United Beef Packers
John McCulloch- United Beef Packers
Introduction
John McCulloch was hired as an assistant general manager at United Beef Packers (UBP). After working for a few months, he felt that the job was nothing he expected; exploitation of immigrant workers, the company’s sole focus on profit maximizing, poor sanitation and worker safety, and also unethical documentation of medical records. To complicate matters, McCulloch is left with the responsibility a worker injured on the job because UBP does not want to pay for the medical bills.
What Changed to Cause the Ethical Issues?
UBP was a very successful company with clean working environments and higher wages the U.S. manufacturing average. However, with the recession in the late 1970s, UBP founder Ken Hill made a choice to sustain profits by cutting wages. Hill purchased a local slaughterhouse and fired the unionized workers immediately to hire immigrants and poorly educated locals. This led the union to strike and Hill hired “scabs” in the meantime. Some unionized workers pretended to work as scabs and committed acts of sabotage. Irritated, Hill shut the plant down and reopened it six months later without a union; staffed with immigrants and new employees. In the mid-1980s, Wholly Pure Foods Inc acquired UBP.
Through using Mexican radio for advertising, many immigrants jumped at the opportunity to earn more hourly than they did daily in Mexico. Instead of picking seasonal fruits and vegetables, they worked in a meat plant until they are unable to do so. With these immigrant workers, the meat industry wage average increase has been surpassed by the U.S. manufacturing average since 1983 and is 25-40 percent higher. A union does not exist because the turnover rate is too high to maintain a stable union.
By 1980, the top four beef packers processed 20 percent of the beef in the U.S and 82 percent by 2000. Since 1980, line speed in cattle plants have increased from 175 cattle an hour to 400 cattle an hour
Introduction
John McCulloch was hired as an assistant general manager at United Beef Packers (UBP). After working for a few months, he felt that the job was nothing he expected; exploitation of immigrant workers, the company’s sole focus on profit maximizing, poor sanitation and worker safety, and also unethical documentation of medical records. To complicate matters, McCulloch is left with the responsibility a worker injured on the job because UBP does not want to pay for the medical bills.
What Changed to Cause the Ethical Issues?
UBP was a very successful company with clean working environments and higher wages the U.S. manufacturing average. However, with the recession in the late 1970s, UBP founder Ken Hill made a choice to sustain profits by cutting wages. Hill purchased a local slaughterhouse and fired the unionized workers immediately to hire immigrants and poorly educated locals. This led the union to strike and Hill hired “scabs” in the meantime. Some unionized workers pretended to work as scabs and committed acts of sabotage. Irritated, Hill shut the plant down and reopened it six months later without a union; staffed with immigrants and new employees. In the mid-1980s, Wholly Pure Foods Inc acquired UBP.
Through using Mexican radio for advertising, many immigrants jumped at the opportunity to earn more hourly than they did daily in Mexico. Instead of picking seasonal fruits and vegetables, they worked in a meat plant until they are unable to do so. With these immigrant workers, the meat industry wage average increase has been surpassed by the U.S. manufacturing average since 1983 and is 25-40 percent higher. A union does not exist because the turnover rate is too high to maintain a stable union.
By 1980, the top four beef packers processed 20 percent of the beef in the U.S and 82 percent by 2000. Since 1980, line speed in cattle plants have increased from 175 cattle an hour to 400 cattle an hour