A Problem in the Packing House

Ted Genoways, reporting on an autoimmune disorder at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota:

SIX MONTHS EARLIER, when Matthew Garcia was sent back to the Mayo Clinic neurology department, Dr. P. James Dyck explained to him that there was an "epidemic of neuropathy" that was affecting QPP workers—a newly discovered form of demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. Inhaling aerosolized brains had caused his body to produce antibodies, but because porcine and human neurological cells are so similar, the antibodies began destroying Garcia's own nerves, as well.
The new disease theory made sense, except that, according to company officials, QPP had been blowing brains, off and on, for more than a decade. So why did workers fall ill now and not earlier? The answer is complex. First, in April 2006, the line speed increased from 1,300 pig heads moving down the conveyor belt each hour to 1,350. This speedup was slight, but it was just the latest in a series of gradual increases. "The line speed, the line speed," Lachance told the AP, when recounting patient interviews. "That's what we heard over and over again." The line had been set at 900 heads per hour when the brain harvesting first began in 1996—meaning that the rate had increased a full 50 percent over the decade, whereas the number of workers had hardly risen. Garcia told me that the speed made it hard to keep up. Second, to match the pace, the company switched from a foot-operated trigger to an automatic system tripped by inserting the nozzle into the brain cavity, but sometimes the blower would misfire and spatter. Complaints about this had led to the installation of the plexiglass shield between the worker manning the brain machine and the rest of the head table. Third, the increased speed had caused pig heads to pile up at the opening in the shield. At some point in late 2006, the jammed skulls, pressed forward by the conveyor belt, had actually cracked the plastic, allowing more mist to drift over the head table. Pablo Ruiz, the process-control auditor, had attempted to patch the fracture with plastic bags. (To this day, Ruiz says he suffers from burning feet and general exhaustion.) Fourth, the longer hours worked in 2007 had, quite simply, upped workers' exposure.

The whole article is worth a read.  I get the feeling that it doesn't tell us everything, but the difficulty of the work in the slaughterhouses, and the abundance of immigrant (illegal or often refugee) labor, signals that there are major problems with how we get our meat.  Anecdotally, I was told that nearly all the non-management workers in several plants throughout the Midwest fall into categories of Hispanic, Vietnamese, Hmong or Somali.  It really appears that the companies have to find the most desperate people to take jobs that almost no one wants.  I think this really opens up the workers to all kinds or abuse from employers.