United Packinghouse Workers of America

report is to discuss my opinion on the question “Do I agree with the recommendations of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in regards to work safety particularly when it comes to immigrant workers?” I will provide information on past and current safety related issues as they apply to the meat packing industry and immigrant workers. I will discuss the recommendations of the HRW. I will provide my opinion and consider some of the utilitarian and deontological considerations, and conclude this report with a

In the early 1900’s America begin to transform rapidly. Many immigrants started moving to the United States in the early 1900’s with the hopes of living the “American Dream.” However, that glittering and gleaming American lifestyle is merely a distant ideal for the immigrants living in Packingtown, the meatpacking district of Chicago. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle portrays life through the eyes of a poor workingman struggling to survive in this cruel, tumultuous environment, where the desire for

At the beginnings of the 1900s, some leading magazines in the U.S have already started to exhibit choking reports about unjust monopolistic practices, rampant political corruption, and many other offenses; which helped their sales to soar. In this context, in 1904, The Appeal to Reason, a leading socialist weekly, offered Sinclair $500 to prepare an exposé on the meatpacking industry (Cherny). To accomplish his mission, Sinclair headed to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking industry, and started

evidence to back up his version of the meat packing industry. The version that Sinclair portrayed in The Jungle was of appalling working conditions. The way he described it was diseased and rotten. The community of these workers were as misrepresented as packers and packinghouse products. He portrays Jurgis as a helpless animal that is wounded, the target for unseen enemies. Sinclair came from an old money out of Virginia. His family’s wealth and land were wiped during the civil war leaving his

Several years before and after the turn the turn of the twentieth century, America experienced a large influx of European immigration. These new citizens had come in search of the American dream of success, bolstered by promise of good fortune. Instead they found themselves beaten into failure by American industry. Upton Sinclair wanted to expose the cruelty and heartlessness endured by these ordinary workers. He chose to represent the industrial world through the meatpacking industry, where the

(Feminism Unfinished, 5). Addie Wyatt is an example of what the average woman of color experienced in the job force after the war. Addie Wyatt was a leader in the United States Labor movement, and a civil rights activist. Wyatt is known for being the first African-American woman to hold senior office in an American labor union, the United Packinghouse

the early days in the plant. The first incident occurred in 1915, when a group of disgruntled workers in the plant attempted to go beyond personal conferences with the owner and establish a collective bargaining agreement with him (Engelmann, 2014). According to Engelmann (2014), “This initial effort at organization in the plant came from the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America”. Thus, a local branch of the union was organized in 1915. However, it weakened over the next

meanings for work according to the experience that they had. For example, a worker would love and enjoy work if they are being paid enough to feed their family and doesn’t have a negative impact on them. Where on the other hand, workers who don’t like work would label their job as slavery because of the hardships

together as we take it one episode at a time. World War I (1914 - 1918) While the Great War raged in Europe for three long years, America stead a neutral country. It was not until April of 1917, that President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. Americans swung into action to raise, equip, and ship the American Expeditionary Force to the trenches of Europe. America reasons for entering the were both political and economical; The British passenger liner, the Lusitania bound for Britain

and women” (Lawrence & Weber, 2014, p. 548). • There is a 21% pay gap between women ($0.79) and men ($1.00). Full time working women are paid 79% of their male counterparts pay (AAUW, 2016). • Pay gap grows as worker age, is in public sector work, and widen among married workers than singles (Plantenga & Remery, 2006). • The gender pay gap effects women in almost all fields of work and in all racial or ethnic categories (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). Pay inequality also negatively affects