The old meat-packing unions lost their bargaining & strike power.
http://www.fairnessforfoodworkers.org/history.shtmlThe union premium
The UPWA was able to continually improve pay, benefits and working conditions of meatpacking workers in the U.S. through the 1970s. The average wage earned by a meatpacking worker during the 1960s and 1970s was 14% to 18% higher than others in the manufacturing sector. The peak hourly wage of a meatpacking worker during this period was nearly $20 per hour when adjusted for inflation....
A changing industry
The meatpacking industry changed rapidly through the 1980s. Business in the railroad stockyards and city packinghouses declined rapidly. Chicago’s Union Stock Yard closed in 1970. Instead, packing plants arose in rural areas near livestock feedlots. These new plants were equipped with power saws and mechanical knives for a more efficient “disassembly line”. New companies like Iowa Beef Processors (IBP) used financial, technical and engineering power to change the face of the industry. They competed with other companies by increasing worker speed and productivity while cutting labor costs. Other companies either followed suit, or lost out. Small, local and regional companies closed or were bought out by giants like Tyson and Smithfield—and these companies grew into industry leaders. Now, five mega-corporations control more than 80% of the market.
...Companies moved closed union plants and moved operations to states with right-to-work laws that made it difficult for workers to organize themselves into unions and fight for safer line speeds or wage increases. Workers who did seek to organize were met with employer resistance in the form of intimidation.
Today, workers have lost power at the bargaining table. Giant meatpacking and food companies are more determined than ever to keep labor costs as low as possible and production as high as possible. This means hiring cheap labor, maintaining intolerably high line speeds, demanding cuts in wages and benefits from unionized facilities. Many companies actively discourage workers from forming unions. In fact, a recent study by American Rights at Work revealed that 25% of employers fire at least one pro-union worker during worker organizing campaigns.
Other companies actively exploit our broken immigration system, purposely recruiting and hiring undocumented immigrants to create a disposable workforce. These immigrants often don’t speak English and aren’t aware of labor laws or their rights on the job. It’s a vulnerable, easily-intimidated workforce too afraid to speak out when their paychecks aren’t right, when working conditions are not safe or even when there’s a potential problem with the food they’re producing.
This has resulted in an industry where workers have less bargaining power, where it’s becoming harder and harder to earn enough to support families, and where it’s becoming less safe to work. In early 2005, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants," which concluded that the working conditions in many of America's meat packing plants violated basic human and worker rights. This was the first time the human rights organization had criticized a single a U.S. industry.
http://www.fairnessforfoodworkers.org/history.shtml
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