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172 The injury rate in a slaughterhouse: In 1999, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the injury and illness rate in the nation’s meatpacking industry was 26.7 per 100 hundred workers. For the rest of U.S. manufacturing, it was 9.2 per hundred workers. See “Industries with the Highest Nonfatal Total Cases, Incidence Rates for Injuries and Illnesses, Private Industry, 1999,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 2000; and “Incidence Rates of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses by Selected Industries and Case Types, 1999,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, December 2000.
172 roughly forty thousand men and women: The meatpacking industry now has about 147,600 workers, and at least 26.7 percent of them suffer workplace injuries and illnesses. See “Industries with the Highest Nonfatal Total Cases.”
Thousands of additional injuries and illnesses: At some plants, as many as half of the workers may be hurt each year. You need spend only an hour or so with a roomful of poor Latino meatpacking workers to get a sense of how many serious injuries are never reported.
Poultry plants can be largely mechanized: Despite the higher level of mechanization, workers in the poultry industry have one of the nation’s highest rates of injury and illness, largely due to the repetitive nature of the work and the speed of the production line.
173 roughly thirty-three times higher than the national average: In 1999 the incidence of repeated trauma injuries in private industry was 27.3 per 10,000 workers; in the poultry industry the rate was 337.1; and in the meatpacking industry it was 912.5. See “Industries with the Highest Nonfatal Illness Incidence Rate of Disorders Associated with Repeated Trauma and the Number of Cases in These Industries,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, December 2000.
adds up to about 10,000 cuts: According to Berkowitz and Fagel, some production jobs can require 20,000 cuts a day. Berkowitz and Fagel, Enclyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, p. 67.14.
174 beef slaughterhouses often operate at profit margins: According to Steve Bjerklie, the profit margin for slaughter is about 1 percent, with additional earnings from processing and the sale of byproducts. See Steve Bjerklie, “On the Horns of a Dilemma,” in Any Way You Cut It, p. 42.
widespread methamphetamine use: Many workers told me stories about methamphetamine use. See also Lee, “Meatpacking towns seen as key funnel for meth.”
only one-third of IBP’s workers belong to a union: Cited in Cohen, “Free Ride with Help from INS.”
176 awarded $2.4 million to a female employee… “screamed obscenities and rubbed their bodies”: A federal judge later reduced the award to $1.75 million. See Lynn Hicks, “IBP Worker Awarded $2.4 Million by Jury,” Des Moines Register, February 27, 1999; Lynn Hicks, “Worker: Sexism, Racism at IBP,” Des Moines Register, February 3, 1999; “IBP Told to Pay Attorney’s Fees,” Des Moines Register, December 30, 1999.
the company paid the women $900,000: See “Monfort Beef to Pay $900,000 to Settle Sexual Harassment Suit,” Houston Chronicle, September 1, 1999.
pressured them for dates and sex: Ibid.
They are considered “independent contractors”: As a result, the meatpacking firms are not liable for the work-related injuries of the slaughterhouse employees who face the greatest risks. When OSHA tried to penalize IBP for the death of a sanitation worker, IBP appealed the decision, with the backing of the National Association of Manufacturers, before a federal appeals court in 1998 — and won. Although the meatpackers own the slaughterhouses and the slaughterhouse equipment, they are not legally responsible for the immigrants who clean them. See Stephan C. Yohay and Arthur G. Sapper, “Liability on Multi-Employer Worksites,” Occupational Hazards, October 1998.
178 Richard Skala was beheaded: See Jim Morris, “Easy Prey: Harsh Work for Immigrants,” Houston Chronicle, June 26, 1995.
Carlos Vincente: See “Guatemalan Man Dies after Falling into Machinery of Beef Processing Plant,” AP, November 3, 1998; “Ft. Morgan Firm Faces $350,000 in OSHA Fines,” AP, May 4, 1999.
Lorenzo Marin, Sr.: See Mark P. Couch, “IBP Told to Pay Damages to Family,” Des Moines Register, June 7, 1995.
Another employee of DCS Sanitation… The same machine: See Jim Rasmussen, “Company Expecting Fines Today; Death at IBP Plant May Cost Ohio Firm,” Omaha World-Herald, October 7, 1993.
Homer Stull climbed into a blood-collection tank: See Allen Freedman, “Workers Stiffed: Death and Injury Rates among American Workers Soar, and the Government Has Never Cared Less,” Washington Monthly, November 1992.
Henry Wolf had been overcome: See “Liberal Packing Plant Fined $960,” UPI, October 19, 1983.
179 its 1,300 inspectors: See Kenneth B. Noble, “The Long Tug-of-War over What Is How Hazardous; For OSHA, Balance Is Hard to Find,” New York Times, January 10, 1988; and Christopher Drew, “Regulators Slow Down as Packers Speed Up,” Chicago Tribune, October 26, 1988.
more than 5 million workplaces: Cited in “Here’s the Beef,” p. 4.
A typical American employer: Cited in Susannah Zak Figura, “The New OSHA,” Government Executive, May 1997.
The number of OSHA inspectors: See Noble, “The Long Tug of War”; and Drew, “Regulators Slow Down.”
a new policy of “voluntary compliance”: See “Here’s the Beef,” p. 3.
While the number of serious injuries rose: See Christopher Drew, “A Chain of Setbacks for Meat Workers,” Chicago Tribune, October 25, 1988.
“appear amazingly stupid to you”… “I know very well that you know”: Quoted in Drew, “Regulators Slow Down.”
“to understate injuries, to falsify records”: “Here’s the Beef,” p. 21.
180 every injury and illness at the slaughterhouse: Ibid., pp. 3, 14.
the first log recorded 1,800 injuries… The OSHA log: Ibid., p. 14.
denied under oath: Ibid., p. 15. See also Philip Shabecoff, “OSHA Seeks $2.59 Million Fine for Meatpacker’s Injury Reports,” New York Times, July 22, 1987.