- cross-posted to:
- aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
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I used to work in a meat processing plant doing cleanup when I was about 16. It is a very dangerous job. You have to take machinery apart to clean it and if you are careless you can easily lose fingers/hands/arms/other appendages. My least favorite part of the job was cleaning the bandsaws. You have to take the the blade which is about 10 feet long out of the machine (it’s razor sharp so on a good day you don’t cut yourself very badly) and clean out what I can only call “meat sawdust” out of every nook and cranny of the machine. Then you have to feed the blade back into the saw. That was probably the least dangerous machine to clean. The meat grinders were also a pain in the ass because you have to remove a giant spiral cylinder with razor sharp edges, again very easy to lose at least a finger if you’re not careful
I wouldn’t ever want my child to be doing that job, or anyone else’s
Not trying to have any gotcha moment or be deceptive but I am genuinely interested what made you go there and possible come back even to work more? Nothing else available and you needed the money maybe? Its OK if this is too personal a question to answer.
The owner was a family friend, and I was a teenager trying to save money for a car. I think I lasted most of the summer before I quit.
Thanks for your reply! Glad to hear you actually quit that job.
Did they not give you fucking gloves?
Gloves are usually made of animal skin or synthetic animal skin
Meat processing machines are built to cut through skin and bone
They make cut resistant gloves specifically for working with things that are meant to cut through skin and bone. I’m wearing a pair as I type this. A3 cut protection has worked on all the band saw blades I’ve changed.
Why do you wear them to type? Do you use a RAZR?
Dear strong bad, How do you type with boxing gloves on?
Probably don’t make em in child sizes though
They make chainmail gauntlets for shit like this
dont ever wear gloves when working with rotating or moving saws. the gloves will force your hand into the saw.
i am a regular guest on a clinic ward that specializes in hand surgery. people with severed fingers or half of a hand missing always tell me the same story: the glove forced my hand into the sawblade.
Hi, I’m, among other things, an industrial safety guy.
It’s understandable not to know this, but I’m industry there’s a standard practice of locking out equipment that’s being maintained. Either by physically placing a lock on the power box or by simply putting the plug to the device in your pocket for smaller equipment. And then ensuring that all the energy in the equipment has been exhausted and that the machine cannot be started.
This is the subject of one of many annual trainings for everyone in any given facility.
When changing blades or cleaning equipment, it would be standard that it’s locked out during this process. So wearing gloves and presumably arm guards to protect against laceration when working with blades would be not only acceptable but I imagine expected.
Most of us have seen the “lathe video.” We know.
Thanks for the insight in your profession. Yes, all what you said makes total sense. still, you don’t want to have a standart work glove when dealing with moving blades, in germany that’s also forbidden by security laws, out of the rasons I mentioned, maimed hands and so on. I must have met at least 8 - 10 people. but, yea, its a hand surgery facility.
I guess cleaning is not done while the band saw is moving
yes, that makes sense, i failed to understandt this part, the glove thing only applies to moving blades and discgrinder, oh, dont forget lathes and drill presses.
But in general you are absolutely right. No gloves for work at rotating equipment
That sounds like an environment from childhood nightmares I wish had stayed forgotten
We really should have made The Jungle required reading
That’s the book that came to mind when the Supreme Court ruled against federal agencies.
the people who need to read and understand that book will not absorb the message
There are folks more upset about the Boarshead fiasco that are suggesting that more people should have read that book.
Meaning that a lot of folks that did read it also didn’t absorb the message.
They hate this country so fucking much. We need to kick these people out of this country to make room for hard working refugees (not /s)
Teen Vogue really on some shit lately.
Between them and Rolling Stone the last few years…
“Well guys, looks like the grey lady is doing a 1935 again, so Jackson, I’m gonna need you to pivot from writing relationship quizzes to the child labor beat. Ada, Frank, can you handle best makeup tutorials and genocide? Allison, I know you’re on concert reviews, how would you feel about also picking up the investigation on coal coke emissions?”
Fucking good on them, I’m sure that there have always been people doing good work at these publications, but it seems like they’ve had to really expand their purview recently to cover these giant gaps.
They’ve been publishing serious political pieces for nearly a decade now, 2016 election and a new editor was the shift.
Which is why they haven’t been let into the press room at the White House.
They must be the last bigger outlets that have independent income are not owned by some billionaire lobby.
From what I can see I’d definitely rank Teen Vogue above Rolling Stone, although both are still editorial to some degree. Teen Vogue’s headlines aren’t as incendiary.
Close friend was a political and occasional music writer for Rolling Stone. Apparently they’re a mess as a business, invoices, etc
Dinosaur chicken nuggets: made by kids for kids.
And from kids! The circle is complete
The dinosaur nuggies are children!
It’s the roarin’ 20’s.
At least we don’t have prohibition to worry about this time. Way easier to take the edge off all these stories.
I don’t know about the bread part. Food is crazy expensive.
Well 5 pounds of flour is still under $3 so bread is still cheap even if the bakers are out of their minds cranking up margins.
Meat is a choice and it’s a bad one.
how can you look at this and not see child labor as the obvious problem?
no one should be forced to work in these conditions
The same is true of migrant workers picking vegetables in increasingly inhospitable tempertures but you draw your line wherever you like.
the first step would be to shut down animal agriculture, as a huge part of plant farming and it’s inherent exploitation is in growing food to feed to the animals before they get to the slaughterhouse; we grow more than enough food to feed the planet as it is, but we waste so much of it trying to sustain animal ag, which is a failing enterprise and a massive driver of climate change
is anyone being “forced”? i agree, nobody should be forced, especially not children.
Classist as fuck. These people are poor as shit. They are most certainly not white kids from the suburbs doing it.
As someone who has been to these places, yeah, it is usually a bunch of migrant workers or children of migrant workers who already work there. I don’t think I have ever seen a white kid, much less adult, fulfilling those roles. They really do give the worst jobs to the people nobody gives a shit about. So yeah, these people are definitely poor as shit.
so, you’re assuming that because of their race and economic status (which you are also assuming, btw), that makes them forced labor. how is that not classist?
Please read this and educate yourself: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/04/1173697113/immigrant-child-labor-crisis
If you have a problem with basic socio-economic analysis, I suggest you go back to school. It is a fact that racialized people are more likely to be in lower socio-economic classes than their non-racialized counterparts, and therefore have to “”“choose”“” more grueling and exploitative labor to survive.
Some of the worst work out there involves exploiting and killing sentient beings and it tends to leave any person, adult or child, with permanent trauma as a result.
When I have a problem with is people hijacking an post about child labor in order to soap box about eating meat. I made that pretty clear.
If you have a problem reading, then I suggest you go back to school.
lots of people are being forced, often immigrants and refugees. would you like to slash throats all day in the dismemberment factory?
you’re assuming a lot here about the workers in that plant
wow, you haven’t looked into this, like, at all
and you have? what, with all the evidence you have to back up your claim?
I never said I didn’t see child labor as a problem as well, but the industry shouldn’t exist in the first place.
We’re all going to die unless people stop eating meat.
Make better choices and the problem goes away all on its own. Like removing streets to clear up traffic.
I never said I didn’t see child labor as a problem as well, but the industry shouldn’t exist in the first place.
you’re conflating two issues here to soapbox about meat with a strawman argument-- and you still haven’t said you disapprove of child labor. child labor won’t magically disappear if people stop eating meat.
I don’t think it’s mere coincidence that an industry devoid of compassion for animals is also devoid of compassion for humans. The issues are certainly distinct, but not entirely unrelated.
It foolish to see things as so black and white when the reality is a bombastic rainbow.
Like… I see where you’re coming from, and I understand why you think that… but it’s just not that simple.
Tyson Foods, the company mentioned in the article, also has plant-based brands under its wing.
So no, it won’t make a difference in this case.
another case for veganism
Veganism doesn’t stop child/slave labor.
Right, if we can reduce it but not stop it we might as well not even try!
being vegan doesn’t reduce it either
Says who? Regardless, at least someone trying to reduce one’s dependancy on this shit is doing something rather than simply disregarding any attempts like you are.
can you show a causal link between being vegan and a decrease in child labor? my guess is that there is a general trend of increased child labor globally that tracks closely the rise in veganism.
at least someone trying to reduce one’s dependancy on this shit is doing something
but i AM doing something. i bought a buss pass last month. it’s just as effective!
But it does give you super powers I think
As if fruit and veg packing and processing plants are any better. As long as greedy humans are in charge people will be exploited as much as they possibly can regardless of what the industry is.
Exploitation of labor is a huge problem in many industries, but the amount of desensitizing horror and PTSD that occurs in slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants is on a whole different level.
didn’t you already try that? it didn’t work.
But they yearn for it /s
You’re saying kids are packing my mea…
Nevermind.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Also, if you think a child will ever clean something well enough to process food!? US food production is disgusting.
So you think a low payed adult worker will either?
Ain’t none of you people ever been inside a packing plant have you?
Not my point. And I have.
Everyone should read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
It was written almost 120 years ago, and shows just how horrendous these working conditions used to be before the FDA existed. Everyone who wants to cripple the ability of the FDA to regulate these plants wants those kinds of inhumane working conditions back.
It has a socialist message in the second half, but remember - socialism doesn’t replace democracy. Socialism replaces Capitalism.
What, I thought it was the illegal immigrants taking all the jobs.. Nevermind, I read the article and it’s migrant kids they’re talking about.Those kids are earning a Honest Living!
-Republicans who think Drag Queens are DESTROYING our Youth!
And don’t get me started on the white trash managers and supervisors in those places. Literally run by some strange asshole thug druggie meth types. Oscar Mayer plant in west/southern Illinois is absolutely crazy.
