Hw - 7c Reading Response

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Chapter Seven: In Greeley, Colorado, a town known for its utopian community dedicated to agriculture, education, mutual aid and high moral values that began in 1870 has now well become a small meatpacking town. The IBP revolution was the cause for the termination of Greeley's peace which started in Denison, Iowa when two officials began the Iowa Beef Packers(IBP). They adopted similar methods the McDonald brothers use to make hamburgers in which the system required little skill. Thanks to this system, many of unions and smaller companies were pushed out of business.
Qoutes: "Holman and Anderson designed a production system for their slaughterhouse in Denison, Iowa, that eliminated the need for skilled workers. The new IBD plant was a one story structure with a dis assembly line. Each worker stood in one spot along the line, preforming the same simple task over and over again." (p.153).
Questions/Responses:
1. The system that has kept smaller companies and unions out of business due to larger food companies sounds like a higher end of American government, but it's not? So what does that say about the amount of power large food companies have in America?
2. Since the redefining shifts in the food industry, it presents a futuristic positive change, but to those who fall short of advancing as well, seem to get more affected in a negative way. Why hasn't it changed yet again for better then?
Chapter Eight: Somewhere in the High Plains, I toured one of the slaughterhouse; it was crowded and bloody enough to the point where I had to tuck my pants into my boots. In the facility, the workers worked silently concentrating hard on not falling behind. To not fall behind in work, sometimes the workers use methamphetamines to keep up with the fast-paced environment. The cattle that is brought in, are in a single file lines lined up to be stunned one after another by one man and then another man who cuts the cattle's throats'. Injuries are common is this fast paced environment, and because most workers are illegal, most of the injuries go unreported. Health violations and other safety methods are ignored due to the power the companies have over the workers, threatening to work harder to keep the only job they can find, only to benefit the profit of the company.
Quotes:"The line speeds and labor costs at IBP's nonunion plants now set the standard for the rest of the industry. Every other company must try to produce beef as quickly and cheaply as IBP does; slowing the pace to protect workers can lead to a competitive disadvantage." (p.175).
Questions/Responses:
1. Not only do these large food companies have the power to knock out smaller unions and companies, they have the power to hold their workers from reporting deadly injuries. And still our government doesn't do enough to crack down on them.
2. These large companies resemble a dictating power threatening workers with "if you want your job, don't complain" and "if I say work faster, work faster." There is nothing the workers can turn to for help.
3. The necessity of trapping their workers has very well much become using these people as expendables to a plant that provides no safety, which is a crime. But still there is nothing to be done to change it?