When most people eat meat, they hardly give a thought as to how that piece of meat arrived onto their plate. At most, people only consider the slaughtering of the actual animal. It is not clear if the population chooses to turn a blind eye or if they are genuinely ignorant of the people who work in the meatpacking plants. Although immigrants have always ben working in the meat industry however due to changes in the meatpacking plants that led to faster production, companies now with the intention of cutting costs and raising profits are exploiting their immigrant workers by forcing them to work in unsafe conditions with no intention of improvement.
Attention to the meat industry and its’ practices were first brought up to public attention
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Workers in the meat industry face hazardous work conditions and any attempt to make an improvement is quickly silenced or discouraged (Human Rights Watch 1). With the new plants, the meat industry has improved their speed. But with this new speed, work often becomes dangerous for those who must use knives to cut into the meat. In the report ”Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers’ Rights in U.S Meat and Poultry Plants” it is revealed that a lack of a proper training, safety precautions, and sufficient space make work difficult and dangerous for the employees and those around them. Due to the unsafe working conditions, many employees fear losing a body part or even their life. Companies don’t offer assistance; instead they strip workers of a basic human right to work in safe conditions by using intimidation and fear to make their employees submissive (Human Rights Watch 1). They even go as far to deny compensation for any work-related injuries. Although statistics have shown that the industry has stepped up for safer conditions and equipment, causing illness and work related injuries to decrease dramatically, one can’t be sure if the results are actually due to the improvements or if companies are failing to report the injuries (Cohen 2). Companies have been known to intimidate their illegal employees by …show more content…
Their rights include the freedom to organize, the right to be paid fairly for their services, and the right to work under safe conditions (Gaston and Harrison 2). Although the government passed legislation to help the workers, it does little for the employees since the companies always have the upper hand. Despite the Immigration Reform and Control Act (which made employers liable for hiring illegal immigrants) being passed, employers still intimidated employees by threatening to call immigration services (Gaston and Harrison 3). Despite employers being held responsible for hiring illegal immigrants, the companies would face several fines, whereas the employee could face time in prison, making the employees carry all the
It is not just the animals who are being treated wrongly. The workers are vulnerable and suffer from injuries on a daily basis. This workforce requires so much protection, such as chainmail outfits to protect themselves from tools. From cuts, sprains, to amputations, “ The injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory.” (238). Many immigrants come to the states, some illegally. Companies give their supervisors bonuses when they have little reported injuries as a reward for a spectacular job. Regardless, these supervisors do not make attempts to make the work environment safer. They threaten the employees with their jobs. They will put injured employees on easier shifts to heal so it will not look suspicious as to why they are in pain. Next to failing to report injuries, women in the slaughterhouses suffer from sexual assault. Male coworkers pressure women into dating and sex. Reported cases include men using animal parts on them in an explicit manner, making work another kind of nightmare. All this corruption and lack of respect for workers is all for a cheap meal people buy when they have the
It is unjust that workers have to cover up their injuries in order to continue with their jobs or else they suffer unemployment or cuts to their wage. I’ve seen people trying work even if they were sick, but the supervisors would always send them home. The attitudes of the female workers in the slaughterhouses should also be considered – using sex to gain security in a workplace is unethical. There should be no need for people to get a more secure job just by doing sexual favors, regardless of whether it is consensual or not. I believe stricter observation of laws must be enforced to reduce the lack of safety and the corruption in the slaughterhouse work environment. There is nothing worse than an unsafe working environment.
The beginning of Meat Inspection Act seemed to be at 1904, after “The Jungle” of Sinclair published. In fact, it started twenty years earlier, the regular law, used to satisfy Europe, the largest meat export market, but in 1865 Congress passed an act to prevent the importation of diseased cattle and pigs. Because of disease, European like Italian, French, and English restricted or banned the importation meat, and they turned to another supplier. Some bills were introduced but they failed to gather sufficient support. May 1884, Bureau of Animal Industry was established, it was doing good job in fighting Europe restrictions, helping the packers, but not helping the domestic consumers. March 1891, the first major meat inspection law was passed; some country removed the prohibitions on importing American pork. It distressed the European packing industry as well. So, they imposed more standards. Government had to do more action; major percent meat slaughtered was inspected. Some of companies exploited the law, but most of them, especially big companies agreed with the committee in 1902. In 1904, Smith, who was a great information aid to Sinclair, published a series of articles in The Lancet...
Today we see the labor reforms put in place along with organizations that hold business to safety precautions like OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Association. Today, worker’s fight for higher minimum wage but outside of America, there are worker’s fighting for the same rights we did back in the 1900’s. Back in 2013, in Bangladesh, a series of fires occurred. This raised questions about safety and treatment of workers. Within a few months, the government allowed the garment workers to form trade unions along with a plan to raise the minimum wage. And soon after, the United States pushed for Bangladesh to improve their labor standards. All of this happened within half a year, where back in the 1900’s it took over 50 years, starting with the coal miners. Without the workers as a sturdy base for the business, the company with crumble and fall. And without those businesses to help the economy grow, the government will cease to
...es of cattle, which resulted in the increase of suicidal reports. Slaughterhouses and meatpacking companies have amplified the amount of cattle slaughtered each hour to fulfill the amount of meat consumed in the United States due to the cause of fast food. The damage that fast food had placed on illegal immigrant workers and sanitary workers that are employed in slaughterhouses are as much as murdering the men and women, minute by minute. The growth of fast food is too fast for our voices to be heard and fast food had implemented too much innovation in agriculture today for us to fix. We can still change the society that we live in today, as long as we withdraw our arrogant and selfish thoughts on fast food and think of ways to improve and recover what the fast food industry had done.
Most companies are just out there to make money and not care for the welfare of their employees. It may be difficult to see this as business has always been portrayed as a stimulator of the economy and always on the lookout for its employees. However, this is only because the companies that abide by such practices are given as examples and not the ones that do poorly. We oftentimes complain about the little petty things in life when we should be worried about the people who are suffering in our world. The saying always goes; you never know what you have till it’s gone. Unfortunately, this saying corresponds particularly well this
The. The "Meat Industry" Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, n.d. -. Web.
In the early twentieth century, at the height of the progressive movement, “Muckrakers” had uncovered many scandals and wrong doings in America, but none as big the scandals of Americas meatpacking industry. Rights and responsibilities were blatantly ignored by the industry in an attempt to turn out as much profit as possible. The meat packers did not care if poor working conditions led to sickness and death. They also did not care if the spoiled meat they sold was killing people. The following paper will discuss the many ways that rights and responsibilities were not being fulfilled by the meat packing industry.
The momentum generated by the passage of the Meat Inspection Act helped secure the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which had been stalled in Congress since 1905. With these two pieces of legislation, the federal government took important steps to assure the public that the food they were eating met minimu...
In a review the website writes that “Slaughterhouse is the first book in which workers in the meat industry speak publicly about what is actually taking place in America’s slaughterhouses.” This particular book shined light to the graphic and very disturbing facts that factory farms are providing all types of products at the expense of the lives of innocent animals. The book is able to bring forth evidence and enticing information that is hard to miss by the reader because at one point or another, this matter was meant to come to light. The review goes further in illustrating “Eisnitz 's investigation with a single complaint from a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) worker alleging that cattle there are having their heads skinned while fully conscious. This single complaint becomes a full-scale, groundbreaking investigation.” Slowly but steadily, Eisnitz was able to figure the puzzle out and attract the attention of individuals and organizations who are particularly found of advocating for animal rights. The book itself had testimonies from workers who would deliberately beat, “strangle, boil, or dismember animals alive. Today’s slaughter line does not stop for anything: Not for injured workers, not for contaminated meat, and least of all, not for sick or disabled animals.” This is the driving force of individuals who have no other
“If you live in a free market and a free society, shouldn’t you have the right to know what you’re buying? It’s shocking that we don’t and it’s shocking how much is kept from us” (Kenner). For years, the American public has been in the dark about the conditions under which the meat on their plate was produced. The movie, Food Inc. uncovers the harsh truths about the food industry. This shows that muckraking is still an effective means of creating change as shown by Robert Kenner’s movie, Food Inc. and the reforms to the food industry that followed its release.
During the Progressive era, consumer safety was a hot issue. In Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, there were many disturbing things the American people learned about the meat packing industry. After people saw that their meat had dead rats and tuberculosis many did not want to buy any meat. People were disgusted by the things that they could buy without knowing what it was. This brought about stricter health codes and made the consumers have a little more peace of mind.
The purpose of this report is to discuss my opinion on the question “Do I agree with the recommendations of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in regards to work safety particularly when it comes to immigrant workers?” I will provide information on past and current safety related issues as they apply to the meat packing industry and immigrant workers. I will discuss the recommendations of the HRW. I will provide my opinion and consider some of the utilitarian and deontological considerations, and conclude this report with a brief summary of the entire analysis, highlighting some of the most significant parts that the report contains
...hen rules and the enforcement of them in the meatpacking industry and slaughterhouses. However, Schlosser disregards to provide a solution. He simply points the finger and leaves the reader depressed, without means or logic to correct the situation. After reading, we enthusiastically agreed with Schlosser when he pulled on our emotional series. His logic was also substantial in this chapter with his thorough research and extensive truthful support. However, because he does not offer any solution to the problem, it diminished significantly from his argument. Although Schlosser's argument cannot be labeled an attack, in our minds, it certainly became nothing short of an overly emotional, well-jointed rage. Schlosser uses these numbers to show the errors of certain meat packing companies and in turn, how this has caused massive illness and injury to the general public.
few ideas on the following subject. For many years, the meat packing industry of this