Human Rights Watch Condemns U.S. Meatpackers
This
week brought a new first: Human Rights Watch – an international
human rights watchdog agency – accused a specific U.S. industry of
violating basic human rights.
In a summary from the New York Times:
For
the first time, Human Rights Watch has issued a report that harshly
criticizes a single industry in the United States, concluding that
working conditions among the nation's meatpackers and slaughterhouses
are so bad that they violate basic human rights.
…
“Meatpacking
is the most dangerous factory job in America,” said the report's
author, Lance Compa, who teaches industrial and labor relations at
Cornell and is a former union organizer and negotiator. “Dangerous conditions are cheaper for companies, and the government does next to nothing.”
Responding
to that criticism, Richard Fairfax, director of enforcement for the
federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said the agency
vigorously oversaw the industry for excessive line speed and other
problems.
“We have a strong enforcement program” in meatpacking, Mr. Fairfax said, “and a strong compliance assistance program.”
….
“Nearly every worker interviewed for this report bore physical
signs of a serious injury suffered from working in a meat or poultry
plant,” the report says. “Meat and poultry industry employers set up
the workplaces and practices that create these dangers, but they treat
the resulting mayhem as a normal, natural part of the production
process, not as what it is – repeated violations of international human
rights standards.”
The report also says that to save themselves money, companies
frequently pressure injured employees not to file workers' compensation
claims.
Something
to keep in mind – “repeated violations of international human rights
standards” is describing the process used to bring the majority of meat
products to your dinner plate. Meat packing has also been a
traditional Iowa industry – and many towns can tell you of their
experiences with meatpacking companies bent on paying the lowest wage
and ensuring the worst conditions possible just to boost profit margins.
Blog For Iowa 
I would be interested in how this story plays in the Iowa press, in case anyone cares to report that in a future post.
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