Roughly 100 workers have walked out of a Smithfield meat plant in Monmouth, Illinois, following a colleague’s death

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.

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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.

  • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
    22·
    11 days ago

    There even have been two different human rights watch reports (In 2019 & 2005) on the meat industry working conditions, but it still doesn’t get much press

    Don’t worry we’re also giving workers horrible PTSD too

    As time passes, you get used to it. You feel nothing. You can imagine, if you kill a thing a 1000 times over and over, you wouldn’t have feelings after a while. It kills you on the inside, an abattoir, it kills you. You can be full of blood, it will not bother you

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4841092/

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
      51·
      11 days ago

      Huh. I thought America super cared about workers’ rights? Welp back to work, this limb won’t sever itself!

    • Jack@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      11 days ago

      Every year hundreds of billions of animals are kept in torturous conditions on factory farms. About 1% of the billions of factory farmed chickens per year are boiled alive (the color of their meat looks different when they’re not killed before being boiled).

      Every year about 1-3 trillion fish are slowly (can take 10 minutes) tortured to death (crushing and/or suffocation) by fishing companies and factory farms.