Workers Suffer Alongside Animals
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
Two kinds of people kill animals for a living:
the ones who want to
and
the ones who don’t.
From the Food Empowerment Project:
Slaughtering animals and processing their flesh is an inherently dangerous industry where company profits consistently take priority over workers’ most basic rights. Today, U.S. slaughterhouses and “meat”-processing facilities employ over 500,000 workers. In their endless goal of higher volume and greater efficiency, these corporations knowingly jeopardize workers’ safety every day. For decades, the state and federal agencies responsible for ensuring a safe and healthy work environment have thoroughly failed to institute and enforce basic labor laws to protect these workers. The result is an industry where corporations set the rules and government agencies follow. Consequently, workers’ most basic rights and interests are compromised and the animals suffer greatly.
I emboldened the last part because it’s the most important.
A bit more:
An unknown percentage of workers are undocumented. Many employers knowingly hire undocumented workers in an effort to satisfy the extremely high turnover rate of the industry, which often exceeds 100% annually. [...]
The single largest factor contributing to worker injuries is the speed at which the animals are killed and processed. In an industry where profit margins are slim and volume is everything, workers are endlessly pressured to kill more animals in less time. [...]
We need to slow the line. One of the best ways to do that is to decrease demand for animal products. Read comments from slaughterhouse workers here >>
The Food Empowerment Project continues…
Most facilities operate nearly 24 hours a day 7 days a week – killing and processing hundreds or thousands of animals each hour. As one worker stated: The line is so fast there is no time to sharpen the knife. The knife gets dull and you have to cut harder. That’s when it really starts to hurt, and that’s when you cut yourself. [...]
Over the past few decades, advancements in automation have transformed the industry and largely eliminated the need for highly skilled laborers. Consequently, the industry has chosen to abandon unions in favor of a more “disposable” workforce.
And finally, a simple and elegant solution:
Slaughterhouses and “meat”-processing facilities symbolize suffering and death for animals and exploitation for workers. Fortunately, we can choose not to support this cycle of exploitation and suffering by simply adopting a lifestyle free from animal products.
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