https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/lawsuit-against-u-s-poul… The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Monday against some of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. along with a proposed settlement seeking to end what it claims have been longstanding deceptive and abusive practices for workers.
The suit, filed in federal court in Maryland, names Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms, along with a data consulting company known as Webber, Meng, Sahl and Co. and its president.
In its lawsuit, the Justice Department alleges the companies have been engaged in a multiyear conspiracy to exchange information about the wages and benefits of workers at poultry processing plants to drive down employee competition in the marketplace. The companies did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
For decades, the “JCs” in Kalamazoo fixed wages. When GM wanted to build a stamping plant in town, the “JCs” made sure the city didn’t raise a finger to encourage GM, because they didn’t want GM bidding wages up. GM persisted, and built the plant in Comstock township, neighboring Kazoo. The day the plant opened, the machine shop my mom worked at gave a raise to all the machinists, only, not an extra nickle for anyone else, lest they bolt en masse to GM.
Texas and Florida, two states that haven’t changed the minimum wage through a State mandated labor bill, abide by the Federal standard: the federal hourly pay of $7.25. One Caveat, except for the city of Austin where the minimum wage changed to $15 an hour in 2018. There are 8 million people earning $7.25 an hour between these two states. It gets better, in Texas, waitresses who can collect $5/Hr in tips get paid $2.25/Hr by the employer.
My state in the Midwest is chock full of chicken farms owned by Costco.
Most all front-line workers are Mexican. Most managers are Caucasian.
I don’t know what they pay, but I’m sure they’re in line with other ranchers.
It’s surprising to me that Costco isn’t one of the targets of the suit.
Everyone wants cheap food, but we don’t want to plant it, harvest it, or
butcher our own chickens. If we ever toured one of these chicken farms, we also
wouldn’t want to eat it.
If we ever toured one of these chicken farms, we also wouldn’t want to eat it.
I’ve been hit a few times with the line that if I’d ever seen an animal being butchered, I’d never eat meat again.
One may logically conclude, from that, that all butchers and meat-packers are vegetarians. Along with most non-professional fishermen and hunters. (Ah, so why do they go fishing and hunting?)
And in my own case… I probably butchered over 100 rabbits while I was in 3rd and 4th grade. Rabbit is delicious.
I butcher at least one deer every year. A lot of hunter now hire out the job but I refuse to do that.
I respect that. IMO it’s good to know where your food comes from. Hunting is not something I was exposed to as a kid, but I’ve done my fair share of gardening, developing a great respect for farmers who are capable of producing food in such volume as I struggle to protect my small plot from the elements and critters.
My sisters take it even further by foraging for foods and medicines in the wild, and raising chickens. While I would love to learn to hunt, it’s probably safer for everyone if I don’t.