Worker Killed at SpaceX, a Monopoly Long Accused of Neglecting Safety – The Worker Newspaper
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25-year-old construction worker Jose Luis Bautista was killed at SpaceX’s South Texas Starbase facility on May 15 after the scaffolding he was standing on collapsed, falling to his death.
Bautista was part of a crew sent to replace an unstable beam at the facility. He was standing on a scissor lift while working on the 58-foot-tall beam when the beam collapsed, tipping over the lift, causing him to fall to his death. SpaceX has not commented on the incident.
Bautista’s death is part of a history of workplace injuries and deaths resulting from SpaceX’s disregard for worker safety. Monopoly media company Reuters reported in 2023 that SpaceX’s injury rate was six times higher than the industry average; however, according to the report, the company’s true injury rate may be even higher due to underreporting.
According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records, a part flew off a rocket in 2022, fracturing a worker’s skull and putting him in a coma. In 2023, a worker was killed after being thrown from a trailer. In 2024, a roll of unsecured heavy material led to the near amputation of a worker’s foot. In 2025, OSHA cited SpaceX for seven “serious” safety violations, as well as an additional citation—since settled—for failing to report an incident that led to "inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or the loss of an eye.”
A former SpaceX engineer told Reuters, “Elon’s concept that SpaceX is on this mission to go to Mars as fast as possible and save humanity permeates every part of the company. The company justifies casting aside anything that could stand in the way of accomplishing that goal, including worker safety.”
SpaceX creates aerospace technology with the goal of making access to space “as routine as air travel,” according to its website, and boasted revenue of $18.7 billion in 2025. The company is principally owned and directed by monopoly capitalist Elon Musk, currently the world’s richest person.
Musk has consistently expressed disregard for the safety of workers across the various companies he owns. In 2018, he tweeted a video of himself waving a flamethrower around at a tunnel-boring facility. In 2020, he ordered Tesla workers in Fremont, California, to return to work despite a county-wide stay-at-home order during rampant COVID-19 transmission. In 2023, he told SpaceX employees not to wear safety vests because he disliked bright colors. In 2024, through SpaceX, he sued the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), arguing that the agency’s structure was unconstitutional after the NLRB said the company had unlawfully fired workers who criticized him.
OSHA, the government body tasked with ensuring “occupational safety” for workers, has done little to hold Musk and SpaceX accountable beyond levying fines totaling less than $200,000 against the SpaceX monopoly—a nominal amount for a company that has received $11.8 billion in U.S. military contracts.
Just one week after Bautista’s death, SpaceX carried out its latest launch of the Starship rocket from the Starbase facility on May 22.
Image: Jose Luis Bautista. Credit: Hawkins Funeral Home.
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