Meatpacking injuries spawn union drive

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17158226/

Each day 150 semitrailers loaded with cattle arrive at Tyson Food Inc.'s Holcomb plant for slaughter. Each day workers here butcher 5,700 head of cattle.

And each day at least one meatpacker at the plant gets hurt on the job.

On the killing room floor, beef carcasses dangling from an overhead conveyor belt constantly stream past blood-splattered workers — each with a very specific job to do.

A worker slits the throats of one cow as its blood rushes down to the pit below him. One man skins the animal. Another worker disembowels it. On the processing floor, hundreds more meatpackers working in near freezing temperatures carve the meat into the cuts that will land on grocery store shelves. And they do the same thing cow after cow until their eight-hour shift is done.

For years, the 3,100 workers who toil here have accepted injuries as a risk of working in one of the nation's most hazardous occupations. Now they are seizing upon those injuries to buck a trend of low union participation that grew as the nation's meatpacking industry consolidated and drew more immigrant labor.

[Omaha Steve]

1. We have a choice at the store on brands...

We don't buy Tyson because of this.