this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
348 points (100.0% liked)

News

29046 readers
3510 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Family of 16-year-old worker killed cleaning a machine at Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg files lawsuit.

top 44 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 142 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

The more you read the article the worse it gets.

  • A 16 year old died while cleaning a machine.
  • local laws prevent anyone under 18 from working with machinery
  • This is the third person to die at this factory in 3 years.
  • there have also been 3 amputations and a hospitalization from a severe fall in the same time period
  • all of these violations have amounted to $212,000 in proposed fines from OSHA

I cannot comprehend how a company can have multiple deaths, amputations, and severe safety infractions in a few years and only face a small amount of proposed fines.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago

Well we'd hate to ruffle any feathers and upset some job creators, they might seek better tax deals elsewhere

It's also hard to draw reasonable conclusions quickly without people of color to blame.. give it time, give it time

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

That second point isn't exactly right.

Federal child labor laws prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from working in meat processing plants

See, I though I came to correct you that they cannot operate heavy machinery, but he was only cleaning it while it was supposed to be out of operation.

But if the article has it right, it was illegal for him to have been working in the building at all. That's a whole other situation than I previously understood it to be.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is more proof that laws aren't enforced and that children in the workplace aren't safe.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Not just children. Workers in general aren't safe with those sort of track records

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

The McNuggets must flow!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

The more I read, the more fucked it got. I love that the meat plant is blaming the hiring contractor for hiring a 16 year old but the contractor is blaming the meat plant for not following safe cleaning instructions. Turns out they are both guilty as fuck and should be shut down.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Because of lobbyists working over decades.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

3 deaths??? Jesus Fuck do they not have lock out tag out laws south of the Mason Dixon line?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure they have lockput/tagout. You sit through an hour long video, then sign a sheet where you promise to obey the safety rules. Then when you actually try to do things by the book, your supervisor asks you "what the fuck are you doing?" and says "we don't have time for that". One place I worked had a peg board with everyone's lock and key for lockout/tagout; all of the locks had about a 1/4 inch (@ 6 mm to our European friends) of dust on them from lack of use.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well put. Your comment hit shockingly close to home for me and describes really well exactly what you'll find in tons of small to mid sized privately owned manufacturing facilities.

Super short story of my experience with this:

Worked at my family's owned machine shop for years. Toward the end of my time there, unbeknownst to anyone outside of ownership, the company went through a series of LEAN manufacturing and general procedural changes. Hindsight being 20/20 its glaringly obvious they were prepping to sell to an investor group.

One of these changes was the addition of an actual maintenance department (tell tale sign I teach people now is that when places add a "department" and the department is a single dude or dudette they're fluffing their tinder picks for more sellers to swipe right). So up to this point for the previous idk all the years I was alive up to that point, all maintenance on the Mazacs was done by whoever ran the machine until they couldnt at which point Mazac would be called to send out a rep.

So one day I come in to the machine I spent 1000x's more time inside than the time spent inside all the females ive been inside of put together was padlocked for lock out tag out. Start times were staggered depending on department and maintence didnt come in for another hour. I read the maintenance report, saw it was a coolant line problem I've fixed dozens of times. Went to maintenance cage, grabbed the dude's key, unlocked the lockout tag out, fixed the problem and had the machine running before maintenance punched in for the day.

Hot damn was that a mistake. Got a big write up, management calls a meeting with me making claims they were doing me a favor by not firing me. The issue wasnt the unauthorized unlocking of rhe machine because I was trained for lock out tag out procedures. The issue was that I unlocked a machine that was lockout tag out'ed by another person.

Whole fucking thing didnt sit well with me. By this time there was no secret if the sale, managment was transitioning, and the whole thing felt like a flex by management to make a show and used me as their public tar and feathering.

So stubborn as mule me reads the whole section of the osha manual for lock out tag out. Pulled the training records. Put everything together and went into the person's office responsible for the whole shitshow that was the special meeting to demonstrate that I wouldnt get special treatment. Laid out for him how the company failed to follow mandated training schedule, never assigned trained lock out tag out personel with assigned tags, then once they started assigning tags they never assigned tags to the previously trained team members and lastly never provided adequate resources on the policy and procedural changes for employees to reference.

Half way through this very aggressive conversation the dudes office had the newly appointed GM with almost every other member of management from the meeting.

Despite the classic internet meme where everybody stood up and cheered, its honestly the closest i could imagine to having people cheer lol. Noone chimed in most just took it in but there were enough faces with shiteating grins thst in the moment I felt certain I successfully threw what he thought was the perfect opening move for his new promotion right the fuck back in his face.

The most satisfying part wasnt telling him somthing along the lines of, "The cognitive dissonance it takes to schedule a special meeting with attendance from every single department lead and fucking manager there just to fuckin tell me Im not getting special treatment shows how unfit you are at this role." Naaaa the best part was shortly after the meeting I resigned, then about a year later I'm told, "Have you checked out your old production manager's new youtube channel?" I respond wtf you talking about, "You didnt know [insert anonymous name] got fired and started his own youtube channel hes calling consulting videos but really its just him talking to a camera the same stupid ideas and methods that got him fired. But you gotta check it out cuz the last video he posted this week his wife walks uo behind him and just start shaking his titty! He even puts into the comment an apology that he couldnt rerecord it because of how great the 45 mins of recording was upto that point!"

To this day my heart melts with joy knowing someone I called dumb was proven by a jury of our peers to be undoubtedly as dumb as I said he was.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

What the fuck

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

If the hawks nest tunnel taught us anything is that it's ok to knowingly kill hundreds of workers as long as you profit before any charges can be brought up

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Regulation is for those who cant afford good lawyers

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The solution should be to jail all the owners and executives, force a sale of the company and set an example for anyone else who thinks about doing the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago

You mean a 16 year-old working at a poultry plant?

Yes, that should never have to happen.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

There is a long rich tradition of underage children dying in meat processing plants. While this is absolutely tragic, anyone who has looked into this can tell you it's absolutely nothing new.

But, people want meat. So they look away, try not to think about it and nothing changes. Something to consider over your next cheeseburger.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There’s always an outraged vegan to make a bad faith argument in comments of stories like this.

Hey kid, do you think children have never died farming vegetables?

https://www.live5news.com/2023/12/20/community-mourns-teen-who-died-farming-accident/?outputType=amp

https://www.abc27.com/local-news/child-dies-in-lancaster-county-farm-equipment-accident/amp/

https://globalnews.ca/news/9727616/toddler-dies-grain-mixer-quebec/amp/

Something to consider over your next salad.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Two of those articles you linked are a 2 and 4 year old that were on the farm, not really the same thing as the 27 amputation per month of actual workers. I mean step back and look at the what aboutism you are doing. Of course people are injured in produce, but that doesn't change the fact that working in a meat packing plant is one of the most dangerous professions for humans.

Look, I'm not even here "as a vegan", just as someone who has recently read The Jungle and is horrorifed to see the same problems from a century ago still present today. I'm not talking about animal rights, I'm talking about human worker rights in an industry where those people are constantly injured in staggering numbers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The only reason you know I'm vegan is from my username, but why would that fact somehow disqualify me from caring about workers being injured?

Idk. Sorta seems like you just wanna insult me but not actually contribute anything meaningful.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh trust me. I didn’t even see your username. I knew you were vegan because of your insufferable bad faith comment.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Well, I think comparing toddler accidents on a farm to century long systemic hiring of underage workers is bad faith but I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Still not entirely sure what I said that made you mad, concern for worker safety feels pretty universal. But it doesn't seem you want to actually talk about the issue. So whatever. You have a good one.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

There's no point in conversing with these people, they accuse you of bad faith arguments from WORKING in the industry and rebute with arguments from VISITING the industry.

Smooth brains be smoothing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I honestly don’t care what you think.

[–] trackcharlie 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't read usernames and didn't read yours until you mentioned it, and before that I knew you were vegan because you were using strawman in conjunction with a false dilemma and faulty generalization fallacies in order to push a 'meat bad' argument.

The most common argumentative fallacies used by vegans, peta, and trolls.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Underage workers dying is a.... false dilemma? How is that possibly something not worth addressing?

I feel like some of you are having an emotional response from even the mildest of critism at the industry that you have to deny there is even a problem with dead children that shouldn't have been hired in the first place. Which if you go reread my original comment, is what I originally pointed out. You are so defensive of the product that you are mad at me for even acknowledging this long standing issue.

As I said before, I'm fresh off reading The Jungle. My intent was to talk about worker rights instead of animal rights. So it seems right to leave this all with exactly that.

Jurgis recollected how, when he had first come to Packingtown, he had stood and watched the hog-killing, and thought how cruel and savage it was, and come away congratulating himself that he was not a hog; now his new acquaintance showed him that a hog was just what he had been-one of the packers' hogs. What they wanted from a hog was all the profits that could be got out of him; and that was what they wanted from the workingman, and also that was what they wanted from the public. What the hog thought of it, and what he suffered, were not considered; and no more was it with labor, and no more with the purchaser of meat. That was true everywhere in the world, but it was especially true in Packingtown; there seemed to be something about the work of slaughtering that tended to ruthlessness and ferocity-it was literally the fact that in the methods of the packers a hundred human lives did not balance a penny of profit.

  • Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

Published over a century ago and still relevant.

[–] trackcharlie 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Blaming the meat industry for underage workers dying is a false equivalency and false dilemma. You are a fool* to equivocate these issues.

Meat isn't the problem, incompetent politicians and garbage employers are the problem but you're pretending the meat industry is the only industry engaging in child labour practices.

I bet you eat chocolate as well, and spoiler alert, child labour AND slave labour is involved in ALL chocolate acquisition, not to mention avocado and large scale vegetable farming uses child labour daily, but I don't hear you bitching about that, I hear you blaming "meat" and attempting to guilt anyone who consumes meat into believing they inherently support child labour when they buy it.

Meanwhile you're using an apple or android phone or a computer of any kind to communicate, meaning you have supported child and slave labour which acquired the raw materials to create the device you are using to bitch about this topic and misdirect people into believing your extremely perverted view of the world.

The sheer incompetence of your presentation here is dripping in irony and is denoting an unparalleled lack of education or an unbelievable level of intellectual dishonesty.

Edit: *removed an overly aggressive insult to prevent mods from being salty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm honestly amazed you can say that in this exact thread. There is a well known link between exactly those two according to the DOL. But whatever. It's easy to just ignore it and insult me instead.

Edit: You added more. Look, we can do whataboutism for Chocolate and Tech, but that doesn't change anything for this issue.

child labour AND slave labour is involved in ALL chocolate acquisition, not to mention avocado and large scale vegetable farming uses child labour daily, but I don't hear you bitching about that

The thread is literally about the meat industry.

[–] trackcharlie 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

And it's clear you haven't actually read the paper you're linking given that in that very investigation overview they describe the employers as the issue and not the industry as a whole.

Also, I like how you've just ignored all my notes about your own use of slave labour and child labour in your food and the device your using to continue bitching about the problem as well as misrepresenting the issues noted in the very paper you linked.

I'm going to chalk this up to incompetence and block you, but yes "well played" you "definitely got me".

By the way, since it's clear you did not read the paper:

“The safety of young workers and significant reductions in child labor violations are top priorities for the U.S. Department of Labor,” said Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman. “Employers who choose to hire young workers have a legal responsibility to know and abide by the federal laws that govern their employment. These obligations include eliminating all exposures to hazardous occupations and prohibited equipment, and preventing young workers from suffering serious injuries or worse.”

In case you can't understand what is being said in the paper, the TL:DR is "Bad employers paying off corrupt politicians to weaken employment restrictions for young workers and the same bad employers ignoring or reducing safety training and safety equipment".

Contrary to you, I actually do investigate the supply lines and employment conditions of just about everything I use and consume, I can't change anything about it because it needs to be a group vote to make change, but I at least educate myself on these things.

Again, unlike you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also, I like how you've just ignored all my notes about your own use of slave labour and child labour in your food and the device your using

Oh wtf? You keep editing in more! That whole section wasn't there when I read your comment. I'm just trying to keep up.

[–] trackcharlie 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The core edit occurred less than 45 seconds after the post and the second edit fixed grammar and punctuation about a minute later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The core edit occurred less than 45 seconds after the post and the second edit fixed grammar and punctuation about a minute later.

I'm quoting what I see at the time because I guess it might change? I didn't see any of your new section tripling the length of your comment once I hit reply. You know damn well the majority of that came later. Talk about bad faith and intellectual dishonesty.

Look, being insulted isn't what I want to do with my morning. This whole interaction is just a convulated flame war mess and I'm not interested in devoting more time to it. Especially since I guess you are gonna block me, so whatever.

You have a good one.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is a long rich tradition of underage children dying in meat processing plants.

Yeah, we need better child labor laws and meat processing plant regulations, and those keep being overturned.

While the easy concept of "what if no meat industry" is easy to imagine, and I am for it, it's not realistic and would simply move the industry to a 3rd world country and transfer through there. Why don't vegans ever consider a 90% approach: if you get people to consume something that is 90% not meat, that's the equivalent getting 90% of the group vegetarian. Then it's an easier sell for vegetarianism, and as we develop lab meats, less must replaced.

Also, jw, would you be willing to eat human meat if they consented before hand and were disease free. I have a 93% yes rate, and I usually ask friends of friends when I meet them.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why don't vegans ever consider a 90% approach

It would still require animals that have been genetically engineered to produce as much mass as quickly as possible to exist. Less suffering is good, but the real goal is to end this cruel and unnecessary system.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And it's a noble goal, but it's also one that many (not by any means all) think could easily happen overnight as if adopting a vegan lifestyle were as easy and unproblematic as it gets. Humanity has been eating meat as a significant portion of our diet since long before homo sapiens evolved. Getting people to suddenly stop en masse is just not going to happen. You're fighting thousands of years of culture and genetics.

Weaning people off of meat is far more likely to work. Yes, it means more animal suffering in the mean time. But the fewer people you can convince to eat less meat, the more animals will be slaughtered.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How far along are you? I wish you the best on your journey.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Personally im pretty far. I eat far less meat than i used to growing up. I no longer eat veal, nor is meat the staple of my each and every meal. There are many many dishes i now make that do not feature meat at all. My meat intake is probably less than 50% of what it once was. For my SO, the change is less dramatic, but also noticeable.

For me, i noticed that simply the conscious effort to decrease how much meat i consume was an easy effort to expend, and it soon turned into a game id be playing with myself, trying to see where i can limit or cut out animal byproducts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I don't eat meat, but I do have dairy and eggs and shellfish. It's as good as I can do for now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It is not about the meat, it is about the safety regulations that should have been in place.

Capitalism will exploit unless there are reasons not do so. If the monetary risk is high enough, such as a % of total revenue in fines which should be more than the profit made, there is less of an inclination to perform such practices. Or death for the whole directive board, you know.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Nothing has changed, and the company continues to treat employee safety as an afterthought, putting its workers at risk

Just a normal day for capitalism

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

I feel like thats the case for most child deaths

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

third to die in a 3 year period. Jesus christ it's a poultry plant, it's not supposed to be a dangerous job, why is this place still allowed to be open.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Conservatives' secret wet dream exposed.