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Iowa’s oldest progressive newsletter. The PP is funded entirely by reader subscription, available only in hard copy for $12/yr. Send check to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244. Click here for archived issues.
by Fred Gerr
The US public’s appetite for meat is well known. More than 130 billion pounds of beef, pork, and chicken are processed in the US per year. To support this demand, the meatpacking industry employs just under one-half million workers, predominantly in the Midwest and Southeast. As is often the case with dangerous and physically demanding work, persons of color and persons born outside the US are over-represented among meatpacking workers. Many observers believe that employment of undocumented foreign workers has been a common practice in the industry.