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The brutalization is underscored by Sinclair’s use of numerous analogies that compare the individuals to wild and hunted animals and of parallels between the fate of the innocent livestock and the fate of the common working person. Factory life is variously compared to an inferno, a bubbling cauldron, and a medieval torture chamber, where it is considered good sport to extract the last ounce of flesh from the hapless workers. The factory, however, is only a reflection of society’s disregard for democratic values and its indifference to truth and justice.

From the beginning, it is clear to the readers that Jurgis and his family are fighting against the odds. Each new detail makes it abundantly clear that the system tempts people with unrealistic dreams and then erects insurmountable barriers to prevent the attainment of those dreams.

As deregulation diminished governmental standards and inspection, managers have ratcheted up line speeds, increasing the splattering of fecal and stomach matter and spreading food-borne illnesses like E. coli. This deadly threat, described by journalist Eric Schlosser in his popular book Fast Food Nation, is microbial and invisible, but every bit as much a consequence of profit maximization as the unwholesome practices exposed by Sinclair a century ago. If there is a silver lining, it is that this time around the interests of labour and consumers cannot be easily divided. Speed-up and unsanitary working conditions — two critical issues for meat-packing workers — are directly linked to consumers' health concerns.

This deadly threat, described by journalist Eric Schlosser in his popular book Fast Food Nation, is microbial and invisible, but every bit as much a consequence of profit maximization as the unwholesome practices exposed by Sinclair a century ago. If there is a silver lining, it is that this time around the interests of labour and consumers cannot be easily divided. Speed-up and unsanitary working conditions — two critical issues for meat-packing workers — are directly linked to consumers' health concerns.

The progressives revealed how these companies eliminated competition, set high prices, and treated workers as "wage slaves."

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.

"I am Upton Sinclair, and I have come to write the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the labor movement."

that the jungle was actually industrial capitalism. In the serialized version, he states: "the place which is here called The Jungle is not Packingtown, nor is it Chicago, nor is it Illinois, nor is it the United States—it is Civilization."

Tiddy was toying with a light breakfast an' idly turnin' over th' pages iv th' new book with both hands. Suddenly he rose fr'm th' table, an' cryin': 'I'm pizened,' began throwin' sausages out iv th' window. . . . Since thin th' Prisidint, like th' rest iv us, has become a viggytaryan

In meat and poultry plants across the United States, Human Rights Watch found that many workers face a real danger of losing a limb, or even their lives, in unsafe work conditions.

“A century after Upton Sinclair wrote ‘The Jungle,’ workers in the meatpacking industry still face serious injuries,” said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch.

“When workers try to defend themselves by forming unions, employers use fear and intimidation to stop them,”

When Eric Schlosser came out with Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal in 2001, it was hailed as a modern-day Jungle, and with good reason.

Schlosser did far more, connecting the rise and consolidation of the fast-food industry in America to the declining power of labor unions, sliding blue-collar wages and growing income inequality.

"The basic thinking behind fast food has become the operating system of today's retail economy