Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser [192]
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172 The injury rate in a slaughterhouse: In 1999, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the injury and illness rate in the nation’s meatpacking industry was 26.7 per 100 hundred workers. For the rest of U.S. manufacturing, it was 9.2 per hundred workers. See “Industries with the Highest Nonfatal Total Cases, Incidence Rates for Injuries and Illnesses, Private Industry, 1999,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 2000; and “Incidence Rates of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses by Selected Industries and Case Types, 1999,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, December 2000.
172 roughly forty thousand men and women: The meatpacking industry now has about 147,600 workers, and at least 26.7 percent of them suffer workplace injuries and illnesses. See “Industries with the Highest Nonfatal Total Cases.”
Thousands of additional injuries and illnesses: At some plants, as many as half of the workers may be hurt each year. You need spend only an hour or so with a roomful of poor Latino meatpacking workers to get a sense of how many serious injuries are never reported.
Poultry plants can be largely mechanized: Despite the higher level of mechanization, workers in the poultry industry have one of the nation’s highest rates of injury and illness, largely due to the repetitive nature of the work and the speed of the production line.
173 roughly thirty-three times higher than the national average: In 1999 the incidence of repeated trauma injuries in private industry was 27.3 per 10,000 workers; in the poultry industry the rate was 337.1; and in the meatpacking industry it was 912.5. See “Industries with the Highest Nonfatal Illness Incidence Rate of Disorders Associated with Repeated Trauma and the Number of Cases in These Industries,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, December 2000.
adds up to about 10,000 cuts: According to Berkowitz and Fagel, some production jobs can require 20,000 cuts a day. Berkowitz and Fagel, Enclyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, p. 67.14.
174 beef slaughterhouses often operate at profit margins: According to Steve Bjerklie, the profit margin for slaughter is about 1 percent, with additional earnings from processing and the sale of byproducts. See Steve Bjerklie, “On the Horns of a Dilemma,” in Any Way You Cut It, p. 42.
widespread methamphetamine use: Many workers told me stories about meth-amphetamine use. See also Lee, “Meatpacking towns seen as key funnel for meth.”
only one-third of IBP’s workers belong to a union: Cited in Cohen, “Free Ride with Help from INS.”
176 awarded $2.4 million to a female employee…“screamed obscenities and rubbed their bodies”: A federal judge later reduced the award to $1.75 million. See Lynn Hicks, “IBP Worker Awarded $2.4 Million by Jury,” Des Moines Register, February 27, 1999; Lynn Hicks, “Worker: Sexism, Racism at IBP,” Des Moines Register, February 3,1999; “IBP Told to Pay Attorney’s Fees,” Des Moines Register, December 30, 1999.
the company paid the women $900,000: See “Monfort Beef to Pay $900,000 to Settle Sexual Harassment Suit,” Houston Chronicle, September 1,1999.
pressured them for dates and sex: Ibid.
They are considered “independent contractors”: As a result, the meatpacking firms are not liable for the work-related injuries of the slaughterhouse employees who face the greatest risks. When OSHA tried to penalize IBP for the death of a sanitation worker, IBP appealed the decision, with the backing of the National Association of Manufacturers, before a federal appeals court in 1998 — and won. Although the meatpackers own the slaughterhouses and the slaughterhouse equipment, they are not legally responsible