cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53152091
Following an anonymous complaint in February, OSHA inspected the plant and fined Smithfield Foods $9,931.60 after observing workers’ exposure to “amputation hazards.” This was preceded by serious citations in 2021, 2023, and 2025.
Working in a slaughterhouse is extremely dangerous. In the US, there are approximately two amputations per week, primarily due to the industry’s poor working conditions and excessively fast pace.
[…]
As reported by KWQC, the leaders also acknowledged “community concerns” over a backlog of rendering material – animal waste, internal organs, and decaying meat – being stored outside the plant, causing a strong, unpleasant smell in the city.
Upton Sinclair is spinning in his grave because we’re still dealing with so much of the same shit he wrote about in The Jungle.
Upton Sinclair himself said “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach”
Seems that the process of inspections and fines for things that break regulations is missing some very important parts if they got dinged for it 4 years in a row: escalating penalties for repeat offenses and follow up inspections when there’s anything that fails (with a plan to bring it up to code and escalating penalties for failing to meet that plan or not taking steps other than “run it anyways” when a good faith effort to get to code runs into issues (which happens)).
And the escalating penalties should be paid, at least in part, to the people put at risk by whatever bullshit they are pulling. And not just cash penalties or even portion of revenue but equity.
It sucks that it isn’t two failures, and we’re bringing in another company to do it – kind of like how if I don’t mow my grass, get cited, they warn about a 3rd party contractor at my expense.
I think in a society where things like this are flouted we could adopt the doubling of fines with increased inspection rates and no reset on that fine. Keep fucking around, now you’re up to $1,000,000 each incident and inspectors up your ass every quarter.
Granted, ideally, since “corporations are people”, the CEO’s should be brought up on charges every time someone is maimed/killed.
Pay the families out of their would-be retirement since they’ll be in jail anyways.
If you threaten their profits they’ll stop threatening lives.
I read this article around when it happened. I thought for a second it happened again already.
From the sound of it, these workers aren’t unionized. They obviously need one.
A lot of labor in slaughterhouses or for that matter construction, landscaping, etc. is done by undocumented immigrants. If they try to unionize the owners and coyotes can just turn them in to ICE. The reason republicans are so obsessed with the border is because controlling these unofficial immigrants/migrant workers is a form of labor discipline that keeps prices of otherwise untenable products like a lot of meat or seasonal fruit low. Dems in turn want an “open border,” because the neoliberal agenda means not letting borders get in the way of cheaper labor.
In the end, there’s homeostasis. Made possible by extreme violence by human traffickers, ranchers, border patrol, and plant owners. Enough get in to keep costs low, but not enough to fight for bargaining power. If we look at the characters in The Jungle, they came from immigrant groups being basically let into the country no problem. They could participate in strikes because they were “legal,” and eventually when the postwar consensus saw the American labor movement fall into a pit of consumerism, become white people rather than Poles, Jews, Slavs, Italians, etc. That’s not going to happen again.
Isn’t Smithfield owned by a Chinese company?
Fines $9,000. For amputation hazards.
Yeah that’s why these companies aren’t going to comply.
Cheaper to just pay the fines.
Fines should be way way higher. Especially for repeat offenders.
The fine should be one bone from the CEO. Any bone. You pick. One whole bone. Better not make the same mistake a lot.
He’ll probably pick an ear bone. They’re small and he’s not using them.
Well they can only get away with that so many times. That’s kind of the idea. First one or two is manageable. Shit happens. It keeps happening, you start noticing. One finger. One forearm.
I’ll take… one skull please!
So from reading the article, given that they had to delay start times by 2 hours, and have released no details about the actual incident, the guy probably died in a pretty horrific manner.
What also stood out is that on average there are 2 AMPUTATIONS A WEEK IN THE US MEAT PACKAGING INDUSTRY.
It’s a hell of a lot more than that if you include all the innocent animals.
Duh
on average there are 2 AMPUTATIONS A WEEK IN THE US MEAT PACKAGING INDUSTRY.
That seems low, unless it’s per-state or per-company.
Edit: I don’t like to bitch about downvotes, but I’m confused as to why I’m getting downvoted. I’m not saying it should be higher, I’m just surprised that it wouldn’t be, given the horrific safety record of that industry. Possibly it is under-reported?
Per person.
I mean, any amount of on the job amputations above zero seems too high
If you’re using saws, its inevitable.
The rates of injury overall are actually higher than sawmills
Together, poultry slaughtering and processing companies reported more severe injuries to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) than many industries that are popularly recognized as hazardous, such as sawmills, industrial building construction, and oil and gas well drilling
And that’s not counting the mental trauma to workers from the killing itself that doesn’t exist in other industries using saws
Yes, the person I replied to seemed to think any amputation is too many. Any work that uses a saw runs the risk of amputation. Construction, logging, etc. As you pointed out. I’m just saying, that those lines of work, losing body parts is a very real risk
Any amputation is too many. Whatever can be done to decrease the risks should be done. There’s no excuse to not have maximum safety for your workers. These days we have lots of options for protection available to use.
For example, there exists saws that will stop once it comes in to contact with flesh.
I 100% agree with you, but I don’t know how effective a saw-stop will be in an environment where the saw is specifically used to cut meat. 🤷
Yes, of course everything that can be done to decrease the risk should be done. No one is arguing that. Im aware of the saw stop. To say any amputation is too many is farcical, everything you do has a risk. You can only minimize them. You work with sharp things cuts will happen. Yes minimize them, but cuts and amputations can, and will happen. Im not saying the regulations are sufficient, they clearly aren’t. Yes there should be penalties that actually hurt the company, accidents happen they always will
When I was a construction plumber I used to use a pipe threader which has enough torque to pull your body through a couple inch gap. I thought about that every time I used it.
The rates of injury overall are actually higher than other high risk industries
Together, poultry slaughtering and processing companies reported more severe injuries to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) than many industries that are popularly recognized as hazardous, such as sawmills, industrial building construction, and oil and gas well drilling
And that’s not counting the mental trauma to workers from the killing itself that doesn’t exist in other industries using saws
Not even a ten thousand dollar fine…
Read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
Vegan and vegetarian kick starter article tbh
They messed up. Banked on the “here, we’re like family”. Should have gone with the toxic but less unifying, “your coworkers are your competition and the reason we can’t pay you good wages.”
Says this one was only machine death but doesn’t say what the other three deaths were from or when they happened. Sounds awful but this is a pretty poorly written article.
Company might be hiding this information. NDAs and all that.
What’s the typical life assurance in a US company? Surely they pay out that rather than just childcare? In previous jobs I’ve had it was 4 times annual salary, but my current is 6 times.
Depends on what you pay for
Oh right, I don’t pay anything - that’s just company benefits.
Their logo sucks, Smithyield?
Yeah, this is what they really should be fixing.
A murder was murdered.
Please, shut them all down.
How many ravens was it now, eh?
