Meatpacking plants and Mexican immigrants (McCook, Sterling: houses, employment, purchasing)

[CA central coast]

I'm just curious about this whole situation. What is the work like at these facilities? why won't the residents of the community work there? Is the pay horrible? Who worked meatpacking before all the illegals came?

[dsrich98]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

I'm just curious about this whole situation. What is the work like at these facilities? why won't the residents of the community work there? Is the pay horrible? Who worked meatpacking before all the illegals came?

I haven't ever done it or known anyone who has. What I understand is it is very hard, and very dangerous work. Considering the work required and the risks it does not pay nearly enough to compensate for those risks. Don't get me wrong it's a good living wage, but VERY hard work.

The term meatpacking itself is a bit a misnomer, since there is much more than packing going on. At many of these plants the animals arrive alive which pretty much says it all. Sharp automated instruments used to disembowel the animals bring danger and ugly messes to the job. Of course there are cold temperatures so the meat doesn't start to rot. This makes the job unappealing to most workers in the United States. however, the opportunities are great and welcome for those from south of the border with no prospect for employment, let alone employment that pays a living wage.

The advent of the large meat processing centers was in the 1980's and 1990's. Previously this sort of wrok was done more locally by buthers in their own shops or grocery stores. These were highly skilled professionals that took great pride in their work. Certainly there are still stores and buther shops but the numbers have declined dramatically as mass produced and packaged meat has filled grocers shelves. This makes it less expensive for the conumer since now the meat con be prcessed so much faster and more efficeintly.

So it's a fairly recent development and brought on by the demands of large retailers such as wal-mart and other large grocery conglomerates demanding cheap meat. Not all bad conidering these plants bring new life to many small towns that otherwise would have very littel new investment in the community as the children move away and the older generations ie off. It is certainly a give and take.

[Bigg Mann]

In 1978 a friend and myself drove 150 miles west to Sterling, CO from McCook, NE to work in a meat packing plant. Wages in the $8.00 to $10.00 range which was excellent in the 70's was the draw.

We were both in our teens and big and strong and used to hard work. I was 6'4" tall and weight was 210 and grew up on a farm so was used to hard work.

We were hired as Beef Luggers in a cooler where the temperature was in the 30's. The sides of beef came along a chain rail and each side of beef was hanging on a hook and you would walk into beef with your shoulder and lift off hook and walk into trailer at dock and heave up onto hook on side of trailer and immediately get another one. This never stopped till break time and each side weighs over 200 lbs. NOT easy work or fun.

Needless to say I would sweat and then get sick from cold temps. There were not any Mexicans then and if so not where I was cause they were not big enough to do work.

The older workers would initiatate (sp) you by strips your clothes off and pouring blank ink on private area and this was real FUN. We quit after a week and I got hired on the railroad which was good pay and easy compared to beef lugging.

[Gunluvver2]

I worked my way through college working in a beef packing plant. I did it all. However because of my size I worked as a lugger most of the time. When a delivery truck job came up I switched to that but the work was a heckuva lot harder than just lugging was. Not only did I have to help lug but I had to unload my truck at various stores. One Kosher store in Kansas City I delivered to required walking up three flights of stairs and then negotiating a narrow hallway with a quarter of beef that weighed at least 200#'s and often times over 300#. At the time I was making darn good money, enough to pay cash for a 74 Peterbilt after 6 years. Would I do it again today? Not for the wages they offer now. Illegals will do it for $10 an hour NOW. That was what Hormel was paying back in the 1970's.

GL2

[Giesela]

dsrich98 quote: So it's a fairly recent development and brought on by the demands of large retailers such as wal-mart and other large grocery conglomerates demanding cheap meat.

I'm not sure that's accurate - its a growing population of PEOPLE who demand cheap meat.

[Gunluvver2]

Like almost every business "economy of scale has" had an impact on the meat packing business. Shipping costs are a lot more now than they were in the past. Why would a retailer want to pay shipping costs on hundreds of pounds of bones when those bones can be removed at the packing house for a fraction of the cost of doing it at the point of sale? That is just one reason for the changes.

GL2

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

I'm just curious about this whole situation. What is the work like at these facilities? why won't the residents of the community work there? Is the pay horrible? Who worked meatpacking before all the illegals came?

I used to be in a position to visit packinghouses as I was purchasing meat for an institution . Let me address some of the questions.

Meatpacking is very hard, physical, and very demanding work. You work is a hot humid environment if you are in the slaughter area and is a chilled or cold environment if you are processing the meat. It is dangerous as you are dealing with knives and machinery. There is a lot of opportunity for repetitive motion injuries.

In the "old days", the Chicago slaughterhouses were largely staffed with recent immigrants. I would almost recommend Upton Sinclair's The Jungle although there was a lot of politics involved in that novel. Most immigrants worked in the stockyards as that work did NOT require an education or the ability to speak English. Most immigrants encouraged their kids to get an education to get out of the stockyards.

The major Nebraska packinghouses like IBP advertise in Chicago and Cleveland for employees. Generally, the ads are in Spanish or Polish.

Many packinghouses hire locals but there are not enough people in the area to support a huge packing plant. When you set up a large plant in a rural area, you really start to exhaust the local work force pretty quickly.

Forty years ago, the animals were slaughtered and much of the beef was left on the carcass and shipped to retailers in that way. However the major chain grocery stored (not WalMart) pushed for the shipment of the "primal cuts" (loins, strips, etc.) rather than carcasses. After all, what retailer really wants the organ meats or the shanks or the "less tender" cuts? They want the parts of the animals that are going to sell. Most of the "butchers" in the US break down the primal cuts into the meat that is offered in the market.

Now where WalMart comes in is that they are paying the processors to cut the primal cuts into the final retail cuts. Many of the other retailers are doing the same.

[saltine]

Originally Posted by Giesela

dsrich98 quote: So it's a fairly recent development and brought on by the demands of large retailers such as wal-mart and other large grocery conglomerates demanding cheap meat.

I'm not sure that's accurate - its a growing population of PEOPLE who demand cheap meat.

It's all about Profit, not about giving the People cheap goods.

[CA central coast]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

.

Many packinghouses hire locals but there are not enough people in the area to support a huge packing plant. When you set up a large plant in a rural area, you really start to exhaust the local work force pretty quickly.

.

From my experience is hard to imagine native residents working with spanish speaking Mexican immigrants or illegals. That usually doesn't work for long. The Mexican people tend to be very clanish. When they take over an industry, they want to make it "their own". I've experienced this in construction. They can make it hard on people. Not trying to be racial at all, nor do I dislike Mexicans. But, I've seen them drive people to quit their jobs. It's hard for me to imagine those plants even in those small towns not becoming 100% Mexican labor. Hope I didn't offend, just making an observation.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

From my experience is hard to imagine native residents working with spanish speaking Mexican immigrants or illegals. That usually doesn't work for long. The Mexican people tend to be very clanish. When they take over an industry, they want to make it "their own". I've experienced this in construction. They can make it hard on people. Not trying to be racial at all, nor do I dislike Mexicans. But, I've seen them drive people to quit their jobs. It's hard for me to imagine those plants even in those small towns not becoming 100% Mexican labor. Hope I didn't offend, just making an observation.

Usually, when people say "I don't want to make it racial", it always ends up there.

It is amazing that I have hundreds of hispanic employees who haven't driven all the Anglos and other folks out of the plant. On the other hand, there is a bit more tolerance once you get out of CA.