About those meat processor plants. What do you think about a self-contained work force?

[Baitball Blogger]

How about a mini village with dormitories for workers who are willing to lock down for thirty days at a time, with a quarantine section for workers who have to wait out two weeks before they start their next shift?

Meat might get more expensive, but at least we'll have a supply available.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Smells of company town exploitation

[Blue_true]

9. Everything is not automatically sinister.

The idea actually sounds like a good idea. There are workers in this country that are on constant call for up to a month, when they get a call, they must jump in a vehicle, board a plane and go to a job and stay there until finished.

Standards for housing, cost of provisions, ect can be instituted so that workers that are doing a month shift are not exploited.

[backscatter712]

17. I don't trust the corporate scum that run America's meat-packing plants to play a fair ball game...

This is why we need a functioning government to give them an attitude adjustment.

[Blue_true]

18. I totally agree that to make the idea work well for workers, we need an ethical

government overseeing it, at the federal and state level.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. Me neither.

I've worked at too many companies that didn't give a shit about anything except profit.

I probably could've lived a different life years ago, double-majoring in math/physics and getting some good job offers out-of-state after graduating, but circumstances with my elderly parents made it seem unfeasible. Now I'm like an actor permanently "typecast" for horribly-scripted shows.

It's been a valuable experience in the sense that I'm not a privileged, naive schmuck about this stuff.

[Celerity]

12. It is the perfect oligarch solution. An absolute dystopian nightmare if this becomes a model that

is replicated vertically and horizontally across a vast swathe of the ecosystem of production and labour.

The US is hurtling towards the abyss overall, the entire zeitgeist and huge parts of the holistic socio-economic, socio-cultural superstructures are being re-programmed with complete nefarious intent right before the populace's eyes. Just wait until the bills come due for the trillions that are being pumped up to the pyramidion of systemic control, combined with an utter wrecking of the pre-COVID-19 workforce's (including the smaller firm's owners as well) rules of conduct, revenue generation, and indeed existence itself.

[Alex4Martinez]

2. It's a good idea. We might see some of this type of thing happening.

We already have medical staff living in RVs temporarily to prevent infecting family members.

https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/RVs-for-MDs-program-helping-nurse-in-Lexington-570221041.html

Something similar might work for light industry workforces, meat plants, others, in shifts as you suggest.

[pecosbob]

3. I think I heard about some factory already doing just that to make PPEs

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Polypropylene Plant

Company got volunteers to do that at 4 sites.
IIRC, they had 2 unit operations. One to make the polypropylene, the other to spin fiber.
N95 masks are woven from PP fibers.

[cally]

4. Seems like slavery. What then they go back to families with no protection

Maybe factories should protect workers!

perhaps meat should be more expensive since it contributes so much to climate change

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Wait, what? The reason why the price of meat will increase, is to pay the workers

who subject themselves to this situation.

[cally]

23. I understand but all goods that contribute to environmental

Degradation should increase in price if we ever plan to save the planet. basic economics 1. Internalize the Externalities

[Chainfire]

5. What is in it for the workers?

Everybody gets to protect their profits, we get our damn Whopper, and the employees get to risk their lives for what? $14.70 an hour....Who here wants to risk their lives and live in a workers compound for that kind of money?

Perhaps the people who suggested the system should lived locked up in a packing house "village" for a month at the time.
Here is a suggestion; protect the workers from hazards by making their working conditions safe, don't put them in a damn lockup......If they are willing to risk their lives, pay them a wage that reflects the risks.

I am sick and tired of the Fascist bastards and their exploiting of working people.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Definitely an increase in pay.

Better health care too. We need to protect the food supply.

[Autumn]

8. Why not the military?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. "I sold my soul to the company store."

If others WANT to do it, like joining the military and being stuck in barracks, good for them.

I wouldn't do it. Need my time away from coworkers.

If I was working around a bunch of scientists at CERN or NASA, then I could probably do it.

[Celerity]

15. ...

The original version by the composer from 1947

[Buckeye_Democrat]

16. "Owe my soul..."

Thanks!

Didn't know that was the original either!

[0rganism]

13. maybe industrial meat production is part of our problem?

if we want to continue eating meat, is it bizarre that we might just have to resume paying full price at a butcher shop?
must we have all manner of edibles available for a pittance at a fast food drive thru?
just because we could do a thing, doesn't mean we should have done it.

and really, this applies to all our food, not just meat

maybe it's time to end market distortions, pay full price for food, and give farm workers legitimate salaries and benefits, along with full job training and responsibility.

establishing company towns which enforce lockdowns to accomplish various agricultural tasks doesn't seem socially appealing to me.

[MineralMan]

14. That assumes owners who give a damn.

I doubt that is the case.

[democrattotheend]

19. Only if it's voluntary

Not voluntary as in workers don't get paid. Voluntary as in they have the choice whether to do this or not.

They'd all have to get tested first, obviously, because dorms spread the virus more than living in separate households.

I read about a company that did that to make ventilators or some other medical product recently.

[Flaleftist]

20. If McConnell gets his way and removes liability from the plants, they won't give a shit

how many workers get sick or die. So I guess the only question then would be how many would still be willing to go into those conditions because they have no other choice if they need money to pay for food and housing for their families.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. What? And require employers to give a shit? Lol.