Factory Workers In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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Pages: 4

Slaughterhouses are the most dangerous places to work as reported in “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, which was made over a century ago leading to several investigations. Today, standards are just as horrendous, as reported in the last 15 years by “The Fast Food Nation”. Workers are not only at risk of losing their limbs on a daily basis, but also their lives. TThus, this is extremely breakneck work due to the hazardous conditions. What makes this even more menacing is the fact that while these workers are increasing the profits for their employers, the laborers are not benefiting from their hard work; instead, when workers get hurt, corporate loopholes keep employees from obtaining benefits. Therefore, it is clear that blue collar jobs in the meatpacking industry are becoming more dangerous as time goes on …show more content…
The first example why “The Jungle” and “The Fast Food Nation” are similar is they both have improper working conditions. An example of this is where where Eric Schlosser says, “I feel fine, determined to see the process, the world that’s been deliberately hidden. The kill floor is hot and humid. It stinks of manure. Cattle have a body temperature of about 101 degrees, and a lot of them in the room.” Similarly, in “The Jungle” Sinclair discusses how a day at work compels one to be unsenseable and brutal behind the machine. A second trait these two articles share is the unsanitary conditions that would seem unsanitary to any customer regardless of the time. Schlosser describes how worker pack meat: “I see: a man reach inside cattle and pull out their kidneys with his bare hands, then drop the kidneys down a metal chute, over and over, as each animal passes by him; a stainless steel rack of tongues; Whizzards peeling meat off decapitated heads, picking them almost as dean as the white skull painted by Georgia O’Keeffe.” Moreover, here is a comparison from “The