Eric Saucedo, 21, said he was hurt at his job in the oilfields of the Permian Basin but struggled to receive any medical treatment.
Saucedo, a lifelong Hobbs native, is presently unemployed after his injury.
Saucedo said the region lacked safe, stable jobs, and many oil and gas workers did not receive health benefits needed when they get hurt.
“It is not fair that our families have to pay with their health and safety and often their lives in order to have a job and provide for their families,” he said. “We are the economic drivers of the state’s economy, yet we are the most forgotten.”
About 57 percent of current and former oilfield workers surveyed in the Permian Basin were not provided health insurance by their employer, according to a recent study by the University of New Mexico.
Another 46 percent of respondents said they had an accident on the job, the report read, while just 21 percent got retirement benefits and 78 percent did not have access to unemployment.
The survey, commissioned by worker advocacy group Somos UnPueblo Unido and published by UNM’s Center for Social Policy, was released in January, aiming to show the conditions of workers in the booming Permian Basin oilfields and make policy recommendations for improvement.