Working Conditions at 3 Meat Processin Plants Violate Human Rights

[doxieone]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBR1JMFF4E.html

Report: Working Conditions at Three U.S. Meat Processing Plants Violate Human Rights
The Associated Press
Published: Jan 26, 2005






RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Working conditions at three U.S. meat processing plants - in North Carolina, Nebraska and Arkansas - violate basic human rights, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

The report, released Tuesday after a year of research, is based on interviews with employees and managers at a Nebraska Beef factory, a Tyson Foods chicken plant in Arkansas and the Smithfield Packing Co. pork plant in Tar Heel, about 100 miles south of Raleigh. It says workers at all three plants are frequently injured, then refused medical care or fired.


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[LostInAnomie]

1. Somebody call Upton Sinclair...

... Oh wait... he's dead.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

2. Add in to the dangerous conditions

The fact that managers in some meat processing plants provide methamphetamine to their employees (mainly illegal immigrants) so they can work longer hours without eating or sleeping, and there's a recipe for horror.

[electricmonk]

3. About 50% of the reason I went veggie 7 years ago

The other 50% would be the damage huge factory farms do to the environment and the treatment of the animals.

If you haven't read Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry
by Gail A. Eisnitz it's a major eye-opener.

[sugarmags]

8. Thank You...

for sharing this title. I just requested it from my local library to read. If I eat meat, I buy the "no hormone meat, pasture raised etc.", but still... I'm sure that this will turn me off meat altogether, which probably is a good thing.

Thanks again.

[Runcible Spoon]

4. my sister was taking a torts law class and told me about this case..

where the meat processing plant dumped all the unusable carcass parts into this huge vat, where all he material rotted and emitted noxious fumes. One worker fell into the vat and passed out from breathing the fumes. Another worker went in to save him, and also passed out. They both died. I will not eat industrial meat!

[oscar111]

9. Same case? i clearly recall a case of FECES in a vat, and

two workers had the same experience. Happened about two months ago in the NW.. poss OREGON. UFW site sent out alert on it.. check their site.

[Runcible Spoon]

13. I think this was an older case, but not sure.

either way, just one case is disturbing!

[Poppyseedman]

5. OSHA would be on this company in a heartbeat

if half of what this group says is true.

I've dealt with OSHA for years. Their investigators are very well trained and work with the companies to make the workplace safer.

They also don't put up with a lot of BS. If the company is not making a good faith effort to resolve safety issues and compliance problems, they will write out fines in a heartbeat to get your attention. The company I worked for is $10,000 lighter for it. It was a minor safety issue that was not dealt with in a timely fashion.

A guy leading the effort to unionize the plant yelling "company is violating basic human rights" is going to fall on deaf ears to the company.

Smithfield Foods has violated workers' rights for years, said Tom Clarke, leader of an 11-year effort to unionize the pork plant,...

Unfortunately "the sky is falling" rhetoric can make people tune deaf when it comes to real problems. The boy who cried wolf syndrome

Also please don't accuse the Bushco machine of protecting the plant by intimidating OSHA, most of the OSHA people I dealt with were very progressive and positively disdained Bush.

[oscar111]

10. OSHA workers at the bottom, can be ultraprogressive and not matter

they are controlled by higher ups.

what inspectors think themselves, does not matter. Just as reporter's politics, do not matter. Higher ups control them too.

I dont know if OSHA is hamstrung by bush. Just pointing out a logic error in the post above.

I do know the number of inspectors was cut radically by Reagan, and surely not much changed for the better since then, as funds havent increased in the fed budget.

Nader's CSPI 'food police' reports are a good info source on food inspection decline.

In this era of deregulation, i fairly doubt osha would "be on them in a heartbeat". Just my general impression, thats all.

PS the FDA sure is not on companies "in a heartbeat" . It is sickening to read at FDA site, of how gingerly the gov chastises the "filthy" condition of tuna in cans.

How 1 tuna company denied FDA warehouse access, and got away with it. How tuna was then impounded, yet the co. went right ahead and sent it to stores.

How the reprimands of FDA are overpolite and have no penalties in many cases. How the FDA is just ignored! How the FDA couched the offenses in roundabout words that took all sting out of the offense.

If osha is like FDA, then OSHA will not "be on them in a heartbeat". IMHO.

[Poppyseedman]

15. Just relying on my personal

experience. I would have to assume OSHA personnel are pretty much the same across the board.

The guy i dealt with was very good. I got to know him very well. We talked about his job and what makes him tick. He told me basically the big companies are the ones that are the best when it comes to being in compliance with OSHA rules and regs. They have the resources to be by the book.

They spend a great deal of time looking at smaller companies because they normally have the biggest and severe violations mostly though ignorance.

The pay days for OSHA is nailing the big boys because most of the fines for small companies would drive them out of business, so they tend to be more open to working with them before they pull out the fine "incentive" to comply.

As for OSHA people "controlled" by higher ups. I'm not sure about that. He worked the companies that had complaints filed anonymously, the rest of the time he was on his own time to see whoever he thought looked suspect.

[pop goes the weasel]

11. Please

OSHA is like Child Protection Services--full of highly trained, well-intentioned folks working short-staffed and under-budgeted and under-empowered. Horrible things happen right under their noses, not because they aren't dedictated good people, but because they aren't adequately funded and empowered.

Just north of Austin, in 2003, a worker fell into the machinery at a frozen foods plant, and was killed. The plant had been in violation of OSHA standards for some time, but simply paid the fines rather than implement the changes ordered. Until OSHA has the power to close a plant (or, better, temporarily make it a government-run operation, so people won't be put out of work), The Jungle will continue to be as pertinent now as when it was written.

[barb162]

14. you're right. I have seen dedicated OSHA workers but they are

underfunded, understaffed and their bosses are very politicized, just like the mess in the FDA.

[ultraist]

12. Illegal aliens get exploited regularly despite OSHA

Chances are, these employees were illegal aliens. That plant has a high number of Mexican migrant workers. It's common knowledge, that here in NC, migrant workers have been exploited for decades and still are. From the cotton and tobacco fields to the factories, migrant workers' rights are violated. There are often reports in the local papers of such incidents. The locals turn a blind eye in most cases.

The conditions for the animals are no better. For instance, Tyson foods chicken houses are disgusting. I drive by one on my way to the mountains. It is a dilapidated, unheated, un-air conditioned building where thousands chickens are piled atop of each other. They fight and end up eating each other. It is one of the grossest things I have ever seen and it smells horrendous. They do not clean out the building but let the animals live covered in dung and in filth.

I do not eat chicken or meat, including pork. If you saw a pig farm or a chicken house in NC, you probably wouldn't either.

[KissMeKate]

18. not true. osha is captured by industry now.

all of the regulatory agencies have been given instructions to give slaps on the wrist for the sake of keeping people in business, you know, "voluntary compliance", etc.

This is why the nursing home industry gets away with letting poor seniors rot away, neglected, year after year.

[oscar111]

6. Basic full Report .. link below

full report from HRW group , not just the paper's short story...

Thankfully NOT IN PDF. Everybody detests PDF.

That is, the link in orig post is to a short newsppr story, which itself links to the HRW site.. there you find an inner page with this link to the full 1OOplus page report.

175 pages IIRC, tho memory fuzzy on that.

Blood, Sweat, and Fear

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/usa0105/ Changed:10:44 AM on Wednesday, January 26, 200

[oscar111]

7. PS Swanson chicken seems OK.. no violations of food safety

at FDA site. dont know about how workers are treated.

Tyson .. bad treatment of workers... i have not yet researched it for food safety at FDA. easy to do, you can easily. go FDA site, enter swanson chicken.

ps all three domestic us tuna companies cited for unclean food or contamination at FDA site. Never eat foreign food.. tho poss EU or some asian, ok.. like Japan perhaps. Never eat most third world food.. gov's there inspect less than we do. Gov's there poorer than even our gov.

tuna is out.. so i eat swanson chicken now.

Others? anyone?

[ultraist]

16. Underreporting to OSHA, esp. for migrant workers

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/usa0105/15.htm#_Toc88546809
Analysis of Injuries and Workers Compensation from Interviews
Rate of workers who received workers compensation insurance for their injury or illness:

24% of interviewed injured workers received workers compensation.
63 workers total in database
15 workers got workers compensation
Rate of workers reported on injury log versus not reported on OSHA injury log:
44% of interviewed injured workers did not have their work related physical illnesses or injuries reported to OSHA.

35 workers reported on OSHA log
28 workers not reported OSHA injury log
The rate of Latino immigrants who received workers compensation insurance for their injury or illness:
95% of interviewed Latino immigrant injured workers did not receive workers compensation.

19 Latino immigrant workers in database
1 Latino immigrant worker received workers compensation
The rate of English speaking American workers who received workers compensation insurance for their injury or illness:
68% of interviewed English speaking American workers did not receive workers compensation.

44 American English speaking workers in database
14 American workers received workers compensation
Rate of American English speaking workers to Latino immigrant Spanish speaking workers in terms of injury log reports and unreported:
47% of interviewed Latino immigrant injured workers were not reported on the OSHA log.
11 Latino immigrant workers reported on injury log out of 19 injured Latino immigrant workers
45% of interviewed English-speaking American workers were not reported on the OSHA log
24 English speaking American workers reported on injury log out of 44 in the database
Rate of termination of workers whom were injured:356
24% of interviewed injured workers were terminated sometime after their injuries.
15 injured workers were terminated out of 63 in database.
8 of the terminated workers were not reported on injury log.

[Chicago Democrat]

17. NEVER EVER EVER BUY TYSON OR SMITHFEILD!

I don't cause they are disgusting.

[KissMeKate]

19. the book "fast food nation"

covers these employment practices- the companies send buses down to mexico city, advertise in mexican newspapers, and bring their workers up to the states and drop them off at homeless shelters to sleep until their first paycheck, and bam, they get ultra cheap labor.

weight issues, labor issues, environment, humane treatment of animals, lots of reasons to consider lowering meat intake.

Nutritionists say you only need six ounces of protein per day. (Thats the size of a deck of cards. The size of one burger, or one fried chicken leg, or one can of tuna, for example.)

when you eat that whopper, give the system that produced that burger some thought. Know your meat.

(Preaching message turned off now :) )