WWTBAM Bored

Spock wrote: I am old enough to remember when slaughterhouse jobs were good-paying union jobs that provided for a family. Now they just bring in an endless stream of cheap immigrant labor and externalize the costs to the larger community.

Meatpacking was once considered a good job. From the Second World War through the 1950s, “packinghouse wages rose to 20 percent above average manufacturing wages.” Strong unions such as the Packing Workers Organizing Committee ensured living wages and decent working conditions for slaughterhouse workers. This changed during the 1960s. To increase their profits, meatpacking companies shut down unionized, urban slaughterhouses and built new ones in the countryside where unions were weak and automation was used to lower a company’s labor force. This resulted in great gains for the meatpacking giants in the form of reduced labor costs and increased labor productivity. Waltz notes that in 1952, “one man-hour of labor produced 51.4 pounds of dressed meat; by 1977, that had tripled to 154.6 pounds.”3 As corporate profits soared, meatpacking workers’ wages were decimated. By the 1990s, the wages of packinghouse workers were 20 percent less than the average manufacturing wage.4 Today, meatpacking workers are among the lowest paid and most exploited manufacturing workers.

silverscreenselect wrote:

Spock wrote: I am old enough to remember when slaughterhouse jobs were good-paying union jobs that provided for a family. Now they just bring in an endless stream of cheap immigrant labor and externalize the costs to the larger community.

And, as Paul Harvey would say, "And now, for the rest of the story..."

Meatpacking was once considered a good job. From the Second World War through the 1950s, “packinghouse wages rose to 20 percent above average manufacturing wages.” Strong unions such as the Packing Workers Organizing Committee ensured living wages and decent working conditions for slaughterhouse workers. This changed during the 1960s. To increase their profits, meatpacking companies shut down unionized, urban slaughterhouses and built new ones in the countryside where unions were weak and automation was used to lower a company’s labor force. This resulted in great gains for the meatpacking giants in the form of reduced labor costs and increased labor productivity. Waltz notes that in 1952, “one man-hour of labor produced 51.4 pounds of dressed meat; by 1977, that had tripled to 154.6 pounds.”3 As corporate profits soared, meatpacking workers’ wages were decimated. By the 1990s, the wages of packinghouse workers were 20 percent less than the average manufacturing wage.4 Today, meatpacking workers are among the lowest paid and most exploited manufacturing workers.

https://monthlyreview.org/2019/05/01/un ... hterhouse/