Conditions in the U.S. Meatpacking Industry
Food Chain Workers Alliance May Day 2020 facebook photo demands protection for all
food workers.
COVID-19 has put the spotlight on the brutal, dangerous
and back-breaking conditions of the workers in the meat and poultry
processing industry in the U.S. It has also shone the light on the
control by the meat packing oligopolies over the entire sector, with
all its negative consequences. The massive size and productivity of
these plants make the owners all the more determined to keep them open
at any cost, and the federal and state authorities have been their
willing servants. Workers and their unions are speaking out about the
conditions which gave rise to large outbreaks in the meat and poultry
plants.
In addition to being dangerous, back-breaking, meat processing is an underpaid
job carried out by workers who are in many cases extremely vulnerable,
including undocumented workers, refugees, and other recent immigrants.
In the early 1980's, and before, the industry moved from major cities to
rural areas. With the help of the Reagan administration, the meat
oligarchs set out to destroy the unions.
Meat packing is concentrated in the Great Plains states
including South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, as well as in
Colorado, and Texas. The southern U.S. states also have significant
poultry production. There were not enough workers in the rural areas
for these massive plants, especially given the high turnover rate
because of the
terrible conditions of work. The companies instead functioned by
recruiting the most vulnerable and marginalized workers, including
refugees from southeast Asia and from Africa, and more recently from
Central and South America. About a third of the workforce is now
estimated to be made up of recent immigrants, and one in four
workers
are undocumented. Periodic raids conducted by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) are used to enforce this vulnerability and to serve as a
warning that attempts to defend their rights can have dire
consequences.
The brutality of the employers and the state in their
service has no bounds. The Atlantic reported on a raid in August 2019
on seven poultry plants in Mississippi. Six hundred ICE agents, armed
with guns and body armour, seized 680 mainly Latino workers. The
Atlantic reported that their children gathered outside the plant,
watching as their
parents were taken away. The raid exemplified state-organized racism,
taking place three weeks after a terrorist killing of 22 people in El
Paso, Texas where the gunman had targeted Mexican customers at a Walmart
out of a desire to halt "the Hispanic invasion of Texas."
This vulnerable work force experiences danger all round, working at breakneck speed with knives and saws, with thousands
of workers in a plant working elbow to elbow. The floors are slippery
with water and blood. According to reported injuries, U.S. meat workers
are three times as likely to be injured as the average worker in the
U.S. and
seven times as likely to suffer a repetitive strain injury. Every week
there are amputations, fractures, serious burns, head trauma, and other
serious injuries. In the poultry plants the use of chemicals causes
respiratory disease and other illnesses.
 Line
speeds in the U.S. are double those in Europe, and the speed is
dizzying. Industry averages in the U.S. range from 1,000 hogs per hour
to more than 8,000 chickens per hour. There is no way that workers can
follow guidelines such as covering their mouth while sneezing. Workers
in many plants face disciplinary action if they miss
even one piece of meat or poultry as it comes down the line at
lightning speed. In October 2019 the Trump administration eliminated
limits on production line speed in pork processing plants. Even as the
pandemic was raging, the Department of Agriculture issued waivers
allowing 15 poultry plants to increase their line speeds to as fast as
175
birds per minute. The statistics on the rate of injuries, which are
likely greatly under-reported, were compiled before speed restrictions
were removed.
Some parts of a meatpacking plant, like the kill floor,
are very hot, while others are like working in a refrigerator.
The cold is considered a factor in extending how long a virus can
survive outside a host, increasing the danger of coronavirus
transmission. It also contributes to the high incidence of arthritis
among packinghouse
workers.
The outbreaks which have taken a heavy toll on
packinghouse workers, their families and communities are a direct
result of the greed and drive for maximum profit of the oligarchs and
the fact that the public authority which could restrain them is no
more. It shows the need for a new direction in which the rights of the
workers are upheld, and
for a modern, sustainable agriculture and food industry with the aim of
providing safe and healthy food for all. The workers who are speaking in
their own name and exposing the criminal negligence of the oligarchs
are defending their own rights, but also the rights of all to food
security and safety.
This article was published in
Number 33 - May 12, 2020
Article Link:
Conditions in the U.S. Meatpacking Industry
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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