Everybody like pork
Ricardo
E-MailPrint Save By BOB HERBERT
Published: June 19, 2006
Sometimes the spotlight works. Last week I wrote the first of what I
thought would be a series of columns on the plight of workers at the
mammoth Smithfield Packing Company plant in Tar Heel, N.C., the largest
pork processing facility in the world.
Life inside the Smithfield plant can border on the otherworldly. To
get a sense of what conditions are like on the killing floor, where
32,000 hogs are slaughtered each day, listen to the comments of a
former Smithfield worker, Edward Morrison, whose job required him to
flip 200- and 300-pound hog carcasses, hour after hour:
"Going to work on the kill floor was like walking into the pit of hell.
They have these fire chambers, big fires going, and this fierce boiling
water solution. That's all part of the process that the carcasses have
to go through after they're killed. It's so hot in there. And it's dark
and noisy, with the supervisors screaming, and that de-hair machine is
so loud. Some people can't take it.
"I would go home at night and my body would be all locked up because I
was dehydrated. All your fluids would just sweat out of you on your
shift. I don't think the company cared. Their thing was just get that
hog out the door by any means necessary."
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has been trying to
organize the 5,500 workers at the plant for more than a dozen years.
But the company has ferociously resisted. The union lost votes to
organize the plant in 1994 and 1997, but the results of those elections
were thrown out after the National Labor Relations Board and the courts
determined that Smithfield had prevented the union from holding fair
elections.
A vast majority of the workers at Smithfield are Latino or black. The
union has circulated the comments of Ronnie Ann Simmons, who worked at
Smithfield when the 1997 vote was held. "It was ugly," she said.
"Supervisors yelling: 'Hit this nigger! Hit this nigger! They don't
need to vote.' Police was everywhere."
The board and the courts determined that Smithfield had been guilty of
myriad "egregious" violations of federal labor law. The company was
ordered to cease its interference with the union's organizing effort
and to reinstate workers that the courts found had been illegally fired
because of their union activities.
Rather than obey the directives of the board and the courts, Smithfield
has tied the matter up on appeals that have lasted for years.
Until now. Late last week the company blinked.
I first noticed that something was up when I was informed in an e-mail
message from a Smithfield spokesman that the starting salary for
workers had very recently (and very, very quietly) been raised from
$8.10 an hour to $9.20 an hour.
Then on Thursday, the day the first installment in the planned series
ran, Smithfield announced that it would end the appeal process that it
had pushed so vigorously for so long. The company did not admit that it
had done anything wrong. But its chief executive, Joseph Luter III,
said in a prepared statement:
"When a new election is called, we will comply fully with the
N.L.R.B.'s remedies to assure a fair vote that represents the wishes of
our plant's employees."
He said: "Smithfield respects and accepts the court's judgment, even
though we strongly disagree with the findings. ...We recognize that we
have lost our case in court."
While union officials welcomed the pay raise and the decision to end
the appeal process, they were extremely skeptical about the company's
promise to comply fully with the orders of the courts and the N.L.R.B.
A spokeswoman for the union said, "This company has a long history of
abuse, exploitation and mendacity."
Gene Bruskin, the director of the union's organizing campaign, said he
was worried that plans to move ahead with another election could be
derailed yet again by illegal tactics from the company, and that yet
another court fight and then a lengthy appeals process could stretch
many years into the future.
"What we are fighting for," he said, "is for them to recognize that
they've got to talk to the workers and the union and work out a process
that doesn't involve intimidation and interference."
Smithfield traded harsh comments with the union - saying, among other
things, that the union's allegations about conditions in the Tar Heel
plant were "untrue" - but a spokesman insisted that the company would
abide by the law, and stand by its word.
We'll see.
Wolfie
to raise. In a matter of very few months a pig can be raised from
weiner to butcher size and the meat will be much better than anything
you can buy in any supermarket. You simply call your butcher and he
sends the kill-truck. They dispatch the hog, bleed it out and gut it
and take it to the shop for butchering and wrapping. These horror
stories about slaughter houses have been around for years. It's not
Mr. Rogers' neighborhood in a place like that. But in growing your own
you at least have some semblance of control over what the animal eats
and how it is handled after dispatching.
So grow your own...or quit eating meat all together. Lots of choices,
RL.
Wolfie, et al
toci
Dink
> On the Killing Floor
> E-MailPrint Save By BOB HERBERT
> Published: June 19, 2006
> Sometimes the spotlight works. Last week I wrote the first of what I
> thought would be a series of columns on the plight of workers at the
> mammoth Smithfield Packing Company plant in Tar Heel, N.C., the largest
> pork processing facility in the world.
>
> Life inside the Smithfield plant can border on the otherworldly. To
> get a sense of what conditions are like on the killing floor, where
> 32,000 hogs are slaughtered each day, listen to the comments of a
> former Smithfield worker, Edward Morrison, whose job required him to
> flip 200- and 300-pound hog carcasses, hour after hour:
>
> "Going to work on the kill floor was like walking into the pit of hell.
> They have these fire chambers, big fires going, and this fierce boiling
> water solution. That's all part of the process that the carcasses have
> to go through after they're killed. It's so hot in there. And it's dark
> and noisy, with the supervisors screaming, and that de-hair machine is
> so loud. Some people can't take it. /snip/
I'm supposing no one was pointing a gun at Mr. Morrison to force him to
work there.
--
Dink
N 30.21, W 97.81 http://snipurl.com/whereiam
http://snipurl.com/austinweatherpixie
JD Cooper
Holy shit! has America become so stupid as to not remember a bit of
history? For example, a book published some hundred years ago showed
working conditions at packing plants. (The Jungle) There ain't anything
new here...
Besides that, Morrison is easily replaced by an ILLEGAL ALIEN who will
work for less money and not complain.
JD
DittyDu...@webtv.net
Ricardo
Wolfie wrote:
> Some folk prefer growing their own food, Pigs aren't at all difficult
> to raise. In a matter of very few months a pig can be raised from
> weiner to butcher size and the meat will be much better than anything
> you can buy in any supermarket. You simply call your butcher and he
> sends the kill-truck. They dispatch the hog, bleed it out and gut it
> and take it to the shop for butchering and wrapping. These horror
> stories about slaughter houses have been around for years. It's not
> Mr. Rogers' neighborhood in a place like that. But in growing your own
> you at least have some semblance of control over what the animal eats
> and how it is handled after dispatching.
>
> So grow your own...or quit eating meat all together. Lots of choices,
> RL.
>
> Wolfie, et al
naw...not really :-)
Ricardo
well...it's really a job most care not to have is the point...unless
you can round up some minutemen who care to go there :-).
Ricardo
JD Cooper wrote:
> Who is forcing Morrison to work there?
>
> Holy shit! has America become so stupid as to not remember a bit of
> history? For example, a book published some hundred years ago showed
> working conditions at packing plants. (The Jungle) There ain't anything
> new here...
>
> Besides that, Morrison is easily replaced by an ILLEGAL ALIEN who will
> work for less money and not complain.
>
> JD
ah...but a job shortage for sure for the porky eaters. Got any anybody
who needs a job?
Ricardo
LOL..LOL...sorta like neat how our denials hit us between the eyes,
right?
Seth Hammond
college semesters....
"toci" <gin...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1150719137.9...@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Normandy
"JD Cooper" <BA...@humbug.job> wrote in message
news:_KidnVoGLfjMMAvZ...@texas.net...
> Who is forcing Morrison to work there?
>
> Holy shit! has America become so stupid as to not remember a bit of
> history? For example, a book published some hundred years ago showed
> working conditions at packing plants. (The Jungle) There ain't anything
> new here...
>
> Besides that, Morrison is easily replaced by an ILLEGAL ALIEN who will
> work for less money and not complain.
>
> JD
>
>Sinclair,who ran for governor of California after moving out of a free love
>community in Arden Delaware. It is grossly overstated.
Sinclair
JD Cooper
I did not know that about the author. I recognize that he may have
exagerated the situtations in the meat packing plants, but I'd expect
not horribly so. The book did, howvever, spark a national debate over
the meat packing industry and served to clean it up considerably.
JD
JD Cooper
> JD Cooper wrote:
>
>>Who is forcing Morrison to work there?
>>
>>Holy shit! has America become so stupid as to not remember a bit of
>>history? For example, a book published some hundred years ago showed
>>working conditions at packing plants. (The Jungle) There ain't anything
>>new here...
>>
>>Besides that, Morrison is easily replaced by an ILLEGAL ALIEN who will
>>work for less money and not complain.
>>
>>JD
>
>
> ah...but a job shortage for sure for the porky eaters. Got any anybody
> who needs a job?
How you figure your statement... "job shortage for sure for the porky
eaters"??? I don't get it.
JD
Ricardo
JD Cooper wrote:
> Ricardo wrote:
>
> > JD Cooper wrote:
> >
> >>Who is forcing Morrison to work there?
> >>
> >>Holy shit! has America become so stupid as to not remember a bit of
> >>history? For example, a book published some hundred years ago showed
> >>working conditions at packing plants. (The Jungle) There ain't anything
> >>new here...
> >>
> >>Besides that, Morrison is easily replaced by an ILLEGAL ALIEN who will
> >>work for less money and not complain.
> >>
> >>JD
> >
> >
> > ah...but a job shortage for sure for the porky eaters. Got any anybody
> > who needs a job?
>
> How you figure your statement... "job shortage for sure for the porky
> eaters"??? I don't get it.
>
> JD
>
no you don't get it.
Wolfie
Ricardo wrote:
> Wolfie wrote:
> > Some folk prefer growing their own food, Pigs aren't at all difficult
> > to raise. In a matter of very few months a pig can be raised from
> > weiner to butcher size and the meat will be much better than anything
> > you can buy in any supermarket. You simply call your butcher and he
> > sends the kill-truck. They dispatch the hog, bleed it out and gut it
> > and take it to the shop for butchering and wrapping. These horror
> > stories about slaughter houses have been around for years. It's not
> > Mr. Rogers' neighborhood in a place like that. But in growing your own
> > you at least have some semblance of control over what the animal eats
> > and how it is handled after dispatching.
> >
> > So grow your own...or quit eating meat all together. Lots of choices,
> > RL.
> >
> > Wolfie, et al
>
> naw...not really :-)
>
we grow for ourselves, family and friends, in addition to some retail
business. I realize not everybody can do it, for reasons of their own.
But we can and we do. And we eat our own stuff all through the
winter. Randi can hardly swallow a store-bought 'mater. We hope to
extend our growing season via greenhouse use. Nobody plants,
cultivates, maintains, or harvests much of our food but us. That's our
choice. There are also garden co-ops that you buy a membership in with
cash or work or the donation of space for gardening. You share in the
harvest. Another choice.
Or you hop in the 3/4 ton 4X4 and waddle on down to Winn-Dixie and buy
a plastic bag of "salad mix" and some bottled water, stopping on the
way out to recycle your plastic bottles from last time, and considering
yourself a good, environmentally aware citizen.
When I worked for Ma Bell in SF ca: 1972-77, part of my job as a
repairman was sales. I was expected to sell things like additional
phones, longer cords, decorator phones, etc. The problem was most of
the residential service in my district was in the housing projects
where people didn't have money for frivolous crap like decorator
phones. One month, they'd buy a decorator phone, next month I'd be out
there taking it out of the wall and repairing it. Finally they'd move,
leaving a 3 month old unpaid bill, including the decorator
phone...which is now worthless even as a doorstop. But it was PART OF
MY JOB to sell this crap to people who didn't need it and wouldn't pay
for it.
Nothing has changed since then. It's always about somebody's bottom
line. And it's always somebody ELSE. ;-]
Wolfie, et al
JD Cooper
> JD Cooper wrote:
>
>>Ricardo wrote:
>>
>>
>>>JD Cooper wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Who is forcing Morrison to work there?
>>>>
>>>>Holy shit! has America become so stupid as to not remember a bit of
>>>>history? For example, a book published some hundred years ago showed
>>>>working conditions at packing plants. (The Jungle) There ain't anything
>>>>new here...
>>>>
>>>>Besides that, Morrison is easily replaced by an ILLEGAL ALIEN who will
>>>>work for less money and not complain.
>>>>
>>>>JD
>>>
>>>
>>>ah...but a job shortage for sure for the porky eaters. Got any anybody
>>>who needs a job?
>>
>>How you figure your statement... "job shortage for sure for the porky
>>eaters"??? I don't get it.
>>
>>JD
>>
>
>
> no you don't get it.
Why should I? The sentence is unintelligible.
toci
really a Russian who stole your name? Toci
Normandy
"JD Cooper" <BA...@humbug.job> wrote in message
I wrote this in 2002
Born in Baltimore, Maryland. USA, 20th September, 1878, died 25th Nov. 25,
1968, is as famous for his social concern as for his many novels. His first
well-known novel, the Jungle, exposed the appalling conditions in the
Chicago stockyards and influenced passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act.
Sinclair subsequently tried and failed to exercise his socialism in a
cooperative colony, in Arden Delaware but he persisted as a muckraker. Upton
Sinclair was an avowed socialist.
Fearful that the public would not wait for the socialist dream to be
realised in America, Sinclair switched to the Democratic party.
California, popularly known as the land of milk and honey before the
Depression struck, was suffering just as much misery as the rest of the
American nation by 1934. That year, Socialist-turned-Democrat Upton Sinclair
entered California's governor's race as the Democratic candidate for
governor of California on his famous EPIC (End Poverty in California)
program. A plan to end poverty in the state; against him was a powerful
group of Republicans, old-line Democrats, Hollywood studios, and ad
agencies. In September, prominent Republicans met in Los Angeles to raise
money for Sinclair's defeat. His proposed program, called EPIC - End Poverty
In California - called for the state to turn over idle farms and factories
to the unemployed in a system of cooperatives based on "production for use"
instead of "production for profit.
There is no excuse for poverty in a state as rich as California. We can
produce so much food that we have to dump it into our bay.
Campaign workers were convinced Sinclair was going to win. Ultimately,
however, Republican opponent Frank Merriam carried the election with 1.1
million votes to Sinclair's 900,000. However, Sinclair's campaign did have
an impact on the political landscape in California: 27 out of 80 members of
the state legislature were EPIC legislators, new to politics, creating an
infusion of new blood into California politics and the Democratic party.
Across the country, Sinclair's leftist leaning made room for change at the
centre of American politics; in addition, he persuaded ordinary people
that - win or lose - they had a voice in the electoral process.
After his defeat Upton Sinclair launched a new and highly successful writing
career. In 1940, at the age of 62, he published World's End. His novel
Dragon's Teeth (1942), about Hitler's rise to power, won the 1943 Pulitzer
Prize for fiction.
References
I, Governor of California And How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the
Future End poverty League, Los Angeles, 1933.
We, People of America and How We Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future,
national ECIP League Pasadena 1936.
``Upton Sinclair,'' William A. Bloodworth, Dictionary of Literary Biography.
JD Cooper
Holy cow! This is quite interesting. It had never occured to me that the
man was worth looking up. Thanks for the info.
JD