Working Conditions of the Meat Industry

realization of the indispensable dignity and of equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the knowledgeableness of freedom, nearice and peace in the world. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person. These a couple of(prenominal) words pretty much sums up the mission of the benignant Rights break (HRW), an international non-governmental organization whose main focus is to ensure the wellbeing and the inherent rights to life that all human beings atomic number 18 entitled to.By development means such as the media for example, Human Rights take hold of sets out to non only insure that all human beings live their lives with dignity provided to also bring to justice those who, through merciless dictatorships, suppress the contentment and basic human rights of their people. The purpose of this paper is to discuss my opinion on whether or non I agree with certain changes recommended by the HRW in regards to work untroubledty w hen it comes to immigrant histrions. I will provide my opinion and find out near of the utilitarian and deontological considerations.In 1906, Upton Sinclairs novel The Jungle uncovered torturing conditions inside Americas bosom fisticuffs plants and initiated a period of transformation in the nations plaza assiduity. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal core Inspection Act were both clog uped later that year, and labor organizations slowly began to emend the conditions at a lower place which the countrys meat packers toiled. But some critics say Americas meat wrinkle has been in decline for decades and that the poor conditions found in slaughterho social functions and packing facilities right a authority be often little better than those described by Sinclair.The Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch to support and comfort individual dissidents and independent citizen groups in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The aim was to defend the rights of suppressed writers, scholars, and intellectuals, and to ensure that their governments complied with the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which, among other things, substantiate citizens rights to monitor the human rights practices of their own governments.The first expansion came in 1981 when Americas Watch was established to demonstrate that human rights standards are universal and should be utilise equally to governments of all political stripes. The HRW group investigated the meat and bird efforts unfair, unethical and inhumane practices and found that things needed to be changed. HRW recommended an assortment of things to change to include new laws and policies should ensure respect for the human rights of immigrant workers, any(prenominal) their legal status.Immigrants should have the same workplace justifications as non-immigrants, including coverage under fair labor standards and other labor laws, and the same remedies when their rights are thwartd and New federa l and state laws should reduce line speed in meat and poultry plants and establish new ergonomics standards to reduce insistent stress injuries. Health and safe and soundty authorities should apply stronger enforcement measures. States should develop stronger worker compensation laws and enforcement mechanisms.These changes were recommended because there is a massive influx of immigrant workers in the meat and poultry plants around the country. Also a significant number of these workers are unaware of their workplace rights. Many of these workers and their family are also undocumented and assumet want to draw attention to themselves. Because of their undocumented status, this prevents workers from seeking protection for their rights as workers from government authorities. The meat and poultry industry takes advantage of these fears and use it to their advantage.They play on the fears of these undocumented workers to keep them in abusive conditions that violate basic human rights and labor rights. Regardless of someone legal status, no one deserves to work in unsafe filthy conditions. I do agree with the changes that the HRW put forth. I have to agree that the illegal and some legal immigrant population are unfairly taken advantage of. The meat and poultry industry has the duty to protect and provide a safe working environment for their workers and also provide for damages or impairment in the event of it happening regardless of legal status.Most of the nations 17. 7 million immigrant workers toil, like those who preceded them, in commerces that native-born Americans refuse to do. They work as meatpackers, hotel maids, hamburger flippers, waiters, gardeners, seamstresses, fruit and vegetable pickers, and construction hands. John Gay, a lobbyist for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, says there are places in this country where we wouldnt survive without immigrants, which is jam Congress to allow more essential workers into the United States. The tre nd is to grind our own children into college to be rocket scientists or computer programmers. But who is sledding to do these hard jobs that we have? Who is going to change bedpans in a nursing home? Or change beds in hotels? Jobs in poultry plants across the South, once held almost exclusively by American blacks, are now dominated by Mexican immigrants. Textile plants run generally on the labors of Hispanic workers. In the Kentucky coal fields, mining companies are considering recruiting miners from the Ukraine.From a Utilitarian perspective, requiring meat packing lines to slow down will improver man hours and reduce productivity. If chain speeds were legislatively mandated to be reduce by 25 %, the same plants which currently lack management commitment to safe foods would continue to produce the same amount of contaminated food as it did prior to the forced reduction. The management would not be inclined to key changes which would cost money if they are losing money because of decreased issue repayable to the reduction of the speed lines.The meat and poultry industry does not hope rose-garden workplaces, nor should it be expected of them. OSHA offered special incentives to meat packers who entered into voluntary agreements with the agency to change magnitude their ergonomic hazards. While they would still be subject to OSHA inspections, they would not be cited or penalized on ergonomic grounds. From a deontological stance, food safety is compromised when production lines move too quickly for its line workers to properly assess risks. operative in the meat and poultry industry is a difficult job that I stated before most Americans would not do.It is the meat packing companies duty to ensure our foods and the workers who process them are as safe as they can be. If speed lines were reduced, health risks to employees will reduced and our meats can be properly assessed thus resulting in less contaminated meats making their way to out grocery stores. In conclusion it is obvious to see that rights and responsibilities were not carried out by the meatpacking industry. They were greed driven business who poisoned for do good as President Roosevelt said.The meatpackers had a right to make their product provided did not take the responsibility to do it in a elan that was safe for the workers and the consumer. Thanks to the Human Rights Watch and people like Upton Sinclair and Theodore Roosevelt who was sickened later reading an advance copy of Sinclairs book called upon congress to pass a law that established the Food and Drug Administration. The meat industry today takes the responsibility in making working conditions safer and producing meat safer for the consumer.ReferencesBlackwell, Jon. 1906 growl over The Jungle, retrieved 15 Jun 2011 from http//www.capitalcentury.com/1906.html Meatpacking in the U.S. Still a Jungle Out There? (2006), retrieved 15 Jun 2007, from http//www.pbs.org/now/shows/250/meat-packing.html Parker, Laura , USA just wouldnt work without immigrant labor, (July 2001), retrieved 15 Jun 2011, from http//www.usatoday.com/news/washington/july01/2001-07-23-immigrant.htm