5mo ago

Kids Are Working in America’s Meatpacking Plants

www.teenvogue.com Kids Are Working in America’s Meatpacking Plants

Migrant children are being employed at chicken plants.

A Boring Dystopia @lemmy.world

FenrirIII @lemmy.world

5mo ago

Kids Are Working in America’s Meatpacking Plants

www.teenvogue.com /story/child-labor-american-meatpacking-industry

170 5

98 comments

I used to work in a meat processing plant doing cleanup when I was about 16. It is a very dangerous job. You have to take machinery apart to clean it and if you are careless you can easily lose fingers/hands/arms/other appendages. My least favorite part of the job was cleaning the bandsaws. You have to take the the blade which is about 10 feet long out of the machine (it's razor sharp so on a good day you don't cut yourself very badly) and clean out what I can only call "meat sawdust" out of every nook and cranny of the machine. Then you have to feed the blade back into the saw. That was probably the least dangerous machine to clean. The meat grinders were also a pain in the ass because you have to remove a giant spiral cylinder with razor sharp edges, again very easy to lose at least a finger if you're not careful
I wouldn't ever want my child to be doing that job, or anyone else's
- Not trying to have any gotcha moment or be deceptive but I am genuinely interested what made you go there and possible come back even to work more? Nothing else available and you needed the money maybe? Its OK if this is too personal a question to answer.
  
  The owner was a family friend, and I was a teenager trying to save money for a car. I think I lasted most of the summer before I quit.
- Did they not give you fucking gloves?
  
  Gloves are usually made of animal skin or synthetic animal skin
  Meat processing machines are built to cut through skin and bone
  
  dont ever wear gloves when working with rotating or moving saws. the gloves will force your hand into the saw.
  i am a regular guest on a clinic ward that specializes in hand surgery. people with severed fingers or half of a hand missing always tell me the same story: the glove forced my hand into the sawblade.
- That sounds like an environment from childhood nightmares I wish had stayed forgotten

We really should have made The Jungle required reading
- That's the book that came to mind when the Supreme Court ruled against federal agencies.
- the people who need to read and understand that book will not absorb the message
  
  There are folks more upset about the Boarshead fiasco that are suggesting that more people should have read that book.
  Meaning that a lot of folks that did read it also didn't absorb the message.
  
  They hate this country so fucking much. We need to kick these people out of this country to make room for hard working refugees (not /s)

Teen Vogue really on some shit lately.
Between them and Rolling Stone the last few years...
"Well guys, looks like the grey lady is doing a 1935 again, so Jackson, I'm gonna need you to pivot from writing relationship quizzes to the child labor beat. Ada, Frank, can you handle best makeup tutorials and genocide? Allison, I know you're on concert reviews, how would you feel about also picking up the investigation on coal coke emissions?"
Fucking good on them, I'm sure that there have always been people doing good work at these publications, but it seems like they've had to really expand their purview recently to cover these giant gaps.
- They've been publishing serious political pieces for nearly a decade now, 2016 election and a new editor was the shift.
  
  Which is why they haven't been let into the press room at the White House.
- They must be the last bigger outlets that have independent income are not owned by some billionaire lobby.
- From what I can see I'd definitely rank Teen Vogue above Rolling Stone, although both are still editorial to some degree. Teen Vogue's headlines aren't as incendiary.
  
  Close friend was a political and occasional music writer for Rolling Stone. Apparently they're a mess as a business, invoices, etc

Dinosaur chicken nuggets: made by kids for kids.
- And from kids! The circle is complete
  
  The dinosaur nuggies are children!

- It's the roarin' 20's.
  
  At least we don't have prohibition to worry about this time. Way easier to take the edge off all these stories.

But they yearn for it /s

You're saying kids are packing my mea....
Nevermind.
- Ehem..

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Also, if you think a child will ever clean something well enough to process food!? US food production is disgusting.
- So you think a low payed adult worker will either?
  Ain't none of you people ever been inside a packing plant have you?
  
  Not my point. And I have.

Everyone should read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
It was written almost 120 years ago, and shows just how horrendous these working conditions used to be before the FDA existed. Everyone who wants to cripple the ability of the FDA to regulate these plants wants those kinds of inhumane working conditions back.
It has a socialist message in the second half, but remember - socialism doesn't replace democracy. Socialism replaces Capitalism.

~~What, I thought it was the illegal immigrants taking all the jobs.~~. Nevermind, I read the article and it's migrant kids they're talking about.

And don’t get me started on the white trash managers and supervisors in those places. Literally run by some strange asshole thug druggie meth types. Oscar Mayer plant in west/southern Illinois is absolutely crazy.

Those kids are earning a Honest Living!
-Republicans who think Drag Queens are DESTROYING our Youth!

I'll just leave this here
- It's almost like exploiting and killing sentient beings is something we shouldn't be doing at all... 🤔

another case for veganism
- Veganism doesn't stop child/slave labor.
  
  Right, if we can reduce it but not stop it we might as well not even try!
  
  But it does give you super powers I think
- As if fruit and veg packing and processing plants are any better. As long as greedy humans are in charge people will be exploited as much as they possibly can regardless of what the industry is.
  
  Exploitation of labor is a huge problem in many industries, but the amount of desensitizing horror and PTSD that occurs in slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants is on a whole different level.
- didn't you already try that? it didn't work.

When your party fellates Big Business so hard you have to provide underage workers for them...

Not only that I'm sure they are making close to minimum wage. Raise that and families might make enough to not need to have their children need to work
- Underage/undocumented workers are definitely not making minimum wage!

Ah finally, the Good Ole Days

So excited for The Jungle 2

Flashbacks to Left Behind

are you still at it? unbelievable.
- Still at what?
  
  child labour

Meat is a choice and it's a bad one.
- no one should be forced to work in these conditions
  
  I never said I didn't see child labor as a problem as well, but the industry shouldn't exist in the first place.
  We're all going to die unless people stop eating meat.
  Make better choices and the problem goes away all on its own. Like removing streets to clear up traffic.
- Tyson Foods, the company mentioned in the article, also has plant-based brands under its wing.
  So no, it won't make a difference in this case.

98 comments