The process of making meat has never been a particularly glamorous way of making ends meet, but 30 years ago meatpackers could expect to be entitled to their part of the American dream. Strong unions successfully lobbied for better pay and working conditions and meatpackers made enough to raise families in a home they owned. But times change-corporate agriculture behemoths like ConAgra and Tyson bought up their lesser peers and strong-armed unions into acquiescence as the pay and conditions of the industry progressively deteriorated.
Today there is no worse job in America. In meatpacking plants nationwide, employees slosh about in standing pools of blood as they slice into carcasses at a frenzied pace hour after hour. They wear chain-mail suits, reminiscent of medieval knights, to protect their torsos and arms from a slip of the knife they wield more than 10,000 times a day. Working conditions in even the most ideal facility would be disquieting to most of us, but the current conditions exceed even the most limited definition of a workplace suitable for human beings.
The conditions prompted Human Rights Watch to declare the working conditions in meatpacking plants so bad they violate basic human rights. The investigation concentrates on the conditions in plants under the holdings of three companies: Tyson Chicken, Smithfield Pork and Nebraska Beef.
The report tells of workers being asphyxiated by fumes of decaying matter, hands being routinely crushed and legs cut off. The report notes that meatpacking's injury rate is \three times higher than the combined rate of all of America's other private industries: 20 injuries per 100 meatpacking employees in 2001, versus 5.7 in all other industry.""
In addition to the frequency of injury, the industry is unique in regards to the degree of severity of the injuries. An investigative report of a Nebraska Beef plant in 2003 by the Omaha World-Herald, compiled from reports by the Occupational Health and Safety Organization, revealed there were almost 100 incidents of amputation or the crushing of body parts between 1999 and 2003.
Turning a five-pound chicken into nuggets is inherently dangerous work, but certain operational decisions enhance workplace dangers. According to the workers interviewed, it seems to be a deliberate policy of all three companies to provide as little training as they deem necessary. If you were to wander into a Smithfield Hog processing plant and get hired you could expect orientation to consist of being shown a video and then told to do what the person next to you was doing.
Furthermore, all of the safety equipment the government requires would be provided, but the companies would take it out of your paycheck. Many workers regard the initial equipment as a joke, and eventually bring whatever they have at home.
Most of us go to work knowing that if a work-related injury were to befall us, our employers would incur the subsequent medical costs. This, of course, would likely not be the case if we were employed by Smithfield and other poultry and meat companies. The reason this is the case is that Smithfield self-insures for all workers' compensation. Smithfield and other poultry and beef companies have a ""bottom-line"" incentive for denying compensation claims, because every claim they deny translates into money saved by the company.
Former Smithfield worker Melvin Grady suffered a torn Achilles' tendon when he slipped and fell on a greasy stairway. The on-site nurse sent him back to work, and when he finally reached the hospital, the staff there was stunned he could even walk. He had an operation and began receiving $170 weekly of workmens' compensation. After a month, he was informed that Smithfield had concluded his injury was not work-related and his compensation was terminated. He is now fighting them in the courts, but only after declaring bankruptcy.
To make matters even worse, the workforce is increasingly comprised of undocumented workers. These workers are a spectacular bargain, for they are eager to work, they don't complain and if they get hurt they can just be let go. Migrant workers are a seemingly infinite supply of cheap labor, which the companies have come to depend upon. When these workers are hurt, they are often fired and whenever they complain they are just as often reprimanded with one word from their immediate supervisors: ""migra.""
Given the horrendous circumstances in which the workers prepare our meat, it is no wonder why the rest of the Western world has switched to machine labor, because clearly the current conditions are not suitable for humans. The stories that describe how the workers are treated seem to infer that the industry has reverted back to the law of the jungle, because under no circumstances is their conduct excusable or acceptable in 2005.
opinion@dailycardinal.com.
