Stories Of The Workers Injuries Schlosser example essay topic

Maltreatment of Slaughterhouse Workers In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser talks about the working conditions of fast food meat slaughterhouses. In the chapter "The Most Dangerous Job", one of the workers, who despised his job, gave Schlosser an opportunity to walk through a slaughterhouse. As the author was progressed backwards through the slaughterhouse, he noticed how all the workers were sitting very close to each other with steel protective vests and knives. The workers were mainly young Latina women, who worked swiftly, accurately, while trying not to fall behind. Eric Schlosser explains how working in the slaughterhouses is the most dangerous profession - these poor working conditions and horrible treatment of employees in the plants are beyond comprehension to what we see in modern everyday jobs, a lifestyle most of us take for granted. Schlosser talks about how meatpacking is the most dangerous job in the United States.

He says "The injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate of a typical American Factory" (172). Every year more than forty thousand meat packing workers get injured (beyond first aid) in the US alone. That is a lot of people getting hurt for just doing their jobs. Some of the injuries that get reported are fatal, but "thousands of additional injuries and illnesses most likely go unrecorded" (172). The workers who apply for such jobs tend to be illegal immigrants who try to earn some money to send back home to their families. Because these immigrants do not "exist", there would be no problem if one might get into an accident and die.

In the section titled 'The Worst' in chapter 8, Schlosser writes, 'Some of the most dangerous jobs in meatpacking slaughterhouses are performed by late night cleaning crews' (176). Most of these workers earn only one third the wages of regular production employees. The working conditions are horrid. The cleaners use a cleaning agent that is a mixture of water and chlorine, which reduces the visibility of the plants with 'a thick, heavy fog' (177).

There is nothing worse than not being able to breathe and working hard for ridiculous pay. The late night workers have to clean when the machines in the plants are still running. Workers have to dispose of the leftover junk in the plant consisting of 'grease, fat, manure, leftover scraps of meat' (177). To make matters worse, while spraying the cleaning agent, the plant starts to heat up to temperatures above 100 degrees. With the dense fog and high temperature, accidents occur quite easily - death rates among slaughterhouse sanitation workers are very high and 'official statistics are not kept' (178). Horrible accidents occur where people lose body parts such as arms, hands or fingers.

If that wasn't bad enough sometimes they may lose their heads on the machines. In one case, a few workers tried to clean out a blood-collection tank, only to be suffocated by hydrogen sulfide fumes. Ever since immigrants started replacing workers in slaughterhouses, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) was formed. This organization is to enforce the health and safety laws by visiting the slaughterhouses once every eight years. I think that outrageous considering accidents happen every day. "The death of a worker on the job was punished with a fine of just a few hundred dollars...

". (179). Workers with fatal injuries were told to come the next day to work and do easy jobs, in order to cover up the injuries so that nobody was missing that day. This organization never achieved its purpose, however it made people think that they would be more safe. Profit margins for slaughterhouses are very low. The faster the workers perform, the more profit comes in.

If a person gets injured, the production line slows down with huge losses of profit. "The annual bonuses of plant foreman and supervisors are often based in part of the injury rate of their workers. Instead of creating a safer workplace, bonus schemes encourage slaughterhouse managers to make sure those accidents and injuries go unreported... ". (174). I think that this is unfair treatment against workers because they cannot get the full attention they require.

"If a worker agrees not to report an injury, a supervisor will shift him or her to an easier job for a while... " (175). If a worker does not agree to keep his injuries quiet and decides to report them, supervisors could lower their pay and make the worker want to quit his or her job. Health insurance is almost non-existent. Slaughterhouse owners tried their hardest to use every little method to get away from having to offer insurance for workers.

I believe that this type of treatment of workers is inappropriate. The job of a supervisor in a slaughterhouse isn't as glamorous as many people think. They "must meet production goals, keep the number of recorded injuries low, and most importantly, keep the meat flowing down the line without interruption" (175). Supervisors have a tremendous amount of power over their workers. The supervisor is "like a little dictator in his or her section of the plant, largely free to boss, fires, berates, or reassigns workers" (176).

Such power leads to abuse and sexual harassment, especially for the women workers. Most sexual relationships between supervisors and the women workers are consensual. The female workers "optimistically regard sex with their supervisors as a way to gain a secure place in American society, a green card or a husband - or the very least a transfer to an easier job at the plant... ". (176). I think that there are cases of mistreatment of workers in slaughterhouses; however some of them may not necessarily be true.

There are times when workers may exaggerate their health condition only to get out of work. I've known people who lied to their supervisors about being sick or getting hurt on the job and got away with it. It is hard for supervisors to tell when a person is faking it or when he / she is really injured. However most of them work the people even thought they " ve been recently injured. One example Schlosser used about the maltreatment of workers in the slaughterhouses was Kenny Dobbins. Kenny had gone through a series of near-fatal accidents in his workplace, but none of his injuries were treated properly by the company doctors.

He was always told that the injuries were not fatal and he could go back the next day. After sixteen years of working in the company "he'd cleaned blood tanks with his bare hands, fought the union, done whatever the company had asked him to do, suffered injuries that would " ve killed weaker men... ". (190) Later on Kenny was fired and had no pensions. I've never met a person like Kenny, but if I think if anyone was in his position they would quit this horrendous job. Although the stories of the workers' injuries Schlosser has put in the book may possibly be exaggerated, I agree with his viewpoints and they should not be overlooked so easily.

Health and safety laws have been disregarded in the slaughterhouses, causing a number of deaths. Also, there is a great deal of corruption in the slaughterhouses where workers are being threatened or lied to, especially about their injuries. I couldn't imagine a factory not providing any type of reimbursement if anybody got hurt on the job. It is unjust that workers have to cover up their injuries in order to continue with their jobs or else they suffer unemployment or cuts to their wage. I've seen people trying work even if they were sick, but the supervisors would always send them home. The attitudes of the female workers in the slaughterhouses should also be considered - using sex to gain security in a workplace is unethical.

There should be no need for people to get a more secure job just by doing sexual favors, regardless of whether it is consensual or not. I believe stricter observation of laws must be enforced to reduce the lack of safety and the corruption in the slaughterhouse work environment. There is nothing worse than an unsafe working environment.

Bibliography

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Perennial, 2002.