The Pros And Cons Of The Meat Traveling Industry

Imagine you were in a meat packing industry and you had just gotten to work and all you thought about was, am I going to survive today. That when you got working, all you thought about was about keeping up with the meat going down the conveyor belt, not cutting yourself while you work as fast as you could, and not getting cut by the person next to you because you are so close together in one small space. This is what it is like for almost all meat packing employees because they work in such harsh conditions that they have to worry about if they are going to survive that day or not because it is so dangerous. In meat packing companies such as Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef, workers are put to the test when they have to work in the conditions
that they are provided with, good or bad, and they have to deal with the hardships and struggles that come with packaging meat such as the injuries that occur from working this kind of job.
The government should regulate the working conditions the meat packing companies give their workers because it can lead to worker injuries and health problem possibilities among workers and the meat consuming public. The first reason why Meat packing companies should have better working conditions is because it can lead to many different health problems in both workers and in customers that buy the meat in stores. The first health problem that can come from bad working conditions is when workers work to cut and slice meat into the correct packaging and serving sizes. According to an article written by Carey L. Biron, a mintpress news author, “[Workers from the US poultry and meat packing industry] point to high processing speeds as leading directly to significant rates of worker injury, particularly repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome…” This shows that this is a major issue that needs to be solved because it is affecting worker’s lives with injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, and could lead to many problems including nerve issues in the hand and finger tendons. This also shows that companies are not concerned enough to take the time to give their workers a simple break every once in awhile, and that they are not willing to slow
the conveyor belt down so that they aren’t pushing their workers to the limit every time that they work in the factory. The second health problem that can come from the bad working conditions is how the dirty conditions in which the workers package the food make it so the the consumer’s health is now at risk. An example of this is when “the Jungle also described the filthy working conditions that threatened the health of everybody who ate meat,” (Schlosser and Wilson 183-184). This shows that the working conditions need to be changed because it is threatening the safety of the public and whoever eats the meat that comes from these industries. This also shows that companies are not giving their workers the safety and cleanliness that they need during their hours as an employee in these meat warehouses and how the workers have no other choice but to keep on packaging the meat that would be sold to the public. Clearly, workers need to be provided with better working conditions, and this can be solved if companies would just give the safety and facilities that workers need to properly do their job without injuring themselves or others around them. The second reason why meat packing companies should provide better working conditions is because it can lead to the physical injury of workers that cut the meat going down the conveyor belt.
The first injury that workers can get is when they have to cut the meat flying down the conveyor belt as fast as they can. For example, “As one worker stated: The line is so fast there is no time to sharpen the knife. The knife gets dull and you have to cut harder. That’s when it really starts to hurt, and that’s when you cut yourself,” (foodispower). This shows that the regulations in which workers work at the conveyor belts need to be changed because as they keep on cutting as fast as they can, the risk of them trying to cut the meat and slipping to cut themselves is much greater than is has to be. To fix this, all they have to do is have the conveyor go slower, and give time for workers to sharpen their knives, yet they don’t which makes it so that every time somebody cuts a piece of meat, it is taking the chance of them cutting of a limb to possibly eventually die from something that could have been prevented. This also tells us that this is the main reason why workers get the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and that it can be prevented, just that companies don’t spend the time and effort to fix these problems. The second reason that they should fix this problem is because they can not only get cut by themselves, but by the person that is right next to you doing the exact same thing. For example, in a study executed by OSHA, it was said that “workers have also been cut by other workers as they remove their knives from a slab of meat. These ‘neighbor cuts’
are usually the direct result of overcrowded working conditions.” This shows that this should be stopped because workers have to now focus on the person right next to them and how they could at any moment cut them because they are so close together. By making workers work so close together in this type of job leads to the distraction of a worker worrying about the person next to them, instead of themselves, who could also at any moment cut themselves too. Without a doubt, meat packing companies should stop these things from happening and as a result, they would never have to worry about if these things were to happen again to their workers. While it is obvious that meat packing companies should have better working conditions, some misguided companies think that they already do. Companies like Tyson Foods think that their way of treating their workers is already better than the working conditions that many workers in other companies face every day. As Tyson foods stated, “[Our] philosophy reminds us of the importance of taking care of and investing in our Team Members.” However, over the past 7-8 years, companies like Source Watch and PETA have done studies and investigations at Tyson Foods to find the truth, and eventually they were able to find what they were searching for. The first piece of evidence that proved Tyson wrong was, “on nine separate days, PETA's investigator saw workers urinating in the live-hang area, including on the conveyor belt that moves birds to slaughter,” (PETA). This shows that Tyson Foods lied about what they say about how they treat their workers and how the working conditions that are given to the workers make it so that the workers have no choice because they have nowhere else to go but on the ground where all of the meat is being held and packaged. Another piece of evidence that contradicted Tyson was that, “Tyson's Henderson, Kentucky complex was fined an unprecedented $269,000 by Kentucky's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for 73 serious health and safety violations,” (OSHA). This shows that Tyson foods doesn’t really treat their workers with the most extreme care because of the injury rate in just one out of the approximate 85 other Tyson meat packing complexes. This also shows that the conditions in which the meat is packaged are not very safe if workers constantly get injured this amount of times. While major meat packing companies such as Tyson foods think that they do a great job in providing their workers with the necessary materials and working conditions, it has been proven that they don’t treat their workers the way that they say they do. Better working conditions should be provided by the government to workers in meat processing and packing companies because of how they can get injured in many ways. Working conditions can be improved upon because of the injuries that are caused by small working conditions, long and fast working hours, and the overall treatment of the workers and what type of safety they can get to protect themselves during work. To stop these things from happening, knowing the regulations in the meat packing company could help you possibly propose a new bill to your local senator about the way that workers are treated in meat packing companies and how unsafe it is. To take action, you could also inform regulation companies like Food Standards Agency, or local health agencies about unsafe working environments and health issues involved with eating meat and the production of meat.