Quote:
Originally Posted by The Shadow
In the late 60’s I could not get a job in my line of work so my uncle got me a job in a meat packing plant (AP) we cut 500 to 750 sides of beef a day. The side comes in on an overhead track it is put on a band saw and the first cut is made, the two pieces are put on a conveyer belt, a man on one side grabs ever like piece and puts it on another band saw. Those two pieces go back on the conveyer built. At this point four different cuts are on the conveyer. I do no remember how many saws were on the line. Meat cleavers and chain saws were not used. The beef was not killed at the plant. Butchers volunteered to cut pork on overtime it was not mandatory to cut pork. The butchers wear stainless steel mesh gloves but still a sharp pork bone can pass thru the mesh and pierce the skin resulting in a local shin infection ever time it happens. I lifted 70 to 120 pounds of meat every 30 to 45 seconds. I collected and weighted scraps at the end of the conveyor, The meat was used for hamburger. After 90 days the union head said I had to join the union, my reply you are nuts if you think I would pay you to work in this place. Goodbye. Oh the temp in the cutting room was 32.5 degrees.
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The 32 degrees temperature sounds like a balmy day in Vermont, seriously.
This would be way before your time, however, a book written by Upton Sinclair exposed the terrible conditions in the meat packing or butchering industry long before unions ever existed.
THE JUNGLE is the name of the book and it was given to my husband when we first relocated to Vermont from New Jersey in 1970. He really wanted to press a point about unions I guess.
The fellow was a 40 year old artist craftsman from the old beatnik era in New York City and no doubt a socialist or perhaps even a communist. My husband was not interested in reading the book but I did read it and was shocked by the working conditions for these mostly, at the time, immigrant workers.
I do believe the unions helped their plight eventually. As a matter of fact, I was just thinking of that book recently as it pertained to some of the immigrants' hardships when they first came to our country in the late 1800's or early 1900's......while doing genealogy research of my own.
No one I know was in the meat business, however, the immigrants in THE JUNGLE suffered quite a bit from unkind bosses at the time. My father's ancestors had to work in the garment industry in N.Y.C. before turn of the century and that was just as bad. I'm sure things have changed with all the rules and regulations of modern times.
Driving out to Colorado this past summer we went past quite a few of the large cattle yards and I'm sure they are not leading a happy life either before they get slaughtered. Omaha Steaks and Kansas City Steaks are out that way.
You are lucky you never fell into the sausage vat like the poor soul in the JUNGLE by Upton Sinclair . Just kidding. It is a mind opening book to those who've never known the hardships of their immigrant ancestors. I read everything; this is why I wouldn't want newspaper censorship.