Blood, sweat, and fear
January 25, 2005 3:41 PM   Subscribe

Meatpacking is the most dangerous factory job in America says Human Rights Watch. According to the New York Times, this is the first time HRW has issued a report criticizing a single industry.
posted by banjotwang (21 comments total)
 
most dangerous factory job

I've heard overall most dangererous jobs are
1) coal mining and
2) deep sea fishing
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:01 PM on January 25, 2005


Not only do meatpackers have the most dangerous factory job in America, but they also face the prospect of being discriminated against by a Federal amendment...
posted by pmbuko at 4:13 PM on January 25, 2005


Maybe meatpacking would be higher if injuries were actually reported.
posted by j-urb at 4:13 PM on January 25, 2005


There is a hint of Farsidian irony here.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:20 PM on January 25, 2005


So how do you, as a consumer, not support this kind of treatment? I buy most of my groceries from Whole Foods--is this true about their meat suppliers as well?

If possible it'd obviously be better to buy meat from companies that treat their employees fairly.
posted by josh at 4:35 PM on January 25, 2005


...depends on what you mean by dangerous.

By injury, top two are truck driving and nursing; by fatality, top two are fishing and timber cutting.

I have been a long-haul trucker, and can attest that it can be a truly harrying experience; my little bro' was a salmon fisher in Alaska has his own tales (not least of which was being thrown in a Conex box full of salmon and having to slime out -- ah, the rough fun of the Alaska wild).

Of course, these stats are from reported injuries, and sounds like the Meat Packing industry has more than a few that go unreported.
posted by minnesotaj at 4:39 PM on January 25, 2005


Upton Sinclair’s classic 1906 novel The Jungle exposed real-life conditions in meatpacking plants to a horrified public.

So I tought one could like to read the novel ? Guess not much has changed..interesting that human memory is so short term..Bopal, 3 mile island, Chernobyl, Vajont ..other human preventable disasters run to mind, but how often do we hear again about them ?
posted by elpapacito at 4:41 PM on January 25, 2005


meatpacking workers: making sausage and dog food taste grrrreat since the 19th century!
posted by fet at 4:43 PM on January 25, 2005


Ops the text is also avaiable at this project gutenberg link which also links to an audiobook mp3.

On preview: fet , I guess it will fly over many heads :)
posted by elpapacito at 4:48 PM on January 25, 2005


There was a firsthand report at kuro5hin.
posted by Gyan at 5:17 PM on January 25, 2005


See also the excellent NYT article published in 2000, At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die: Who Kills, Who Cuts, Who Bosses Can Depend on Race.

From a collection of material [search for jungle] that also includes links for The Jungle, and other articles on the meat industry in America today.
posted by Zurishaddai at 7:05 PM on January 25, 2005


Of course, these stats are from reported injuries, and sounds like the Meat Packing industry has more than a few that go unreported.

Yes, there are extreme disincentives to reporting injuries in the meatpacking industry. Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation has a chapter on what this business is really like.
posted by 327.ca at 7:08 PM on January 25, 2005


I buy most of my groceries from Whole Foods

Buying your food from Whole Foods hurts local co-ops.
posted by Arch Stanton at 7:20 PM on January 25, 2005


The horrible conditions in meat processing plants was the most disturbing thing in Fast Food Nation to me, even more than the revelation that there is shit in the meat. The companies keep two sets of books, one that they show the authorities, and one that records actual injuries. The employees are coerced to sign waivers saying they'll never sue the companies if they're injured:
"An IBP medical case manager will literally bring the waiver to a hospital emergency room in order to obtain an injured worker's signature...When Duane Mullin had both hands crushed in a hammer mill...an IBP representative persuaded him to sign the waiver with a pen held in his mouth."
posted by kirkaracha at 8:30 PM on January 25, 2005


A meatpacking plant is a dangerous enough place as is, but it's even more so when the owner starts killing the USDA inspectors for, yes, ragging on him about the shit in the meat.

Also, am I the only one who's able to see the word "factory" before the word "job" up top?
posted by soyjoy at 8:37 PM on January 25, 2005


soyjoy: No. Why do you ask?
posted by Gyan at 8:40 PM on January 25, 2005


Get ready for more and more industries to be less and less safe as OSHA is disempowered and the foxes guard the chicken coop, as Moly Ivins points out:

Oh, goody, another Texan with a big job in Washington. We're so proud. Jonathan L. Snare has been named to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Just the guy we would have chosen ourselves, because his background is so relevant. No, he's not an expert in health or safety, but he used to be the lobbyist for Metabolife, the ephedra diet pill that attracted so much unpleasant attention. Ephedrine was finally barred in 2003 after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided it had caused 155 deaths. I guess we're lucky Bush didn't put Snare at the FDA...

...Snare is actually the second fox assigned by Bush to guard this particular henhouse. The assistant secretary is John Henshaw, a former health and safety chief for the chemical company Monsanto. In 40 months on the job, Henshaw axed three dozen proposed regulations from the agency's agenda, according to NPR -- toxic chemical exposure regs, metalworking fluids regs, flammable and combustible liquids reactive chemicals that kill people and so forth.

posted by madamjujujive at 8:55 PM on January 25, 2005


"I buy most of my groceries from Whole Foods--is this true about their meat suppliers as well?...If possible it'd obviously be better to buy meat from companies that treat their employees fairly."

Funny you should say that.
posted by litlnemo at 9:40 PM on January 25, 2005


If you can't bring the production to China, bring China to the production, baby !
posted by elpapacito at 6:09 AM on January 26, 2005


Gyan, because of the dissenters up top (e.g. minnesotaj) listing other, more dangerous jobs that aren't factory jobs.
posted by soyjoy at 7:52 AM on January 27, 2005


It's fairly dangerous on the consumer side as well.
posted by nanojath at 7:48 PM on February 24, 2005


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