Nibert and Winders note that as technological advances speeded up the processing of the bodies of nonhumans, the conditions for workers worsened. From an examination of a variety sources, they highlight how factory workers came under pressure to perform manual and machine-operated slaughter and processing methods much more quickly. This literature reveals that the health and safety of slaughterhouse and processing plant employees was put in danger.142
Bob Torres is particularly concerned with capitalist commodification and the processes of production of other animals. He argues that the process of production in capitalist enterprise is not simply about human food needs.143 Rather, commodification and the process of production is ‘tied into politics, gender, technology, and environmental quality’ and depends on oppressive layers inherent in social relationships.144
The observations of Winders, Nibert and Torres regarding interlinked suffering are confirmed in practice. For example, Schlosser explains how, in the US, a workforce of mostly unregistered migrant workers involved in killing and processing the bodies of other animals endured inadequate health and safety provisions.145 Conditions were recognised as so terrible that in 2005, Human Rights Watch singled out the US meat industry for working conditions that violated basic human rights.146 Observations such as these are not new. Noting the connection between female and animal oppression in 1995, Carol Adams reports that thousands of non-unionised
142
Winders and Nibert (2004).
143
Torres (2007).
144
Torres (2007) 15. Intersectional theory is now becoming quite mainstream in the Academy.
145
Eric Schlosser, ‘The Chain Never Stops’ Mother Jones (July/August 2001) para 12 <http://motherjones.com/politics/2001/07/chain-never-stops> accessed 13 May 2016.
146
Human Rights Watch, ‘Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat And Poultry Plants’ (Human Rights Watch, January 2005) <www.hrw.org/node/11869/section/2 Blood Sweat and Fear> accessed 13 May 2016.
59 black women of different ethnic origins suffered ‘filthy working conditions, sexual harassment and ignored or poorly treated employee injuries’ in meat-packing industry employment.147 Adams goes on to report that ninety-five per cent of all poultry workers in the US were, at that time, black women whose job role was to scrape the insides and pull the lungs out of five thousand recently slaughtered chickens per hour.
Interlinked oppression and suffering are a particular feature of the meat- processing industry. In addition to there being a disregard for nonhumans, there is evidence that it is a culture with a widespread lack of emphasis on the care, health and safety of human employees. In the profit-driven context for the efficient, continuous processing of the bodies of nonhumans, the meat-processing industry in the US is regarded as the nation's most dangerous occupation. Currently, the US Department of Labor cites the meat-processing industry to be 2.5 to 3 times more hazardous than any other employment sector.148 These circumstances also appear to be historically significant, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). For example, in 1999, the BLS reported that meat-packing plants have the highest rate of repeated-trauma disorders. At this time, Personick and Shirley produced evidence that those working in the meat-packing industry suffered above-average figures for injuries and illnesses – two or three times higher than figures for the total economy.149 Schlosser documents the titles of reports submitted by the Occupational
147
Adams (1995) 81-82.
148
United States Department of Labor, ‘Meat Packing Industry’ (United States Department of Labor)
<https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/meatpacking/index.html> accessed 13 May 2016. Figures and data for 1994-2014 can be found at United States Department of Labor, ‘Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities’ (United States Department of Labor, last modified 2015) <www.bls.gov/iif/oshsum.htm#13Summary_News_Release> accessed 13 May 2016.
149
Martin E Personick and Katherine Taylor-Shirley, ‘Profiles in Safety And Health: Occupational Hazards of Meat Packing’ Monthly Labor Review(United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1989)
60 Safety and Health Administration. They include:
Employee Severely Burned after Fuel from His Saw Is Ignited. Employee Hospitalized for Neck Laceration From Flying Blade. Employee’s Finger Amputated in Sausage Extruder. Employee’s Finger Amputated in Chitlin Machine. Employee’s Eye Injured When Struck by Hanging Hook. Employee’s Arm Amputated in Meat Auger. Employee’s Arm Amputated When Caught in Meat Tenderizer. Employee Burned in Tallow Fire. Employee Burned by Hot Solution in Tank. One Employee Killed, Eight Injured by Ammonia Spill. Employee Killed When Arm Caught in Meat Grinder. Employee Decapitated by Chain of Hide Puller Machine. Employee Killed When Head Crushed by Conveyor. Employee Killed When Head Crushed in Hide Fleshing Machine. Employee Killed by Stun Gun. Caught and Killed by Gut-Cooker Machine.150
The US Department of Labor provides lists of similar cases.151 Despite the reputation of the sector and the enduring low safety record, Schlosser comments that ‘nothing stands in the way of production’. Workers have accidents and ‘lie unconscious on the floor as dripping carcasses sway past them, and the chain never
150
Eric Schlosser, ‘The Chain Never Stops’ Mother Jones (July/August 2001) para 5 <http://motherjones.com/politics/2001/07/chain-never-stops> accessed 13 May 2016.
151
For example, Accident Search Results showing data available up to 2013 contains a list of injuries and amputations resulting from just one type of machine used in the industry. United States Department of Labor, ‘Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Accident Search Results
<https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/AccidentSearch.search?acc_keyword=%22Meat%20Slicing%20Machine%22&ke yword_list=on> accessed 13 May 2016.
61 stops’.152