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Meatpackers and Beef Barons: Company Town in a Global Economy
Meatpackers and Beef Barons Company Town in a Global Economy Author:Carol Andreas NOT SINCE UPTON SINCLIR'S "The Jungle," published more than eighty years ago, has an author critically examined the internal machinations of the meatpacking industry while challenging widely held assumptions about labor struggle and capitalism. — In "Meatpackers and Beef Barons" Company Town in a Global Economy," Socialogist Carol Andreas traces ... more »the development of the meat-packing industry in Greeley, Colorado. As a case study, Greeley is significant because modern beef-processing technology began here as a small family bisiness and evolved into a division of the one of the most lucrative and powerful corporations in teh world: ConAgra, Inc. Andreas argues that a concentration of ownership in the multibillion-dollar beef industry has been accompanied by increased exploitation and injury to workers.
"Meatpackers and Beef Barons" presents gripping testimony of meat-packing workers from Monfort, Inc. The experiences of these workers are placed in context of historical developments locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Some of the highly charged issues that are discussed include intimidation of workers, the replacement of union workers by nonunion immigrants, speed up of disassembly lines, strikes, plant closures, and company influence on legislation and law enforcement.
"Meatpackers and Beef Barons" focuses on the restructuring of the production process in the red meat industry and the effect of the restructuring on women and men who work in meatpacking plants and on the communities in which they live. It explodes local myths about the benficence of corporate "leadership" and examines the possibilities of change.« less