This is truly the groundbreaking chapter of Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. It’s hard to imagine that the drive for immediate cheap food can lead to this. Just how far will companies such as IBP go to make the greatest profit? Not just how far will they go, but how far will we let them go? America is believed to be a nation of equality. We want other countries and nations to believe that we are nation that gives any and all an equal opportunity for all human beings, but this is not so. The fact that a horrendous company such as IBP is still in business is horrible. They have proven time over time that they will not change their policy of putting production over employee safety. Numerous men have been killed in these slaughterhouses and according to Schlosser, “the fine was $480 for each man’s death” (Schlosser 178). It’s obvious that these companies are not learning from repeated fines. Are low beef prices worth countless human deaths? Not only are these companies being negligent to the safety of their employees, they also lie to OSHA regarding their injury logs. Schlosser states, “At the IBP beef plant in Dakota City, Nebraska, for example, the company kept two sets of injury logs . . . the first log recorded 1800 injuries . . . the OSHA log recorded only 160—a discrepancy of more than 1000 percent” (179-180). This slaughterhouse had blatantly lied about their number of injuries in order to receive a bonus at the end of the fiscal year. The true absurdity to this finding was that once in court, according to Schlosser, “Robert L. Peterson was never charged with perjury for his misleading testimony before Congress” (180). I find it very odd that even when a legitimate case is held against the head of any head of these major corporations, they are always never convicted of any crime. Are we so desperate for cheap goods that we let the guilty appear innocent?
How can hiding injuries help a company? What else can OSHA do to get around the problems that are arising in factories around America?
“Carcasses swing so fast along the rail that you have to keep an eye on them constantly, dodge them, watch your step, or one will slam you and throw you onto the bloody concrete floor. It happens to workers all the time” (Schlosser 170). This quote was the first thing that caught my attention. It is as if these workers are playing human/cattle dodge ball, and at the end of the day they want to be the one left standing. “The injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory,” men and women everywhere fear for their lives every day because the factories that they work in are the most dangerous place to work (172). How is it comforting to go to a job that you need, knowing that there could be a day that you come home missing a body part or you do not come home at all? “…The Bureau of Labor Statistics, understate the number of meatpacking injuries that occur. Thousands of additional injuries and illnesses most likely go unrecorded” (172). To think that there are many people that are hurt, but never get the compensation for their injuries because their supervisors want the money that comes with a smaller number of injuries. These ignored injuries also came about because of OSHA and the cuts that affected them. In 1981, OSHA was required to “look at a company’s injury log before setting foot inside the plant” (179). This led the supervisors to encouraging their workers to not record injuries so that they could bypass an OSHA inspection. “While the number of serious injuries rose, the number of OSHA inspections fell” (179). The supervisors found their way around the law, and put their workers and themselves in danger. OSHA was formed for a reason and I think going behind and changing numbers is only causing more problems in the long run. IBP was even keeping “two sets of injury logs” and “routinely lied to OSHA” (182). A company will never get more productive if their workers can no longer work for them.
This section in Fast Food Nation about the meatpacking industry reminds me of the video on steel processing mills we watched the other day in class because of how the implications on the market, already taken mostly by monopolies, pushes the pace or drive in production to maximize profits by maximizing percentage of the quantity sold which eventually causes high costs in the lives of the employees. The meatpacking industry claims “more than one quarter of the meatpacking workers in this country- roughly forty thousand men and women- suffer an injury or a work-related illness that requires medical attention beyond first aid” (Schlosser 172). The steel industry video showed that most of the injuries acquired on the job go unrecorded with no responsibility for the injury. So, if one whole quarter of the injuries are actually recorded, then how many injuries actually occur? The “IBP Revolution” sprung a jumpstart in the factories that make them “fully-staffed [where they are inches apart from each other]” and the strive for maximizing profits directly rates to the “speed of the line” (Schlosser 174). Where workers are so close, and they are forced to work as fast as they can due to fear from being fired because of their “at will employment,” which means “they can be fired without warning, for just about any reason,” the amount of injuries is hardly surprising. Not only these conditions, but they are also “wielding large knives” and acquire many injuries such as “missing fingers, broken bones, deep lacerations, and amputated limbs” (Schlosser 175). Much like Marco from the video, the man Kenny suffered a back injury (that completely pierced it) against a conveyor belt then went to the company doctor that bandaged his back and said it was a muscle sprain (Schlosser 187). After weeks of being in terrible pain, Kenny went to a second doctor that said he had a pair of severely herniated disks. Not only that, but the stress and financial issues caused by this caused him to lose his marriage. The same idea throughout not only the meatpacking industry, but all of big business is that at the cost of the workers and employees, big companies are allowed to push for max profits. word count: 372 1. Why are health inspections and safety protocol inspections taking a backseat with so many jobs packed in places like this? 2. Does workers' comp completely cover or at least side with the worker or do the monopolies completely lobby or influence the laws passed by this?
There is no equality in Schlosser's novel. The form of equality I speak of is the sort Aristotle speaks of in Nichomachean Ethics. Aristotle takes Plato's ideas of justice of the self, and extends them to include justice of those one comes into contact with. With this, he speaks of it in an economic form, where "currency, like a unit of measure, equalizes things by making them commensurable, for there would be no community if there were not exchange, and no exchange if there were not equality, and not equality if there were not commensurability" (Aristotle 1133b, 16-19), and where "what is lawful is equitable" (1129b, 1). Equality cannot be maintained when companies have "two sets of injury logs [where] one of them [is] recording every injury and illness...[while] the other [is] provided to visiting OSHA inspectors...[with] a discrepancy of more than 1000 percent" (Schlosser 180). The latter log having failed to include "serious injuries such as fractures, concussions, major cuts, hernias, some requiring hospitalization, surgery, even amputation" (180). Equality cannot be maintained when "the annual bonuses of plant foremen and supervisors are often based in part on the injury rate of their workers" (175). Schlosser equates production supervisors to a "little dictator in his or her section of the plant, largely free to boss, fire, berate, or reassign workers" (176). One would assume that equality could be reached if fines and penalties could fill the gap in between the harsh lives of workers and their employers. The largest fine in Schlosser's novel is one that was reduced to "$975,000---a sum that might have appeared large at the time, yet represented about one one-hundredth of a percent of IBP's annual revenues" (180). Schlosser speaks of Colorado's new law regarding workers compensation caims, where "the payment for losing an arm is $36,000. An amputated finger gets you anywhere from $2,200 to $4,500...and 'serious permanent disfigurement about the head, face, or parts of the body normally exposed to public view' entitles you to a maximum of $2,000" (185). Apart from my view of this being inhumane, Schlosser gives a sarcastic rationalization, claiming that "every penny spent on worker's comp is one less penny of corporate revenue" (184). Aristotle speaks of how every violation of the law stems from "the injustice [that] comes from making the profit" (Aristotle 1130a, 28). By this, he means that a profit is made whenever something is taken from an individual, where one has more and the other has lost. It is clear that those who have lost are the workers, and those who have gained are those who employed them.
If a corporation is, by law, given the ability to purchase/own land and vote, why are they not prosecuted like humans?
In the novel Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, the conditions of the meat packing industry are shocking and not what the general population would expect. Besides the immense amount of deaths told throughout the book, the causality in which the author talks about amputations is appalling. So many of these injuries would be seen as an outrage among a normal middle class job. If someone lost their arm in a copy machine in a law office, it would be a major event and the person would be given the attention they needed. These people get pushed off to the side and ignored even by the doctors and nurses who have taken an oath to help their patients to the best of their abilities. Not only do they have trouble trying to get the people within their company to help them when they are hurt, they also have a hard time getting “proper medical treatment and benefits once they’ve been hurt” (Schlosser 184). When the system that these people are operating in is already built to fail them, it does not help when the people that are above them are breaking the law in order to keep the horrible things they are doing a secret. When Robert L. Peterson was found to have lied under oath to Congress, he “was never charged with perjury for his misleading testimony” (180). Even Bill Clinton was put through more for his false testimony about his extra-marital relations than this man was for his covering up the harm of countless human lives. The devaluation of human life seems to be the root of the problem with so much of these industries. Big companies focus more on the bottom line and not on how it takes to get there. When the route they are taking, they would not be willing to take themselves, it should be time to reevaluate their strategy. Word Count: 316
It seems that by the late 1990’s, meat companies were prepared to risk whoever, and whatever they needed to risk in order to make the largest profit possible. They routinely sacrificed integrity, and even human lives just to ensure maximum revenue. They clearly had no regard for loyalty, as Schlosser described in his recount of Kenny’s 16 years of employment at Monfort, or the law. It was clear that the companies could not have cared less for the safety or comfort of their employees. They made little, if any, effort to make the factories tolerable places. Fueled by the need to keep costs down, and the desire to keep profits up, these companies broke laws and lied about breaking said laws. Everyone, from the top executives, to the floor supervisors had a hand in the corruption of these companies. Edward Murphy, a former safety director for Monfort told Congress, “The first commandment is that only production counts…The employee’s duty is to follow orders. Period. As I was repeatedly told, ‘Do what I tell you, even if it is illegal…Don’t get caught.’”(182) It was practically company policy to lie, and cheat the system, and break the law. It was part of the job. It makes sense that the companies would refuse to adhere to safety laws and regulations. The chances that they would be caught were next to none. Why spend money on proper railing, lighting, repairs, clothing, masks, or supplies if no one was going to make sure they were in place, if no one cared to check for them? If putting in precautions that would never be inspected decreased productivity and profits, it seems smarter if they were simply never bought. And if some unfortunate worker were to get hurt as a result of the unsafe conditions in the plant, he would be strongly discouraged from requesting workers compensation. That is, if his injury was declared severe enough, by the company’s own physician, to warrant worker’s compensation. More than likely, the injury was underdiagnosed and the worker was sent back to work. These companies were very, very smart in their techniques for saving money. They hire desperate, uneducated, illegal workers with everything to lose. The companies force them to strenuous work in unsafe, degrading conditions. If a worker is injured his injuries are belittled and he is expected to keep working, with minimal off time. The companies will do whatever they need to do to keep the treachery of their factories off the books. They lie about the number of injuries in the factory, and they lie about the nature of the injuries that are reported. They avoid paying employees unemployment by encouraging them to quit. The companies make it hard for the workers to organize, and demand better conditions and pay, by maintaining a high turnover rate. They avoid paying workers compensation by doctoring the books because “every penny spent on workers’ comp is one less penny of corporate revenue” (184). The problem is in the enforcement of the law. It is understandably difficult to prove that the companies are conspiring against their workers. However, it is all too easy to walk into a plant and see all the safety violations that need to be fixed. The laws were put in place to protect these workers on a safety level. There is no reason that the injury rates in these places are so high. If there were higher penalties for breaking the safety regulations, and if the penalties were enforced, things would be better. For the government to cut funding to OSHA is outrageous. No one should die trying to feed their family. These workers work for minimal pay and little to no benefits, the least these companies could do is not make every second of the work day a life or death situation. [636]
In Eric Schlosser’s chapter entitled “The Most Dangerous Job” in his book Fast Food Nation, he examines they different aspects of life in the meat-packing industry that make it a house of horrors instead of the typical professional environment. On one level, the conditions of the slaughter-house, especially the “kill floor” (Schlosser 170), nor the treatment of the animals can be considered ideal. Anywhere a worker must “for eight and a half hours…stand in a river of blood, being drenched in blood” (171) or “walk up a slippery metal stairway… [while] his face is splattered with gray matter and blood” (171) screams unsanitary. Granted, not all jobs are pristine, found in glittering office complexes, but there comes a point where the conditions surpass being inconvenient or dirty and instead become dangerously unhygienic and traumatic. As far as the animals themselves are concerned, I doubt that cutting cattle in half “as though they were two-by-fours” (170) just after they are “[shot] in the head with a captive bolt stunner “ and “[shackled] to a chain” (171) is ethical. It may be legal, but as far as I’m concerned “slitting the neck of steer… severing [their] carotid artery” is a brutal means of slaughter. If the treatment of animals or the conditions of the factory are not to induce a sense of foreboding about the meat-packing industry, maybe the value of workers will. Workers in general are pumped full of false hopes and methamphetamine. Women are objects of prey, being “pressured for dates and sex, [while] male co-workers groped them, kissed them, and used animal parts in a sexually explicit manner” (176). If the women have it bad, then the men (primarily the late-night cleaning crews and workers that are not in a supervising position) are in an extremely hazardous and precarious situation. They are underpaid, under-represented, neglected and abused. Lost body parts, should they actually be recorded, should be worth more than “the payment for losing an arm [which] is $36,000” (185) or “‘serious permanent disfiguration about the head, face, or parts of the body normally exposed to public view’” (185) cannot disappear for $2,000. People like Kenny Dobbins, hard-working and honest people, are everywhere and they do not deserve to withstand the pain and degrading behavior inflicted on them by greedy, inflated companies that hold dollar signs where their morals should be. [390] How can Congress be persuaded to give OSHA more influence in industry? How can America protect its workforce without hurting the people in it?
This chapter reminded me fondly of Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle, in which an immigrant takes up work in one of Chicago's slaughterhouses and exposes the horrors of the industry. Scholsser's novel explores many of these same issues, which is rather startling to read about. “Workers on the line wear about eight pounds of chain mail beneath their white coats...” Scholsser states. (Scholsser 169). When workers are required to wear armor to work, something is obviously unsafe about the whole business. Scholsser tells of the horror stories, workers that “reach inside of cattle and pull their kidneys out by with their bare hands” and “tend to cut themselves and other workers” (170-174). This is all due to the practice companies employ, in which they seek to maximize production and therefore sacrifice employee safety. “Workers make up to 10,000 cuts during a typical eight-hour shift”, a practice that leads to “tendinitis, back problems, and shoulder problems (173). Although this practice of ignoring work related accidents and injuries is highly illegal and ethically wrong, companies still went doing so. During the Reagan era, “OSHA's power was greatly reduced, with an example being the frequency of OSHA's inspections, which was once every eighty years” (179). This kind of corruption that spreads through the meatpacking industry will not most certainly fix itself overnight, however it is vital to the industry as a whole. It needs to be fixed, but stands little chance when “a supervisor tells an employee to do it, even it is illegal...don't get caught” (182). This industry does more than simply affect the lives of its workers, it also affects the lives of most people, through the economy. These companies typical employ illegal immigrants, in order to cut costs and increase production. The working conditions are deplorable, the staff is underpaid and at risk of injury, and the companies are corrupt. Scholosser gives an example of a man who “was used to the point he had no more body parts to give” (190). This applies to the way these companies are going; they will use the economy, the people, the environment till the point there is little left. (Word Count 364).
This reading assignment was a bit rough for me, probably because I can have such a “colorful” imagination at times. Couple that with the imagery that Schlosser sets up about the slaughterhouses, and it is really disturbing, especially the part where he talks about the cow’s head getting stuck in the belt (171). I have seen some pretty gruesome things just from the time I’ve spent shadowing in the medical field, so I believe I would be able to stomach some of what goes on in the slaughterhouse. I find it horrible that companies take such measures to produce fresh meat for America, but it has to be done, and when it is profitable the inhuman activity is overlooked. Disregarding the poor cattle that get mercilessly killed, the horrible things that workers have to deal with is ridiculous, as well. I cannot imagine working in a place where the majority of the women will be verbally and sexually abused, and the chances of losing an appendage are fairly high. Enduring that for the incredibly small amount of money would either be a last resort or not even an option for me. People who work as supervisors do not even care, so nothing is done to help the workers. In most cases it’s, “Oh, I’m making money by yelling at people and hitting on the ladies. I’ve got it made!” and “If one hand is no good, use the other” (177). If a person loses an arm while working in a slaughterhouse in Colorado, he can get $36,000 for it (185). Sure, that might pay for the hospital bill (because he cannot afford insurance that will cover it), but he is expected to return to work either ASAP, or not at all. If I was told by my boss after I just had my arm lopped off that I had to return to work in two weeks, I would probably punch him in the face with the arm I still have left. Obviously, people who work there absolutely have to, so they will probably just deal with it because it’s their only way of getting money. I wish it was different, but that is the sad truth.
Do you think people who work as supervisors often get a guilty conscience about the working conditions, or that they turn the other cheek because they are paid well?
Do you consider the method for killing the cattle and cutting them up a bit much (to a degree), or that it is necessary to be so brutal?
Why is it that economics and morals always seem to clash?
Is it possible to live promoting economics and justice simultaneously, where the rate of production is not directly proportional to the rate of injuries on the job (Schlosser 173)?
Many workers like Kenny concur that the large meatpacking companies “treat [them] like animals” (186). At first I did not understand how they could get away with it. Then, I realized that it is “a world that’s been deliberately hidden,” where injuries are much “higher than the national average”, where nurses are encouraged to “falsify records”, where employee loyalty and employer indifference are increasingly coinciding, where sexual harassment is common, and where the workplace sins are never-ceasing (170, 173, 179, 188, 176). It is a job that “takes a really dedicated person or a really desperate person” (177). It is obvious to the reader that the common worker is both dedicated and desperate, which allows for even more abuse by the company; they demand “disposable workers: illegal, illiterate, impoverished, untrained” (178). The companies prey on these multi-handicapped workers and make huge profit from hurting them—sometimes even killing them, but they only need to pay a fine of $480 per death, which is worth the profits. Has justice completely disappeared from this earth? Have we become so insensitive to the plight of our neighbor that we can treat them inhumanely without a second thought? I am reminded of the L.E.A.P. speaker who commented that our lifestyles are only sustained by the continual suppression of others. I believe Kenny can testify to that. Kenny routinely tolerated company abuse without saying a word because “nothing in his life had ever been easy,” and I think he came back over and over again because he did not know any better—he could not break the cycle (187). He almost seems like a young girl (or boy) with low confidence caught up in the trafficking cycle—no escape in sight until they are “used up”. Kenny is now “used up,” suffering crippling injuries solely from the meatpacking industry that render him “unable to work at any job”, trapped in the body of an elderly man; “he is forty-six years old” (190). Like the cattle brought into the slaughterhouses, Kenny gave the company everything he had until he “had no body parts left to give,” and then they “tossed [him] into the trash can” (190). When will the injustices end? When will we uncover the operation for its immoral and unethical slaughter of both cattle and labor?
How has the dangerous reality of the meatpacking industry affected the workers within this industry?
In the chapter entitled “The Most Dangerous Job”, Schlosser examines the many dangers of working in a meatpacking plant, and how these dangers can have many effects on the people who work within them. The workers within these plants are often subject to injury because of the tools that they use, and also because of the conditions they are working in. Many workers experience lacerations, as well as trauma and tendonitis while working in these plants, and almost a quarter of the people working in these plants are injured in some way according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Schlosser writes, “Lacerations are the most common injuries suffered by meatpackers, who often stab themselves or stab someone working nearby. Tendinitis and cumulative trauma disorders are also quite common” (Schlosser 173). Many workers also experience injuries that go unreported because the supervisors of these plants must not exceed a certain number of reported injuries. Workers with these unreported injuries are often moved to an easier job instead of being given adequate time off to recover. Schlosser, “If a worker agrees not to report an injury, a supervisor will usually shift him or her to an easier job for a while, providing some time to heal” (Schlosser 175). Although this sounds like an act of kindness, these injured workers should be given time off to recover instead of working injured. Workers with these kinds of injuries are almost never able to get workers’ compensation, and even if they are able to it involves a long drawn-out process. Schlosser writers, “Today it can take years for an injured worker to receive workers’ comp benefits… The ability of meatpacking firms to delay payment discourages many injured workers from ever filing workers’ comp claims” (Schlosser 185). Although this seems almost inhumane and dishonest, it is the harsh reality of so many of the meatpacking workers throughout the country today who are forced to work injured in order to support themselves. Word Count: 325
1. Why can’t the workers in the meatpacking factories gain better work conditions? “GIVE UP AFTER BACK SURGERY? NOT KEN DOBBINS!!”, showing a seeming respect that is worse than an honest disregard, Monfort newsletter greets the meatpacker Kenny Dobbins (187). Motivated by a strong drive to work hard, loyalty towards the slaughterhouse, and his limited working skills, Kenny spends 16 years working at Monfort. He suffers from back injury, “overexposure to chlorine”, gets hit by a train, brakes his leg, and experiences a heart attack (188). After every injury he returns to work, until Monfort fires him. Kenny says, “They used me to the point where I had no body parts left to give, (…) then they just tossed me into the trashcan” (190). While treating Kenny like an animal, Monfort still managed to seem a place worth laboring at. Kenny felt a strong loyalty towards the factory. In this example the praising of hard work and “suck it up” attitude reaches its peak – Kenny does not even bother to think that the environment where he is trying so hard to do his best is not designed for being appreciated, let alone awarded. “Kenny became an active and outspoken member of the antiunion group”, unknowingly working against his own rights, but believing he is a tough man (188). That is the most dangerous – the hidden ideology, the “Outstanding Achievement in CONCERN FOR FELLOW WORKERS” award, man’s faith in an unfair organization (189). “One of the leading determinants of the injury rate at slaughterhouse today is the speed of the disassembly line”, a pure example of brutal sufficiency (173). Again, the men and women working by the meat line can be persuaded that they are doing a GOOD job keeping up with the pace and a BAD job being slow. Those who notice the unfair rules can be sexually abused, punished by the supervisors or fired, and as there is not a lower place than a meatpacking factory, there is nowhere for them to go. Many are immigrants, many do not speak English, many are illiterate. Therefore, the workers in the meatpacking companies are unable to speak for themselves and fight for a reasonable treatment. 2. Can there be a meat-processing machine devised not only for chickens but also for cattle? 380words
I guess the part of this reading that irks me the most is the attempt by Republicans in 1994 to restrict the OSHA’s power. Regulation is not a horrible thing. It does not try to cut back production and hurt profits, but it does try to increase safety and hold companies liable for the immoral actions that they have taken. If a company has constantly ignored orders time and time again to improve safety, and during that time a worker is injured or killed, then the company needs to be held responsible for that horrible event. My view on capitalism is that the owners and executives need to act in a fair and ethical manner that looks out for the rights and protection of everyone involved. Based not even on an economical decision, but from a moral perspective, if someone is hurt because of your interest in making money and your lack of care of the other person’s condition, then that is a sin that to me is unforgivable. At that point you are no longer a true capitalist person. You are not even a human being. You are even lower than scum. I am a believer in the government not taxing companies for government revenue. But just like if you are working a job and screw up. You have to suffer the consequences. Executives and supervisors have one main purpose, to protect their subordinates. If even one person under their supervision is injured, then it is their fault and responsibility. OSHA is there to make sure that people are held accountable for their actions, not to intentionally hurt the economy. As a human being I cannot justify under funding a group that is there to protect the underdog. If your love of money is so great that you could care less about human life and their safety, you have no right to be in charge of them in a company.
This is truly the groundbreaking chapter of Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. It’s hard to imagine that the drive for immediate cheap food can lead to this. Just how far will companies such as IBP go to make the greatest profit? Not just how far will they go, but how far will we let them go? America is believed to be a nation of equality. We want other countries and nations to believe that we are nation that gives any and all an equal opportunity for all human beings, but this is not so. The fact that a horrendous company such as IBP is still in business is horrible. They have proven time over time that they will not change their policy of putting production over employee safety. Numerous men have been killed in these slaughterhouses and according to Schlosser, “the fine was $480 for each man’s death” (Schlosser 178). It’s obvious that these companies are not learning from repeated fines. Are low beef prices worth countless human deaths? Not only are these companies being negligent to the safety of their employees, they also lie to OSHA regarding their injury logs. Schlosser states, “At the IBP beef plant in Dakota City, Nebraska, for example, the company kept two sets of injury logs . . . the first log recorded 1800 injuries . . . the OSHA log recorded only 160—a discrepancy of more than 1000 percent” (179-180). This slaughterhouse had blatantly lied about their number of injuries in order to receive a bonus at the end of the fiscal year. The true absurdity to this finding was that once in court, according to Schlosser, “Robert L. Peterson was never charged with perjury for his misleading testimony before Congress” (180). I find it very odd that even when a legitimate case is held against the head of any head of these major corporations, they are always never convicted of any crime. Are we so desperate for cheap goods that we let the guilty appear innocent?
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 334
How can hiding injuries help a company?
ReplyDeleteWhat else can OSHA do to get around the problems that are arising in factories around America?
“Carcasses swing so fast along the rail that you have to keep an eye on them constantly, dodge them, watch your step, or one will slam you and throw you onto the bloody concrete floor. It happens to workers all the time” (Schlosser 170). This quote was the first thing that caught my attention. It is as if these workers are playing human/cattle dodge ball, and at the end of the day they want to be the one left standing. “The injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory,” men and women everywhere fear for their lives every day because the factories that they work in are the most dangerous place to work (172). How is it comforting to go to a job that you need, knowing that there could be a day that you come home missing a body part or you do not come home at all? “…The Bureau of Labor Statistics, understate the number of meatpacking injuries that occur. Thousands of additional injuries and illnesses most likely go unrecorded” (172). To think that there are many people that are hurt, but never get the compensation for their injuries because their supervisors want the money that comes with a smaller number of injuries. These ignored injuries also came about because of OSHA and the cuts that affected them. In 1981, OSHA was required to “look at a company’s injury log before setting foot inside the plant” (179). This led the supervisors to encouraging their workers to not record injuries so that they could bypass an OSHA inspection. “While the number of serious injuries rose, the number of OSHA inspections fell” (179). The supervisors found their way around the law, and put their workers and themselves in danger. OSHA was formed for a reason and I think going behind and changing numbers is only causing more problems in the long run. IBP was even keeping “two sets of injury logs” and “routinely lied to OSHA” (182). A company will never get more productive if their workers can no longer work for them.
Word Count 355
This section in Fast Food Nation about the meatpacking industry reminds me of the video on steel processing mills we watched the other day in class because of how the implications on the market, already taken mostly by monopolies, pushes the pace or drive in production to maximize profits by maximizing percentage of the quantity sold which eventually causes high costs in the lives of the employees. The meatpacking industry claims “more than one quarter of the meatpacking workers in this country- roughly forty thousand men and women- suffer an injury or a work-related illness that requires medical attention beyond first aid” (Schlosser 172). The steel industry video showed that most of the injuries acquired on the job go unrecorded with no responsibility for the injury. So, if one whole quarter of the injuries are actually recorded, then how many injuries actually occur? The “IBP Revolution” sprung a jumpstart in the factories that make them “fully-staffed [where they are inches apart from each other]” and the strive for maximizing profits directly rates to the “speed of the line” (Schlosser 174). Where workers are so close, and they are forced to work as fast as they can due to fear from being fired because of their “at will employment,” which means “they can be fired without warning, for just about any reason,” the amount of injuries is hardly surprising. Not only these conditions, but they are also “wielding large knives” and acquire many injuries such as “missing fingers, broken bones, deep lacerations, and amputated limbs” (Schlosser 175). Much like Marco from the video, the man Kenny suffered a back injury (that completely pierced it) against a conveyor belt then went to the company doctor that bandaged his back and said it was a muscle sprain (Schlosser 187). After weeks of being in terrible pain, Kenny went to a second doctor that said he had a pair of severely herniated disks. Not only that, but the stress and financial issues caused by this caused him to lose his marriage. The same idea throughout not only the meatpacking industry, but all of big business is that at the cost of the workers and employees, big companies are allowed to push for max profits. word count: 372
ReplyDelete1. Why are health inspections and safety protocol inspections taking a backseat with so many jobs packed in places like this?
2. Does workers' comp completely cover or at least side with the worker or do the monopolies completely lobby or influence the laws passed by this?
There is no equality in Schlosser's novel. The form of equality I speak of is the sort Aristotle speaks of in Nichomachean Ethics. Aristotle takes Plato's ideas of justice of the self, and extends them to include justice of those one comes into contact with. With this, he speaks of it in an economic form, where "currency, like a unit of measure, equalizes things by making them commensurable, for there would be no community if there were not exchange, and no exchange if there were not equality, and not equality if there were not commensurability" (Aristotle 1133b, 16-19), and where "what is lawful is equitable" (1129b, 1). Equality cannot be maintained when companies have "two sets of injury logs [where] one of them [is] recording every injury and illness...[while] the other [is] provided to visiting OSHA inspectors...[with] a discrepancy of more than 1000 percent" (Schlosser 180). The latter log having failed to include "serious injuries such as fractures, concussions, major cuts, hernias, some requiring hospitalization, surgery, even amputation" (180). Equality cannot be maintained when "the annual bonuses of plant foremen and supervisors are often based in part on the injury rate of their workers" (175). Schlosser equates production supervisors to a "little dictator in his or her section of the plant, largely free to boss, fire, berate, or reassign workers" (176). One would assume that equality could be reached if fines and penalties could fill the gap in between the harsh lives of workers and their employers. The largest fine in Schlosser's novel is one that was reduced to "$975,000---a sum that might have appeared large at the time, yet represented about one one-hundredth of a percent of IBP's annual revenues" (180). Schlosser speaks of Colorado's new law regarding workers compensation caims, where "the payment for losing an arm is $36,000. An amputated finger gets you anywhere from $2,200 to $4,500...and 'serious permanent disfigurement about the head, face, or parts of the body normally exposed to public view' entitles you to a maximum of $2,000" (185). Apart from my view of this being inhumane, Schlosser gives a sarcastic rationalization, claiming that "every penny spent on worker's comp is one less penny of corporate revenue" (184). Aristotle speaks of how every violation of the law stems from "the injustice [that] comes from making the profit" (Aristotle 1130a, 28). By this, he means that a profit is made whenever something is taken from an individual, where one has more and the other has lost. It is clear that those who have lost are the workers, and those who have gained are those who employed them.
ReplyDeleteIf a corporation is, by law, given the ability to purchase/own land and vote, why are they not prosecuted like humans?
Is honor a thing of the past?
In the novel Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, the conditions of the meat packing industry are shocking and not what the general population would expect. Besides the immense amount of deaths told throughout the book, the causality in which the author talks about amputations is appalling. So many of these injuries would be seen as an outrage among a normal middle class job. If someone lost their arm in a copy machine in a law office, it would be a major event and the person would be given the attention they needed. These people get pushed off to the side and ignored even by the doctors and nurses who have taken an oath to help their patients to the best of their abilities. Not only do they have trouble trying to get the people within their company to help them when they are hurt, they also have a hard time getting “proper medical treatment and benefits once they’ve been hurt” (Schlosser 184). When the system that these people are operating in is already built to fail them, it does not help when the people that are above them are breaking the law in order to keep the horrible things they are doing a secret. When Robert L. Peterson was found to have lied under oath to Congress, he “was never charged with perjury for his misleading testimony” (180). Even Bill Clinton was put through more for his false testimony about his extra-marital relations than this man was for his covering up the harm of countless human lives. The devaluation of human life seems to be the root of the problem with so much of these industries. Big companies focus more on the bottom line and not on how it takes to get there. When the route they are taking, they would not be willing to take themselves, it should be time to reevaluate their strategy.
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 316
It seems that by the late 1990’s, meat companies were prepared to risk whoever, and whatever they needed to risk in order to make the largest profit possible. They routinely sacrificed integrity, and even human lives just to ensure maximum revenue. They clearly had no regard for loyalty, as Schlosser described in his recount of Kenny’s 16 years of employment at Monfort, or the law. It was clear that the companies could not have cared less for the safety or comfort of their employees. They made little, if any, effort to make the factories tolerable places. Fueled by the need to keep costs down, and the desire to keep profits up, these companies broke laws and lied about breaking said laws. Everyone, from the top executives, to the floor supervisors had a hand in the corruption of these companies. Edward Murphy, a former safety director for Monfort told Congress, “The first commandment is that only production counts…The employee’s duty is to follow orders. Period. As I was repeatedly told, ‘Do what I tell you, even if it is illegal…Don’t get caught.’”(182) It was practically company policy to lie, and cheat the system, and break the law. It was part of the job. It makes sense that the companies would refuse to adhere to safety laws and regulations. The chances that they would be caught were next to none. Why spend money on proper railing, lighting, repairs, clothing, masks, or supplies if no one was going to make sure they were in place, if no one cared to check for them? If putting in precautions that would never be inspected decreased productivity and profits, it seems smarter if they were simply never bought. And if some unfortunate worker were to get hurt as a result of the unsafe conditions in the plant, he would be strongly discouraged from requesting workers compensation. That is, if his injury was declared severe enough, by the company’s own physician, to warrant worker’s compensation. More than likely, the injury was underdiagnosed and the worker was sent back to work.
ReplyDeleteThese companies were very, very smart in their techniques for saving money. They hire desperate, uneducated, illegal workers with everything to lose. The companies force them to strenuous work in unsafe, degrading conditions. If a worker is injured his injuries are belittled and he is expected to keep working, with minimal off time. The companies will do whatever they need to do to keep the treachery of their factories off the books. They lie about the number of injuries in the factory, and they lie about the nature of the injuries that are reported. They avoid paying employees unemployment by encouraging them to quit. The companies make it hard for the workers to organize, and demand better conditions and pay, by maintaining a high turnover rate. They avoid paying workers compensation by doctoring the books because “every penny spent on workers’ comp is one less penny of corporate revenue” (184).
The problem is in the enforcement of the law. It is understandably difficult to prove that the companies are conspiring against their workers. However, it is all too easy to walk into a plant and see all the safety violations that need to be fixed. The laws were put in place to protect these workers on a safety level. There is no reason that the injury rates in these places are so high. If there were higher penalties for breaking the safety regulations, and if the penalties were enforced, things would be better. For the government to cut funding to OSHA is outrageous. No one should die trying to feed their family. These workers work for minimal pay and little to no benefits, the least these companies could do is not make every second of the work day a life or death situation.
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In Eric Schlosser’s chapter entitled “The Most Dangerous Job” in his book Fast Food Nation, he examines they different aspects of life in the meat-packing industry that make it a house of horrors instead of the typical professional environment. On one level, the conditions of the slaughter-house, especially the “kill floor” (Schlosser 170), nor the treatment of the animals can be considered ideal. Anywhere a worker must “for eight and a half hours…stand in a river of blood, being drenched in blood” (171) or “walk up a slippery metal stairway… [while] his face is splattered with gray matter and blood” (171) screams unsanitary. Granted, not all jobs are pristine, found in glittering office complexes, but there comes a point where the conditions surpass being inconvenient or dirty and instead become dangerously unhygienic and traumatic. As far as the animals themselves are concerned, I doubt that cutting cattle in half “as though they were two-by-fours” (170) just after they are “[shot] in the head with a captive bolt stunner “ and “[shackled] to a chain” (171) is ethical. It may be legal, but as far as I’m concerned “slitting the neck of steer… severing [their] carotid artery” is a brutal means of slaughter. If the treatment of animals or the conditions of the factory are not to induce a sense of foreboding about the meat-packing industry, maybe the value of workers will. Workers in general are pumped full of false hopes and methamphetamine. Women are objects of prey, being “pressured for dates and sex, [while] male co-workers groped them, kissed them, and used animal parts in a sexually explicit manner” (176). If the women have it bad, then the men (primarily the late-night cleaning crews and workers that are not in a supervising position) are in an extremely hazardous and precarious situation. They are underpaid, under-represented, neglected and abused. Lost body parts, should they actually be recorded, should be worth more than “the payment for losing an arm [which] is $36,000” (185) or “‘serious permanent disfiguration about the head, face, or parts of the body normally exposed to public view’” (185) cannot disappear for $2,000. People like Kenny Dobbins, hard-working and honest people, are everywhere and they do not deserve to withstand the pain and degrading behavior inflicted on them by greedy, inflated companies that hold dollar signs where their morals should be.
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How can Congress be persuaded to give OSHA more influence in industry?
How can America protect its workforce without hurting the people in it?
This chapter reminded me fondly of Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle, in which an immigrant takes up work in one of Chicago's slaughterhouses and exposes the horrors of the industry. Scholsser's novel explores many of these same issues, which is rather startling to read about. “Workers on the line wear about eight pounds of chain mail beneath their white coats...” Scholsser states. (Scholsser 169). When workers are required to wear armor to work, something is obviously unsafe about the whole business. Scholsser tells of the horror stories, workers that “reach inside of cattle and pull their kidneys out by with their bare hands” and “tend to cut themselves and other workers” (170-174). This is all due to the practice companies employ, in which they seek to maximize production and therefore sacrifice employee safety. “Workers make up to 10,000 cuts during a typical eight-hour shift”, a practice that leads to “tendinitis, back problems, and shoulder problems (173). Although this practice of ignoring work related accidents and injuries is highly illegal and ethically wrong, companies still went doing so. During the Reagan era, “OSHA's power was greatly reduced, with an example being the frequency of OSHA's inspections, which was once every eighty years” (179). This kind of corruption that spreads through the meatpacking industry will not most certainly fix itself overnight, however it is vital to the industry as a whole. It needs to be fixed, but stands little chance when “a supervisor tells an employee to do it, even it is illegal...don't get caught” (182). This industry does more than simply affect the lives of its workers, it also affects the lives of most people, through the economy. These companies typical employ illegal immigrants, in order to cut costs and increase production. The working conditions are deplorable, the staff is underpaid and at risk of injury, and the companies are corrupt. Scholosser gives an example of a man who “was used to the point he had no more body parts to give” (190). This applies to the way these companies are going; they will use the economy, the people, the environment till the point there is little left. (Word Count 364).
ReplyDeleteThis reading assignment was a bit rough for me, probably because I can have such a “colorful” imagination at times. Couple that with the imagery that Schlosser sets up about the slaughterhouses, and it is really disturbing, especially the part where he talks about the cow’s head getting stuck in the belt (171). I have seen some pretty gruesome things just from the time I’ve spent shadowing in the medical field, so I believe I would be able to stomach some of what goes on in the slaughterhouse. I find it horrible that companies take such measures to produce fresh meat for America, but it has to be done, and when it is profitable the inhuman activity is overlooked.
ReplyDeleteDisregarding the poor cattle that get mercilessly killed, the horrible things that workers have to deal with is ridiculous, as well. I cannot imagine working in a place where the majority of the women will be verbally and sexually abused, and the chances of losing an appendage are fairly high. Enduring that for the incredibly small amount of money would either be a last resort or not even an option for me. People who work as supervisors do not even care, so nothing is done to help the workers. In most cases it’s, “Oh, I’m making money by yelling at people and hitting on the ladies. I’ve got it made!” and “If one hand is no good, use the other” (177). If a person loses an arm while working in a slaughterhouse in Colorado, he can get $36,000 for it (185). Sure, that might pay for the hospital bill (because he cannot afford insurance that will cover it), but he is expected to return to work either ASAP, or not at all. If I was told by my boss after I just had my arm lopped off that I had to return to work in two weeks, I would probably punch him in the face with the arm I still have left. Obviously, people who work there absolutely have to, so they will probably just deal with it because it’s their only way of getting money. I wish it was different, but that is the sad truth.
Do you think people who work as supervisors often get a guilty conscience about the working conditions, or that they turn the other cheek because they are paid well?
Do you consider the method for killing the cattle and cutting them up a bit much (to a degree), or that it is necessary to be so brutal?
Why is it that economics and morals always seem to clash?
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to live promoting economics and justice simultaneously, where the rate of production is not directly proportional to the rate of injuries on the job (Schlosser 173)?
Many workers like Kenny concur that the large meatpacking companies “treat [them] like animals” (186). At first I did not understand how they could get away with it. Then, I realized that it is “a world that’s been deliberately hidden,” where injuries are much “higher than the national average”, where nurses are encouraged to “falsify records”, where employee loyalty and employer indifference are increasingly coinciding, where sexual harassment is common, and where the workplace sins are never-ceasing (170, 173, 179, 188, 176). It is a job that “takes a really dedicated person or a really desperate person” (177). It is obvious to the reader that the common worker is both dedicated and desperate, which allows for even more abuse by the company; they demand “disposable workers: illegal, illiterate, impoverished, untrained” (178). The companies prey on these multi-handicapped workers and make huge profit from hurting them—sometimes even killing them, but they only need to pay a fine of $480 per death, which is worth the profits. Has justice completely disappeared from this earth? Have we become so insensitive to the plight of our neighbor that we can treat them inhumanely without a second thought? I am reminded of the L.E.A.P. speaker who commented that our lifestyles are only sustained by the continual suppression of others. I believe Kenny can testify to that. Kenny routinely tolerated company abuse without saying a word because “nothing in his life had ever been easy,” and I think he came back over and over again because he did not know any better—he could not break the cycle (187). He almost seems like a young girl (or boy) with low confidence caught up in the trafficking cycle—no escape in sight until they are “used up”. Kenny is now “used up,” suffering crippling injuries solely from the meatpacking industry that render him “unable to work at any job”, trapped in the body of an elderly man; “he is forty-six years old” (190). Like the cattle brought into the slaughterhouses, Kenny gave the company everything he had until he “had no body parts left to give,” and then they “tossed [him] into the trash can” (190). When will the injustices end? When will we uncover the operation for its immoral and unethical slaughter of both cattle and labor?
Word Count: 382
How has the dangerous reality of the meatpacking industry affected the workers within this industry?
ReplyDeleteIn the chapter entitled “The Most Dangerous Job”, Schlosser examines the many dangers of working in a meatpacking plant, and how these dangers can have many effects on the people who work within them. The workers within these plants are often subject to injury because of the tools that they use, and also because of the conditions they are working in. Many workers experience lacerations, as well as trauma and tendonitis while working in these plants, and almost a quarter of the people working in these plants are injured in some way according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Schlosser writes, “Lacerations are the most common injuries suffered by meatpackers, who often stab themselves or stab someone working nearby. Tendinitis and cumulative trauma disorders are also quite common” (Schlosser 173). Many workers also experience injuries that go unreported because the supervisors of these plants must not exceed a certain number of reported injuries. Workers with these unreported injuries are often moved to an easier job instead of being given adequate time off to recover. Schlosser, “If a worker agrees not to report an injury, a supervisor will usually shift him or her to an easier job for a while, providing some time to heal” (Schlosser 175). Although this sounds like an act of kindness, these injured workers should be given time off to recover instead of working injured. Workers with these kinds of injuries are almost never able to get workers’ compensation, and even if they are able to it involves a long drawn-out process. Schlosser writers, “Today it can take years for an injured worker to receive workers’ comp benefits… The ability of meatpacking firms to delay payment discourages many injured workers from ever filing workers’ comp claims” (Schlosser 185). Although this seems almost inhumane and dishonest, it is the harsh reality of so many of the meatpacking workers throughout the country today who are forced to work injured in order to support themselves.
Word Count: 325
1. Why can’t the workers in the meatpacking factories gain better work conditions?
ReplyDelete“GIVE UP AFTER BACK SURGERY? NOT KEN DOBBINS!!”, showing a seeming respect that is worse than an honest disregard, Monfort newsletter greets the meatpacker Kenny Dobbins (187). Motivated by a strong drive to work hard, loyalty towards the slaughterhouse, and his limited working skills, Kenny spends 16 years working at Monfort. He suffers from back injury, “overexposure to chlorine”, gets hit by a train, brakes his leg, and experiences a heart attack (188). After every injury he returns to work, until Monfort fires him. Kenny says, “They used me to the point where I had no body parts left to give, (…) then they just tossed me into the trashcan” (190).
While treating Kenny like an animal, Monfort still managed to seem a place worth laboring at. Kenny felt a strong loyalty towards the factory. In this example the praising of hard work and “suck it up” attitude reaches its peak – Kenny does not even bother to think that the environment where he is trying so hard to do his best is not designed for being appreciated, let alone awarded. “Kenny became an active and outspoken member of the antiunion group”, unknowingly working against his own rights, but believing he is a tough man (188). That is the most dangerous – the hidden ideology, the “Outstanding Achievement in CONCERN FOR FELLOW WORKERS” award, man’s faith in an unfair organization (189).
“One of the leading determinants of the injury rate at slaughterhouse today is the speed of the disassembly line”, a pure example of brutal sufficiency (173). Again, the men and women working by the meat line can be persuaded that they are doing a GOOD job keeping up with the pace and a BAD job being slow. Those who notice the unfair rules can be sexually abused, punished by the supervisors or fired, and as there is not a lower place than a meatpacking factory, there is nowhere for them to go. Many are immigrants, many do not speak English, many are illiterate. Therefore, the workers in the meatpacking companies are unable to speak for themselves and fight for a reasonable treatment.
2. Can there be a meat-processing machine devised not only for chickens but also for cattle?
380words
Taylor Garrett
ReplyDelete169-191
I guess the part of this reading that irks me the most is the attempt by Republicans in 1994 to restrict the OSHA’s power. Regulation is not a horrible thing. It does not try to cut back production and hurt profits, but it does try to increase safety and hold companies liable for the immoral actions that they have taken. If a company has constantly ignored orders time and time again to improve safety, and during that time a worker is injured or killed, then the company needs to be held responsible for that horrible event.
My view on capitalism is that the owners and executives need to act in a fair and ethical manner that looks out for the rights and protection of everyone involved. Based not even on an economical decision, but from a moral perspective, if someone is hurt because of your interest in making money and your lack of care of the other person’s condition, then that is a sin that to me is unforgivable. At that point you are no longer a true capitalist person. You are not even a human being. You are even lower than scum. I am a believer in the government not taxing companies for government revenue. But just like if you are working a job and screw up. You have to suffer the consequences. Executives and supervisors have one main purpose, to protect their subordinates. If even one person under their supervision is injured, then it is their fault and responsibility.
OSHA is there to make sure that people are held accountable for their actions, not to intentionally hurt the economy. As a human being I cannot justify under funding a group that is there to protect the underdog. If your love of money is so great that you could care less about human life and their safety, you have no right to be in charge of them in a company.
Word Count 324