Slaughterhouses are no doubt one of America's biggest businesses. The demand for meat inclines everyday, so workers must slaughter and produce the meat at a faster pace. Some work in conditions where the blood of the animals are ankle deep. We're always concerned about where the animals come from, but never the health of workers, seeing as though working in a slaughterhouse is a dangerous job.
The U.S. Department of Labor noted that the rate of illnesses and injuries for workers was more than twice as high as the national average. The rate of illnesses alone was more than ten times the national average. Workers are prone to receiving broken bones, deep gashes and amputated fingers and limbs. Precautions can be taken to minimize threats to worker safety. The production line speed can be at a pace where the employees in the slaughterhouse wont injure themselves or their coworkers.
Since companies want to maximize their profits, the production line speed is ridiculously high, putting the safety of the workers and the meat on the line. A study on slaughterhouse workers by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that half tested positive for campylobacter bacteria, which causes diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever. Conditions such as these are horrible to work in, but the big corporations don't seem to care. Why are there so little rights for these workers and why doesn't the government protect them?
Sources:
http://www.gracelinks.org/279/food-processing-slaughterhouses
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Slaughterhouse-workers--Dy-by-Lindsay-Rajt-080529-380.html
-Cheyenne
The conditions that the workers have to work in is absolutely horrible. No one should be risking their health and limbs for a small paycheck every month. It really surprised me when I learned that there's still working conditions like this since the Labor Union took action to protect the workers. It's surprising that since the U.S labor movement in the early 1800s, workers still have to put their health in danger. One of the reasons why workers are still put into these working conditions and not have the right to complain is because a lot of them are not citizens or legal permanent residents. Meat corporations hire these workers because they can pay them less and the workers can't complain because they are not protected by the laws of United States. This way, corporations can earn the maximum profits using lots of workers paying the minimum of paychecks to them. The government only protects it's citizens, not other government's citizens.
ReplyDelete"Today, approximately 38% of slaughterhouse and “meat”-processing workers were born outside"
"An unknown percentage of workers are undocumented. Many employers knowingly hire undocumented workers in an effort to satisfy the extremely high turnover rate of the industry, which often exceeds 100% annually.[3] In some cases, they provide incentives for current workers to recruit family and friends and even help new workers to create fake social security cards. Undocumented workers are constantly faced with the threat of deportation – either by their employer or by federal raids."
"Most workers are “at-will” employees, meaning they can be easily fired at a supervisor’s discretion. The threat of termination discourages workers from reporting safety concerns, injuries, or other serious issues. Supervisors use a variety of intimidation tactics to suppress workers’ concerns and make it clear that other people are always available to replace them. As a result, workers are conditioned to accept a hazardous and demeaning work environment if they want to remain employed."
Source:
- http://www.foodispower.org/slaughterhouse-workers/
Working Undercover in a slaughterhouse: an Interview with Timothy Pachirat
- http://boingboing.net/2012/03/08/working-undercover-in-a-slaugh.html
Fanny Comment Score: 20/20
DeleteCheyenne,
ReplyDeleteSolid post. Great writing! This is a really important topic and NOT just in the meat industry. There has been a lot in the news lately regarding sick time and the rights of workers. Have you heard about the tragedy in Bangladesh? You should check that story out.
Post Score: 30/30
This is so crazy how workers aren't even consider when they are working to benefit the government. Are these people immigrants or are they citizens that have no rights? Is there any type of union that they can create or is it just a certain company? I went inside your first article and found this "Federal health authorities have estimated that foodborne diseases sicken 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people), cause 128,000 hospitalizations, and kill 3,000 Americans every year. FLikewise, a number of studies have confirmed the presence of harmful bacteria in meat in the US. After collecting ground beef samples from meat processing plants around the country in 1996, the USDA determined that 7.5% of the beef samples were contaminated with Salmonella, 11.7% were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, 30% were contaminated with Staphylococcus Aureus, and 53.3% were contaminated with Clostridium perfringens. " This blue my mind how they have so much information but they are still mistreating their workers and that the government doesn't step in to help out these people. This is insane and has Americans we should fight for all workers to have unions because they're the reason we get food on our plate very night. Even if they are immigrants we should have a law that protects them because none the less they're human being that should have natural rights no matter where we are from. These rights should be consider by everyone. Great post, you make a valid point
ReplyDeleteSource: http://www.gracelinks.org/279/food-processing-slaughterhouses
Comment Score: 20/20
DeleteAlthough we are a long ways away from solving this problem about workers working in dangerous conditions, we cannot deny that there is some small change happening somewhere. According to pbs.org, "...Former Nebraska Governor Michael Johanns (currently U.S. Secretary of Agriculture) issued the "Nebraska Meatpacking Industry Workers Bill of Rights" in June of 2000. Though only a voluntary set of guidelines, the bill recognized the rights of meat packing employees to organize, work in safe conditions, and to seek help from the state". All things must start small before it becomes a huge revolutionary event. This gives me faith that someday workers can go to work and don't have to worry about loosing limbs. Pbs.org also goes on to say, "In early 2005, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants" which concluded that the working conditions in America's meat packing plants were so bad they violated basic human and worker rights. This was the first time the human rights organization had criticized a single a U.S. industry". "...The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there was an average of 12.6 injuries or illnesses per 100 full-time meat packing plant employees in 2005, a number twice as high as the average for all U.S. manufacturing jobs. Some experts maintain that this number is actually too low as many workers' injuries go unreported due to employee misinformation or intimidation". I think it's absolutely insane that even with all the illnesses and injuries reported there's still something missing due to things going unreported. What should be done about the treatment of workers? If there are records of people getting hurt and records that something is wrong because injury records should be higher, then why isn't anything being done about this?
ReplyDeleteSource:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/250/meat-packing.html
Comment Score: 20/20
ReplyDelete