PERMALINK Posted 11:48 PM by Jordan
The Nation's Meanest, Toughest Corporation
Great article in the Nation about organizing in the "Wal-Mart" of
meatpacking: Tyson Foods
A generation ago, meatpacking workers earned some of the highest
wages of any industrial workers in the United States. Working in a
slaughterhouse was a hard, dirty job, but it provided a stable
middle-class income. Today meatpacking is one of the lowest-paid
industrial jobs, with one of the highest turnover rates. It is also
the nation's most dangerous job, measured by the rate of serious
injury. During the 1970s IBP was largely responsible for changing
the industry's labor policies, breaking unions, slashing wages and
recruiting an immigrant work force. In a very tough business, IBP
gained the reputation of being by far the toughest. In 1974 IBP was
convicted for collaborating with organized-crime figures in New
York City to bribe meat wholesalers and union leaders. Any
meatpacking company that hoped to compete with IBP had to cut wages
and benefits, too. Over the past twenty-five years some wages in
the meatpacking industry, adjusted for inflation, have declined by
more than 50 percent.
When Tyson Foods bought IBP in 2001, many workers feared that the
company would try to make wages in the beef industry similar to
those in the poultry industry, where the pay is even lower. Those
fears now seem to be justified. Tyson Foods is the largest
meatpacking company the world has ever seen, supplying supermarkets
and fast-food chains with beef, chicken and pork.
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