FFN Chapter 7: Cogs in the Great Machine

o What changes did IBP introduce to the meat packing industry?
Changes that IBP (Iowa Beef Packers) introduced to the meat packing industry was almost like the speede line or the drive-thru, as it is called today. Instead of the grass-fed, regular ranching, the IBP made a production system for a slaughterhouse. It was a disassembly line, where one worker would stand in a line, doing the same task over and over again. Thus, reducing a high-paying, back-breaking job, into a job that had no skill workers. The IBP also put slaughterhouses close to the feedlots. They also cut the beef into primals like ribs and loins. When they did that, supermarkets didn't need their skilled butchers. Small processors and wholesalers went out of business when they added grinders to their factories. All these changes transformed the whole beef industry as we know it.
o Why were newer meat packing plants located in rural areas rather than in cities?
Meat packing plants were never located in cities, frankily because if they put those factories in the city, it would be a target for the strongholds of the nation's labor unions. If the plants were close to the nation's labor unions, they would could investigate what they could be doing at the plant. If you laid off workers that are in the union, the union would fight back, so it was only smart to have the union as far away from the plant.
o What were the links between IBP and organized crime?
In 1974, Currier J. Holman and IBP were conviecting for bribing union leaders and meat wholesalers. His links of organized crime in NY. The whole company was infiltrated by the mob basically.
o What has been the relationship between labor unions and modern meat packing plants?
The relationship between labor unions and meat packing plants are pretty bad. Most plants that used to have 40,000 emplyoees, now has 2,000, a 95% decrease. Wages were cut by 40%. 2/3 of the employees cannot speak english.
o How do wages in meat packing plants today compare with wages in the early 1900s, after the workers became unionized?
Wages today are about 9.25 an hour. Today's is about 1/3 of what it used to be.
o How high is the employee turnover rate in the meat packing industry and why don't the meat packing plants see this as a problem?
The employee turnover rate for ConAgra is about 80%. The safety director for ConAgra said in '94, that there was a 100% turnover rate. Although, the employees are at the bottom of the literacy scale, who cannot read or write in any language. A high turnover rate maintains a workforce that is harder to unionize.
o Where do meat packing companies go to recruit new employees? What is the “new industrial migrant?”
Meat packing companies go to Mexico, Central America, and southeast Asia. The new industrial migrants would continue to have the jobs because they are at the poverty line and they need to support their families. The companies don't have to worry about a union growing on their hands, because the migrnts cannot afford to have not have a job.
o What is the impact on small communities of having a meat packing firm?
The impact of small communities of having a meat packing firm is that they town-folk are overrun by migrants, and other workers working for the plants. Lexington, Nebraska, has been nicknamed "Mexingtom" on a few occaisains. The smell is also permeated throughout the whole town.