That's unusual in the auto industry. Usually, plants run a second shift rather than paying overtime to the first shift. It's cheaper. Accident rates go up and quality goes down as employees get tired. You have to have a meal break in there, which costs more line downtime than a shift change.

Are there no unions involved?

Or was he making tons of money because of overtime so didn't care until it became a critical health problem?

Sounds like both the employee and the employer were falling down on the job of ensuring safe working practices. Not to mention lax regulation.

Hopefully the pay is decent and they were non-exempt. Otherwise, salary makes you into someone's bitch.

When your job involves pulling down a hanging drill, and the worse injury a person can expect is tennis elbow, that's not too bad.

Also, yes, poor people work 12-16 hours a day. It was certainly the case when I worked at a grocery store years ago, at least.