Working Conditions in the Meatpacking Industry

Sep 11, 2024

Lecture Notes: Chapter 14 Overview

Overview of Packingtown Practices

  • Spoiled Meat Practices

    • Meat too spoiled for anything else was canned or chopped into sausage.
    • Knowledge of processes from family members: trimming beef, sausage factory, pickle rooms.
    • Old jest: "use everything of the pig except the squeal" reflects grim reality.

  • Pickled Meat Issues

    • Sour meat rubbed with soda, sold to free-lunch counters.
    • Meat color, flavor, and odor altered chemically.
    • Pickling apparatus and processes for hams; hams filled with pickle quickly.
    • Spoiled hams treated with stronger pickle, "giving them thirty percent."
    • Techniques to disguise spoiled hams, e.g., 'boneless' hams, 'California' hams, 'head cheese.'

  • Sausage Production

    • Sausage indiscriminately mixed with various meat types.
    • Moldy old sausage reprocessed, mixed with chemicals.
    • Poor hygiene: meat on dirty floors, mixed with rat poison and dead rats.
    • Waste barrels cleaned infrequently, contents mixed with fresh meat.
    • Chemical treatments for preserving sausage without smoking.

Impact on Workers

  • Elzbieta's Experience

    • Brutal, mind-numbing work in meat processing.
    • Insensibility as a coping mechanism.

  • Family's Emotional State

    • Ona and Jurgis silent and despondent.
    • Dreams of freedom and a better life shattered.
    • Overwhelmed by financial burdens and bleak future.

Personal Struggles

  • Jurgis and Alcohol

    • Alcohol as a temporary escape from pain and drudgery.
    • Financial and emotional costs of drinking.
    • Internal conflict and guilt over drinking habits.

  • Family Health and Well-being

    • Child Antanas afflicted with various ailments.
    • Ona's health deteriorating: cough, nervous breakdowns.
    • Ona's pregnancy adding to stress and despair.

Social Commentary

  • Critique of Work Conditions
    • Dehumanizing and unhealthy factory work.
    • The plight of immigrants and the working class.
    • The impossibility of escaping poverty and ensuring a better life for children.

These notes cover the key themes and descriptions of the working and living conditions of the characters, as well as the unethical practices within the meatpacking industry. The emotional and physical toll on the workers and their families is highlighted, along with the societal issues that perpetuate these conditions.