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In this exclusive and unprecedented investigation, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH reveals the hidden human violence that plagues the US meat packing industry
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The Jain dharma occupies a unique position among the world's religions in its unwavering advocacy of universal ahimsa. Followers attempt to practise non-violence toward all living creatures. The greatest contribution of this central tenet is subtle and simple. Seek and question the varied - and often hidden - ways in which we perpetuate violence through our thoughts, speech and action, ahimsa implores us. Then act to minimise these forms of violence.
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In this spirit of ahimsa, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has begun to uncover and take action against the unseen human violence of the notoriously secretive US meat packaging industry. The immediate suffering is apparent: millions of animals are slaughtered yearly for human Ja EduConsumption. What remains deliberately
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OF MEAT AND MEN:
HUMAN VIOLENCE IN THE US MEAT PACKING INDUSTRY
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hidden is the daily violence perpetuated against the industry's human victims: the thousands of workers who are killed, maimed or injured each year in an attempt to slaughter, clean and package the animal carcasses. And the violence, it can be argued, is not simply physical. Workers are often subjected to human rights violations qua violations of workers' organising and association rights, and their ability to obtain adequate injury compensation.
Below are selected portions of the HRW report, BLOOD, SWEAT AND FEAR: Workers' Rights in US Meat and Poultry Plants, which shed light on the physical human violence in the industry.
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Workers in American beef, pork and poultry slaughtering and processing plants perform dangerous jobs in difficult conditions. Dispatching the non-stop tide of animals and birds arriving on plant kill floors and live hang areas is in itself hazardous and exhausting labour. After slaughter, the carcasses hurl along evisceration and disassembly lines as
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workers hurriedly saw and cut them at unprecedented volume and pace.
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What once were hundreds of heads processed per day are now thousands; what were thousands are now tens of thousands per day. One worker described the reality of the line in her foreman's order: "Speed, Ruth, work for speed! One cut! One cut! One cut for the skin; one cut for the meat. Get those pieces through!" Another said: "People can't take it, always harder, harder, harder! [mas duro, mas duro, mas duro!]."
In Blood, Sweat and Fear we focus on workers' rights violations in the beef, pork and poultry slaughtering and processing industry. The report concentrates on workplace health and safety, workers' compensation, workers' organising rights, and the status of immigrant workers because our research uncovered systemic violations in these areas. The report draws from research, interviews and visits in 2003 and 2004 to three geographic centres of the industry: Omaha, Nebraska for beef; Tar Heel, www.jainelibrary.or
