Mother Jones > The Spam Factory's Dirty Secret

The great investigative journalist, Upton Sinclair, author of "The Jungle," who exposed the appalling crimes of the meat-packing industry over 100 years ago, must be spinning in his grave. (Indeed, if we could install a turbine there, we could probably phase out nuclear power....)


So, will our federal agencies and the Congress be prodded to investigate the appalling line speed and working conditions in US meat and chicken factories? What will it take to overthrow the oppressive conditions in such plants? If such labor violations are mostly confined to immigrant workers, do "we" even care? Oh, so many questions.

The Spam Factory's Dirty Secret

Mother Jones, July/August 2011 Issue

First, Hormel gutted the union. Then it sped up the line. And when the pig-brain machine made workers sick, they got canned.

— By Ted Genoways

Read the article

Posted by Chuck Bell at 7:22 PM