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Sydney C

History of America's Meat Packing Industry - 0 views

  • Over the next 40 years, unions such as the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) were able to improve both the pay and working conditions of meat packing employees in the U.S. The UPWA was also known for its progressive ideals and its support of the civil rights movement during the 1960s.
  • Developments such as improved distribution channels allowed meat packing companies to move out of urban, union-dominated centers and relocate to rural areas closer to livestock feedlots.
  • By the late 1990s, the meat packing industry had consolidated such that the top four firms accounted for approximately 50 percent of all U.S. poultry and pork production and 80 percent of all beef production.
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  • The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there was an average of 12.6 injuries or illnesses per 100 full-time meat packing plant employees in 2005, a number twice as high as the average for all U.S. manufacturing jobs. Some experts maintain that this number is actually too low as many workers' injuries go unreported due to employee misinformation or intimidation.
  • Governor Michael Johanns (currently U.S. Secretary of Agriculture) issued the "Nebraska Meatpacking Industry Workers Bill of Rights" in June of 2000. Though only a voluntary set of guidelines, the bill recognized the rights of meat packing employees to organize, work in safe conditions, and to seek help from the state.
  • According to REAP, a union-affiliated group, union membership among meat packing employees has plunged from 80 percent in 1980 to less than 50 percent today.
  • the number of immigrant laborers in meat packing plants—and in the Midwestern areas in which they are primarily located—has increased dramatically. According to the USDA, the percentage of Hispanic meat-processing workers rose from less than 10 percent in 1980 to nearly 30 percent in 2000.
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    This article by PBS chronicles the evolution of the workers in the meat packing industry. The article tells of the meat packing industry revealed by Sinclair to present conditions. The average hourly wage for meat packing workers has fallen since the 1970's. The article also tells of the poor working conditions "Fast Food Nation" describes and how meat packing is one of the most dangerous jobs in America.
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    Detailed timeline of the meat packing indusrty from the 1930s-present; discusses the evolution of unions, steps taken by the government, and internal changes of the industry.
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    Shows how little things have changed
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    Schlosser says in his book how he feels that little has changed since the times of the chicago meat packing trusts, and this pbs article speaks in support of that claim. It gives examples of how conditions in 2005 are "that the working conditions in America's meat packing plants were so bad they violated basic human and worker rights"
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    Meatpacking industry through the years. This article highlights the way that the meatpacking industry and its ethics/conditions have changed (or not) throughout the years. It argues that things are pretty much as bad as the times of The Jungle.
Sydney C

Working Conditions in American Slaughterhouses: Worse than You Thought - 1 views

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    Working Conditions in American Slaughterhouses 2001
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    This article shows a direct relationship of The Jungle to current conditions in slaughterhouses around the nation. The article compares Jurgis Rudkis to a modern Mexican immigrant. Recruiting Mexican immigrants to work in the slaughterhouses has become a common practice in the industry, as the Naturalization Services estimates one quarter of the workers in Nebraska and Iowa are illegal immigrants. The article also explains the relation of injuries on the job to the cleanliness of meat we eat. The fast pace in slaughterhouses leads to contamination of meat, as accidental intestinal spillage of cattle is found in meat. Due to this contamination, fast food is not safe to eat, since the fast food industry buys most of the country's meat.
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    The article speaks to how little the conditions have changed since The Jungle and how the industry still employs the cheapest and least educated work force they can get their hands on. In the early 1900s this the immigrants from places like Poland many like Jurgis and now it is the spanish immigrants most of who are illegal. They don not complain and are constantly at risk of injury for which largely goes unreported.
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    Comparing the conditions of the factories where Jurgis and Eastern European immigrants worked with the new factories in Nebraska where South American/Mexican immigrants now work. It talks about how conditions are still harsh, and it is still hard to make ends meet even after all these years.
Anne P

Working Conditions Pose Problems for Workers and Employers - 2 views

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    Good article about the poor conditions or workers in the US.
Ellen L

Workers brought into US and 'exploited' - Americas - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

  • A US federal agency has filed lawsuits over the unequal treatment of more than 500 migrant workers from India brought into the country to work at shipyards in Mississipi and Texas, and over 200 Thai farm labourers brought in to work in Hawaii and Washington state.
  • "They were nickeled and dimed to the point where they really didn't have any pay," said Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC Los Angeles office.
  • The EEOC says that some of the workers were forced to live in crowded conditions, and their quarters were infested with rats and insects.
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  • Officials also said that the workers had their passports taken from them, and were threatened with deportation if they complained.
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    A lawsuit occured involving the trafficing and poor treatment of migrant workers. Many of these workers paid agents to come to the states to get a job, only to find themselves living in crowded, infested conditions. This relates to the Jungle and the struggles and conditions of the migrant workers then.
Connor P

Gale Power Search - Document - 0 views

  • working conditions
  • Living conditions are also difficult for migrant farmworkers. Wages for farmwork have not kept up with inflation; consequently, it is difficult for families to afford basic necessities like housing, food, health care, and education for their children.
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    This quote displays the tangent between the poor working conditions of the farmers in the 30s and of now. The workers are treated horrible and no one can help them because they are independent workers or their buyers stiff them. Due to the oppression they receive, the theme of helping others is again ignored
Connor P

Literary Reference Center - powered by EBSCOhost: The Grapes of Wrath - 1 views

  • The Grapes of Wrath is a bitter tale of humans against nature and against a brutally exploitive society, but it is also a tale of nobility, of self-sacrifice, and ultimately of hope.
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    This quote shows the constant battle between humans against nature and society. Nature and society is symbolic of the poor working conditions and few jobs that they must overcome. By displaying the theme of the fight for better conditions, Steinbeck parallels this with his theme of helping others to show their differences
Evan G

The History of Women's Rights - 0 views

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    "the conditions in factories were hazardous, and their pay was lower than that of a man. In fact the husbands controlled their wives wages. At the same time the middle and upper class women were to stay idle and only to be decorative symbols of their husband's economic success." In the lower classes, women worked for low wages in dangerous conditions; in the higher classes, respectable women were not permitted to work, and were simply symbols of their husbands' success. Regardless of socioeconomic status, women were controlled, and had to be prim, proper, and feminine without appearing too independent or self-reliant.
Sydney C

BRIA 24 1 b Upton Sinclairs The Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry - Constitu... - 0 views

  • The progressives revealed how these companies eliminated competition, set high prices, and treated workers as "wage slaves."
    • Vivas T
       
      This article reveals this lack of business ethics during this time period through the cooperation of large industries in order to reduce competition. As a result, they are able to drive prices up, which depicts their cruelty towards customers as well as the treatment of workers as "wage slaves" in order to gain more profits.
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    This article gives historical information on the meat packing industry of the early 1900's. The article tells of the progressive movement of the age which supported reforms. The article tells of the response to "The Jungle" and the innovative aspects of the new processing regulations. The article also gives a short biography about Sinclair's childhood to his death.
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    speaks to alot of the conditions Jurgis and his family went though
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    "Unskilled immigrant men did the backbreaking and often dangerous work, laboring in dark and unventilated rooms, hot in summer and unheated in winter." The article shows how cruel the conditions of the factory worker were. And since the work force was unskilled and immigrants, they were often taken advantage of because they knew no better
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    The ethical issues addressed in The Jungle and how they relate to the bills passed after the publication. It talks about how Roosevelt responded to the book and passed many new restrictions on the Chicago meatpacking district, as well as businesses all over the country.
Connor P

Gale Power Search - Document - 0 views

  • Large corporations grew prosperous, but their wealth failed to trickle down to the worker, whose real wages dropped behind steadily rising prices. Faced with unsafe, unsanitary, and tenuous working conditions, factory workers lacked both economic and emotional security.
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    This underlined quote displays the conditions the workers of the early 20th century had to overcome. Coming from poor areas and having nothing, their jobs could not supply them with any form of security but rather put stress into their lives and destroyed families.
Connor P

Gale Power Search - Document - 1 views

  • To these men, any money spent on employees—whether in terms of wages, benefits, or sanitary and safe working conditions—meant less money for their own pockets. The connection between healthy, happy workers and high levels of productivity was not obvious in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.
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    This quote does a great job of bringing in the time period of the Gilded Age. This time peroid is symbolic of corruption and greed which proves people would do whatever it takes to get ahead. By doing this, they forget the universal theme of helping others which led to the horrid conditions for the poor workers
Zach Ramsfelder

Wages and Working Conditions - 2 views

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    This article describes the changes in wages and working conditions for labor since 1900.
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    Haha the comparison of exotic dancers to lemonade stand kids is funny at the beginning. But, anyways, the way this article goes in to such great detail about the conditions helps to get a better understanding of how bad it still is to work in some of these places.
Sydney C

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 - 0 views

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    To go along with The Jungle, the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire in New York City was yet another wakeup call for poor factory conditions. The fire occurred in an overcrowded factory filled with mostly young women and girls. It was a real life companion to the poor conditions described in The Jungle.
Connor P

Literary Reference Center - powered by EBSCOhost: Fast Food Nation - 0 views

  • Such cutthroat business practices ultimately have the twofold effect of hurting workers while also poisoning the meat with the cow’s own feces, which leads to the outbreak of E. coli bacteria illnesses.
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    This is the "kill to birds with one stone" philosphoy but in a negative way. By the greed that pursues the corporations, it not only gives the workers poor conditions but endangers the lives of the consumers also. the lack of ethics which hurt the people are not important to making profits
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    It seems that no matter who the corporations had to degrade to make a profit they are willing to do it. They have absolutely no problem endangering anyone, whether its the workers with the inhumane conditions they are pressured into because of their economic circumstances or consumer because of their ignorance, the underlining message to the reader is that there is nothing they would not do.
Vivas T

Mass Marketing - 0 views

  • This text's effort to expose the deadly living and working conditions of the immigrants in Chicago's stockyards and meatpacking factories was co-opted by the consumer movement's campaign for protective legislation and led to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
    • Vivas T
       
      This clearly displays the vile working conditions as well as depicts one of Sinclair's purposes in writing this novel. His purpose was to portray the horrible treatment of the worker inconsiderate nature of the meatpacking industries towards its customers also. Therefore, one of the outcomes was the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Evan G

SparkNotes: A Room of One's Own: Analysis - 0 views

  • These conditions—leisure time, privacy, and financial independence— underwrite all literary production, but they are particularly relevant to understanding the situation of women in the literary tradition because women, historically, have been uniformly deprived of those basic prerequisites.
  • She writes a history of a woman's thinking about the history of thinking women: her essay is a reconstruction and a reenactment as well as an argument.
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    The site points out that women of back in the day were often unable to write a book simply for lack of three conditions that even modern day workers often take for granted. They were always kept too busy with simple preoccupations to bother with spending some free time writing books I also think the site made an interesting point in remarking that her style of writing is odd: she isn't talking about women's history, she's talking about thinking about it. Of course, it makes the book much more boring; however, it's a new and creative method of writing.
Ellen L

In a Chinese Orphanage - 96.04 - 0 views

  • Some of the children grab their bottles and eat lustily, and some--often the same ones--demand attention, crying, spreading their arms to be held. Their eyes beg for human warmth and affection. Others are already passive and withdrawn. Their bottles lie untouched, as though they are too weak, too indifferent, or still too young to make the effort.
  • She feels that such human contact would be cruel to children who have never known warmth or affection or holding, and would perhaps prolong their dying. Instead she gives all her energy and unconditional love to the little ones who respond to it energetically.
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    This article discusses conditions of Chinese orphanages and the case of certain children who die due to a lack of attention and human contact. This shows how crucial a role social contact plays in child development, making the monster's violent reaction to Victor's abuse understandable. 
Evan G

A Literary Analysis of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - Associated Content from Yahoo! - ... - 1 views

  • The protagonist Jurgis is immediately overjoyed to have a job, denies to join a union because he is all but ecstatic with the poor working conditions, and believes he is making a good living for his family.
  • The Jungle couldn't be a better title for this book, as the immigrant family is eaten alive by conmen, politicians, dirty employers, lawyers, and shoddy living conditions.
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    Really attests to the title of the book, and talks about how cons and other deceitful tactics were used to screw the Rudkuses over. The second and third pages of it are interesting because they describe the book in both socialist AND capitalist points of view, giving a fairer view of Sinclair's words and accusations against capitalism.
Connor P

Gale Power Search - Document - 0 views

  • One reason was that a great number of unskilled laborers came to America at the time, so that employers could offer low wages for miserable jobs and always find someone willing to do the work.
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    The underlined quote shows that the unskilled labor source fueled the fire of the early 20th century labor and they were at the demands of the bosses. They are symbolic to breeding animals as they are used for production and when they cannot, they are kicked to the curb. And the flow is in constant motions which allows the bosses to keep making the conditions worse and worse
Ellen L

Meatpacking Industry - The Jungle, Congress of Industrial Organizations, United Packing... - 0 views

  • Competition and low profit margins generate a corporate motive for maximum productivity, and deregulation has shredded health and safety standards.
  • A study by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS; now the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) in 1997 found that one-fourth of the workers in seven meatpacking plants in Iowa and Nebraska had “questionable” documents. The INS's Operation Vanguard in 1999 rounded up immigrants in slaughterhouses, bringing charges that employers and the government colluded to prevent workers from organizing unions.
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    Connects The Jungle, and the Eastern European immigrant labor force used by the Chicago meatpacking industry to the present day use of Mexican immigrant labor in today's industries. Provides concrete details on the legality of the workforce used by modern corporations, as well as the questionable conditions in which they work. Bridges The Jungle and FFN without actually mentioning FFN
Connor P

Gale Power Search - Document - 1 views

  • To these industrialists any money spent on employees meant less money for their own pockets. The connection between happy, healthy workers and high levels of productivity was not obvious during the revolution.
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    The underlined quote is the epitome of the higher management's philosophy. They knew to run a prosperous business, they must sacrifice the safety and wages of their employers. Thus the labor force was despensable so conditions and wages we as cheap as they could be
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