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Smithfield's mess

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From: The Independent Weekly
Date: 20070411
Author:Geary, Bob

There's an are to the history of meatpacking in America. It starts with the wretched Midwestern sweatshops described in Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle. It rises through the mid-20th century as the trade unions of the old Congress of Industrial Organizations pushed for better working conditions and pay that was, by the 1970s, some 20 percent higher than the average U.S. manufacturing wage.

But since the 1980s, it's been in a free fell. Wages have since dropped to 24 percent below the U.S. manufacturing average. Injury rates have soared.

"Since the breakdown of national bargaining ...

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