Human Rights in the Meatpacking Industry: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) , created in 1948 and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, has become the most commonly translated document and is considered the basis of rights documents for all human beings.  It is part of the International Bill of Rights along with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, along with its two Optional Protocols.  All Member States of the United Nations are expected to uphold the UDHR.  Several articles of the UDHR apply to the United States meatpacking industry and exemplify the widespread violations which exist.

Article 2 addresses the right to non-discrimination.  It states,

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.^[1]

In the meatpacking industry in particular there are instances of discrimination based on workers’ organizing efforts, but also the industry tends to hire from the transitory population of immigrant workers who are either afraid or unaware of their rights to organize.

Article 5 protects against cruel, unusual, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 

• The conditions workers are forced to endure as meatpacking workers can undoubtedly be deemed “degrading treatment.”  Line speed causes innumerable injuries which go untreated and exposure to air-borne pathogens.

Article 9 states “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”

• Arbitrary detention of immigrants occurs as a result of ICE raids in meatpacking plants such as Swift, Postville, and Washington.   

Article 20 protects freedom of association and Article 23 specifically addresses workers’ rights to form unions.

• The systematic deunionization of meatpacking plants in the 1980s and the current discrimination against union organizers in the industry is in direct violation of this article. 

Article 23 also protects the right “to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.” 

• As stated before, the line speed causes workers to be more prone to injury and supervisors urge workers to work as fast as they can.  Human Rights Watch reported in Blood, Sweat, and Fear:

Automated lines carrying dead animals and their parts for disassembly move too fast for worker safety. Repeating thousands of cutting motions during each work shift puts enormous traumatic stress on workers' hands, wrists, arms, shoulders and backs. They often work in close quarters creating additional dangers for themselves and coworkers. They often receive little training and are not always given the safety equipment they need.^[2] 

• These conditions which meatpacking workers are exposed to are far from “just and favourable.”

Article 24 goes further to protect workers’ rights “to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”

• Blood, Sweat, and Fear addresses the problem of meatpackers’ abuse of workers’ time: “They [workers] are often forced to work long overtime hours under pain of dismissal if they refuse"

References:

1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2. Section IV, Blood Sweat and Fear, 2005 Human Rights Watch report

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