Today has a special significance for me. 28 years ago today, my mother was voting for Carter and she went into labor. With me! She was a month before her due date, so she didn't know it was me until hours later. But I wanted to come out and get involved. Like this year, Election Day was Nov 4. Poor Mom was in labor for 31 hours, and I arrived Nov 5. Little did I know that I had 28 years of Reagan style conservatism (and worse!) ahead of me.
So today is my first day on this planet in a country that has rejected Reagan and Bush conservatism and embraced progressive ideology. Barack Obama re-branded what Republicans call "liberalism" (or "socialism") as Hope, Change, and Progress and the country voted for it. At LONG last! And I am READY!
During this long presidential campaign, I've been working on my first book (about the politics of food). While everyone followed the horse race, I was up to my elbows in the issues. And I'm exploding with things to say now that we live in an Obama Nation.
The horserace can be fun... I like telling people that I follow politics like other people follow football... but I really love the issues. I love talking about how we can make America better. And what I want to talk about right now is some of the nitty gritty of what is EXACTLY wrong with Conservative Ideology.
Exhibit A: The idea that government regulation is "burdensome" to businesses.
Burdensome? Oh yes. So they say. It makes businesses less efficient. Just like regulation might have made all of those sub-prime mortgage lenders less efficient. I'll take "less efficient" if it would get our economy out of the shitter now, thank you very much. But that's JUST the tip of the iceberg.
We saw what happened when FEMA didn't feel like acting governmental. We lost New Orleans. And we saw what happened when the financial sector got a free pass. Epidemic foreclosures and an economy in the toilet. We're partying like it's 1929. Thanks Bush.
But how about OSHA inspections? That's what I've been researching this week. Consider this: Slaughterhouses maintain workplace safety on the honor system. Yup, that's how it works in conservative America. We don't want to "burden" them with OSHA inspections.
Here's an excerpt from the draft version of my book about how well this honor system is working out. Businesses are really rising to the occasion... NOT.
A workplace known for human rights abuses (as well as a high rate of employing undocumented workers) is the meatpacking industry. In 2008, a meatpacking plant’s senior executive, Sholom Rubashkin, was arrested for employing undocumented workers and helping them obtain fake identification documents. Earlier in the year, a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested nearly 400 undocumented workers at Rubashkin’s plant, Agriprocessors, including children as young as 13.
Workers who were arrested reported working 17-hour shifts, six days a week. A lawyer representing many of the underage workers reported that some were too young to shave. Although the plant denied any knowledge of underage workers, one youngster identified as Elmer L. told The Dallas Morning News that he had told his supervisors he was under 18. He worked for $7.25 an hour, 17 hours a day, sometimes without overtime pay.
Like the injured worker in a Tyson hog plant I spoke with, the workers at Agriprocessors reported injuries. Elmer L. reported being kicked in the rear by a supervisor, causing "a freshly sharpened knife to fly up and cut his elbow." At a nearby hospital he received eight stitches, but the next day the stitches ruptured on the job. That time, he was merely given a bandage and sent back to work. To Agriprocessors’ credit, the company actually filed a worker’s injury report with the Iowa labor department for the incident.
A 22-month investigation of a North Carolina poultry processor, House of Raeford, by The Charlotte Observer found 31 confirmed injuries "serious enough to be recorded for regulators" by sampling workers living near the plants; less than 40% of those injuries were actually logged. Among the injuries excluded from the logs were one worker’s shattered ankle caused by a machine’s faulty brakes, carpal tunnel syndrome causing intense pain and numbness (for which the employee was refused the right to see a doctor by a company nurse), and a cut with a knife leading to two missed days of work due to severe pain.
Most amazingly, one House of Raeford plant recorded no musculoskeletal disorders between June 2003 and April 2007. This class of disorders includes the injuries David told me were virtually epidemic at the Tyson plant where he worked, like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, as well as disorders of the muscles and nerves in workers’ wrists, arms, necks, and backs.
The plant employs 800 workers, including two who reported undergoing surgery for carpal tunnel at company expense during the period no musculoskeletal disorders were logged. The plant’s manager explained the lack of logged musculoskeletal disorders by saying "Hispanics are very good with their hands and working with a knife. We’ve gotten less complaints . . . it’s more like a natural movement for them." I don’t even know how to respond to that.
It should come as no great surprise that meatpacking plants are not overly burdened by workplace inspections. In the poultry industry, for example, such inspections are at a 15-year low. The government allows the industry to work on what appears to me as an "honor system." Plants with the most reported injuries get the most inspections. On the whole, plants are inspected less frequently and less comprehensively than they were in the past.
In 2006, less than one plant in five was inspected, and as of 2008, some plants had not been inspected since 2000. Fines for serious violations are only an average of $1,100 and OSHA (the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has not fined any poultry processor for workplace hazards likely to cause musculoskeletal disorders. With fines that low, the poultry plants must consider them merely a "cost of doing business" and not a deterrent to creating unsafe working conditions.
When questioned about their lax attitude towards the industry, OSHA officials cited ever-decreasing numbers of reported injuries as proof that the plants are safer than ever. I don’t suppose it occurred to them that perhaps they should investigate to see if the decline in reported injuries was due to any dishonesty by the poultry plants.
I believe the way to improve human rights within slaughterhouses is not necessarily a new law but a new outlook on government and its role in regulating business. Of course a plant hoping to abuse its employees as a means of increasing productivity and profits would find inspections burdensome. That does not mean the inspections should not take place, nor does it mean that the company should not be fined for violations. Surely government should not intervene in business when businesses behave ethically on their own accord. But the deregulatory environment of the past several decades also prevents the government from intervening when business acts unethically.
Furthermore, we need to continue to arrest senior executives of plants that willfully violate laws by hiring and mistreating undocumented workers, as in the case of Agriprocessors. When the individuals making unethical decisions in businesses have something to lose personally by violating the law, they will be less likely to do so.
Amazing? THAT right there, is a snapshot of the failure of conservatism. Shall I continue? Because that's just what happens to the HUMANS when the conservatives get a hold of the government. What about the animals? Here's a draft version of what I wrote about that... and I swear, I was being TAME. I left out 99.9% of the worst stuff that I read (if you want to read the bad stuff go here and here and here)
The government requires that "in the case of cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and other livestock, all animals are rendered insensible to pain by a single blow or gunshot or an electrical, chemical or other means that is rapid and effective, before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut" (excluding animals being slaughtered in accordance with the ritual requirements of a religious faith). Note that chickens and turkeys are excluded from this law.
Ignoring poultry for the moment, the good news is that when the law is followed correctly, the animals’ suffering in their last moments of life ends quickly. Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, has done remarkable work designing facilities that allow animals to be handled, transported, and slaughtered in ways that stress them as little as possible. Nearly half of the cattle in the United States are slaughtered at facilities she designed.
The bad news is that the law often is not followed. Slaughterhouse employees, with only seconds to stun an animal before it is hung upside down or scalded in hot water, simply cannot keep up with the speed of the line. A century ago a line would kill 50 cows an hour, and now some kill up to 400 per hour.
In 2001, a video made secretly by IBP workers and reviewed by veterinarians for The Washington Post shows cattle that are still alive and conscious after being stunned, dangling upside down by a leg. More than 20 workers signed affidavits saying that the atrocities depicted in the video are commonplace and the supervisors know about them.
IBP employee Martin Fuentes told the Post, "I’ve seen thousands and thousands of cows go through the slaughter process alive. The cows can get seven minutes down the line and still be alive. I’ve been in the side-puller where they’re still alive. All the hide is stripped out down the neck there." Allowing living cows to go through the slaughter process is also a hazard to employees – Fuentes suffered a broken arm when a dying cow kicked him as it was butchered alive.
I can think of two possible solutions to this problem. First, we must require that slaughterhouses slow down their line speeds to a rate at which workers can perform their duties safely and accurately. Second, we must examine the USDA’s inspection practices, which shifted drastically upon the implementation of a quality control program known as HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points or Have a Cup of Coffee and Pray, depending on who you ask).
The HACCP program, begun in 1998, was intended to provide for better food safety, but it allowed for greater corporate control of the quality insurance process and "rendered the USDA’s humane slaughter enforcement program essentially nonexistent." Clearly its time to re-assess the HACCP program, and the USDA's inspection program as a whole to determine how we can best ensure the USDA inspectors are able to do their jobs.
Also consider, in the case of video unveiled by the Humane Society of the United States in 2008, the treatment of disabled animals that arrive at the slaughterhouse but are unable to walk to their own deaths. The video shows workers "kicking cows, ramming them with the blades of a forklift, jabbing them in the eyes, applying painful electrical shocks and even torturing them with a hose and water," as they try to force sick or injured animals to walk to slaughter.
A bill introduced in 1993, the Downed Animal Protection Act (H.R. 559) would have mandated that all animals unable to walk be "humanely euthanized" by a method that "rapidly and effectively renders the animal insensitive to pain" but it did not pass. Assuming such a law, if passed, were enforced, this seems to me to be a reasonable anti-cruelty measure that could prevent some animals from suffering needlessly.
At the same time that Congress debated the Downed Animal Protection Act, it also considered the Humane Methods of Poultry Slaughter Act (H.R. 649). As poultry are currently excluded from the Humane Slaughter Act, accounts of poultry slaughter processes describe a wide range of brutalities inflicted on the birds.
Poultry processors utilize throat-cutting machines that kill most birds. Employees are instructed to kill birds missed by the machine, but an undercover investigator reported "numerous birds that were scalded alive in the feather removal tank while they were still conscious and able to feel pain." The investigator brought this to management’s attention and received a reply that it was an acceptable practice for up to 40 birds per shift. However, no disciplinary action was taken when it happened to more than 40 birds in a shift.
Passing and enforcing the Humane Methods of Poultry Slaughter Act, which requires that "poultry is rendered insensible to pain by electrical, chemical, or other means that is rapid and effective before or immediately after being shackled or otherwise prepared for slaughter" could represent an important step forward for the humane treatment of poultry. (Like the Humane Slaughter Act, this law would also exempt animals being slaughtered in accordance with the ritual requirements of a religious faith.)
Do you love this? The laws may be on the books in some cases, but under the conservatives we don't want to burden business by enforcing them - even when we have widespread evidence that the laws are being broken left and right every single day. Even when the result is torture and cruelty to humans and animals. The government needs to butt out and allow all of these hidden Katrinas to occur. So long as it doesn't make the evening news, it's all OK. Is that the kind of small government conservatives wanted? Cuz they just got 28 years of it, and I for one am THRILLED that that era error has come to an end.
Sources:
- Miriam Jordan, "Immigration Arrests Ex-Head of Meatpacking Plant," Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/... (accessed October 31, 2008).
- Associated Press, "Iowa Meatpacking Plant Raid Uncovers Illegal Immigrants, Underage Workers," The Dallas Morning News, July 29, 2008, http://www.dallasnews.com/... (accessed October 31, 2008).
- Kerry Hall, Ames Alexander, and Franco Ordoñez, "The Cruelest Cuts: The Human Cost of Bringing Poultry To Your Table," The Charlotte Observer, September 30, 2008, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/... (accessed October 31, 2008).
- Ames Alexander, Kerry Hall, Ted Mellnik, and Franco Ordoñez, "Workplace Inspections at 15-Year Low: OSHA Eases Poultry Companies’ Penalties," The Charlotte Observer, October 1, 2008, http://www.charlotteobserver.com/... (accessed November 1, 2008).
- Jennifer Dillard, "A Slaughterhouse Nightmare: Psychological Harm Suffered by Slaughterhouse Employees and the Possibility of Redress through Legal Reform." (I can put you in touch with the author if you want more info on this.)
- Humane Slaughter Act, http://www.animallaw.info/... (accessed November 2, 2008).
- http://www.grandin.com/... (accessed November 2, 2008).
- Joby Warrick, "They Die Piece by Piece: Investigation Reveals Rampant Cruelty in Industrial Slaughterhouses," The Washington Post, April 10, 2001, http://www.waitingforthestorm.com/... (accessed November 3, 2008).
- "HFA’s Petition to Halt Slaughterhouse Crimes," The Humane Farming Association, http://www.hfa.org/... (accessed November 3, 2008).
- "Undercover Investigation Reveals Rampant Animal Cruelty at California Slaughter Plant – A Major Beef Supplier to America’s School Lunch Program," Humane Society of the United States, January 30, 2008, http://www.hsus.org/... (accessed November 2, 2008).
- "Downed Animal Protection Act of 1993," Thomas.gov (accessed November 2, 2008).
- "Humane Methods of Poultry Slaughter Act of 1993," Thomas.gov (accessed November 2, 2008).
---------------------------------------------
If you enjoyed this diary, I ask that you visit my food and politics blog for more discussion. My focus is not only human and animal rights - it's energy, global warming, hunger, urban agriculture, truth in marketing, exposing evil front groups, school lunches, obesity, food safety - you name it. If there's food in it, it's fair game. The blog is open to anyone who would like to contribute and I'm proud to say that there are a few very talented diarists who post over there and constantly inspire me.
One topic in particular that I plan to cover heavily is a BIG bill coming up about school lunches and WIC in the next year. We'll need a small army of passionate liberals to work on that. I've "adopted" my Congresscritter (who is on the committee that's doing the bill) and it's been surprisingly easy to do. If you want to participate by adopting your own Congresscritter, I will GLADLY hook you up with everything you need in order to do that, to improve our school lunch program and WIC.