-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, was crushed to death last Jan. 24 after falling and getting caught in a dough-mixing machine at Tortilleria Chinantla.
"It has been so hard for me without him," said Ramirez at the vigil in front of the factory, clutching a candle with the image of the Lady of Mercy. "I think of him playing with our daughter, that's how I remember him."
If the machine's required safety guard had been in place, Baten's death would have been prevented, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which fined the Bushwick company more than $62,000 last summer.
Erasmo Ponce, Tortilleria Chinantla's owner, has contested the fines and is fighting to pay less - but he did put a guard on the machine that caused Baten's death, according to OSHA spokesman Ted Fitzgerald. According to Ramirez, Baten worked six nights a week, sometimes pulling 12-hour shifts. Current Chinantla workers told El Diario this week that while safety conditions have improved, they are still not being paid overtime.
Leo Rosales, a state Department of Labor spokesman, said the agency is investigating the factory but declined to give details.
Ponce did not return a call for comment.
"It seems like no one died here at all," said family friend Jose Munoz. "In one year the family has had no response from Chinantla or the authorities."
Although Ramirez and Baten called each other husband and wife, they never formally married - so Ramirez, 25, is not eligible for Baten's workers compensation benefits.
Daughter Daisy Stefanie, now one-and-a-half, gets bi-weekly workers compensation payments of about $200 until she turns 18, or 23 if she goes to college full-time.
But Ramirez, who now works cleaning houses, said that Ponce has not fulfilled promises to help their family - and she's still upset about what she says Ponce's wife told her right after Baten's death.
"She said, 'you're young, you can find another husband,’" Ramirez said.
OSHA inspectors found similar violations at two other Brooklyn tortilla factories after the deadly accident. Both La Tortilleria Mexicana Los Tres Hermanos and Buena Vista Tortillas have since settled with the feds and have begun to pay fines of $15,000 each, said Fitzgerald.
“Juan Baten was killed because of Tortilleria Chinantla’s reckless disregard for his health and safety,” said Daniel Gross from Brandworkers, the workers advocacy group that organized the vigil. “That disregard is increasingly common in New York City’s food supply chain. There’s a real risk of this happening again.”
