What Are The Safeguards In The Meatpacking Industry?

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Would you continue to eat meat if you knew the horrors that workers in meatpacking plants must? There are many serious safety and health hazards in the meatpacking industry. These hazards include exposure to high noise levels, dangerous equipment, slippery floors, musculoskeletal disorders, and hazardous chemicals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of work related injuries in the meatpacking industry is three time higher than the national average (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Should OSHA have stricted penalties on companies with high injury/death tolls, what should they do companies who employ illegal immigrants, and are the safeground they have in place effective.
However, the law requires that employers must provide …show more content…

For some companies yes, they follow the guidelines and 61 percent of executives said they saved three dollars or more for every one dollar they spent on safety programs (Hatch). Taking this voluntary steps to protect workers insures a more productive work environment and would help reduce workplace injuries due to company negligence. Some of the safegrounds OSHA says a company can take are posting written safety and health policy around the workplace, appoint an employee to manage the policymaking on safety and health issues, and have meetings about employee safety and health" (.gov). But for companies that would reather pay the fine than fix the problem they will go promote jobs to get cheap and …show more content…

Instead of pushing for criminal prosecution, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the family because the founder and had just died and the new owner said there would be major changes. It happened again thirteen years later and the family once again pursued help from OSHA only for Occupational Safety and Health Administration not to push for criminal charges (Hatch). This can be an example of how OSHA has been ran with a lenient hand.OSHA Administrator John Henshaw says "The fine is the same for a serious violation whether workers die or not. But the fact is, all we can do is cite for the violation or the hazard,". (Hatch) "The most companies will get for the death of an employee is, a maximum fine of $500,000 and for an individual is six months in prison or a maximum fine of $250,000 (Hatch)." Do you think that the people investgating this case think about these people familines and how they may felt knowing or unknowingly knowing that this company killed their love one and all they got was a warning, or maybe a fine. And most companies like McWane Inc would where just play the fine then fix the things in there factorys. But there are individuals and

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