An Encounter With Hogs On The Road To Alabama
An Encounter With Hogs On The Road To Alabama
Our guest blogger is Barry Nolan, a veteran TV journalist who was fired by Comcast Cable’s CN8 channel in Boston for protesting an award honoring Bill O’Reilly.
According to an article in the New York Times, a typical salary in the Smithfield Packing slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, NC is $11.90 per hour, or $476 for a 40 hour week. Because I am a considerate person, I will spare you any description of the grisly jobs performed by those workers in that slaughterhouse.
The base salary of a U.S. senator is $169,300 a year or $3,255 a week. Because I am a considerate person, I will spare you any description of the job some of those senators are doing on us these days.
The slaughterhouse story in the New York Times looked back on the 16-year long struggle to bring union representation to the 5,000 or so workers in Tar Heel, which ended up in court at one point. In 2006, after seven years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Smithfield had engaged in “intense and widespread” coercion and ordered Smithfield to reinstate four union supporters it found were illegally fired, one of whom was beaten by the plant’s police on the day of the 1997 election.
The court also said Smithfield had engaged in other illegal activities: spying on workers’ union activities, confiscating union materials, threatening to fire workers who voted for the union and threatening to freeze wages and shut the plant.
But the big news in the Times story, especially if you pack meat, was that after the long struggle with Smithfield, the union finally won. The slaughterhouse is going union.
On the same day MSNBC had a story about a GOP memo titled “Action Alert,” which went out to the Republican senators just before their “No” vote on the Big Three Auto Makers bailout bill. The GOP memo contained this pithy paragraph:
This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.
It has been a longstanding part of the conservative’s core philosophy that unions are simply bad for business. That is why is why conservatives who are making $169 K per year for standing around arguing, just can’t understand why someone who is making the princely salary of $24,752 for working 40 hours a week in a slaughterhouse would ever want to join a union. It could eat into a company’s profits. Never mind that as a non-union hog butcher, you may bring home a little bacon, but good luck sending your kids to college.
The Federal Poverty guideline for 2008, sets $22,200 as the poverty level for a family of four. Those who do the hard spirit killing, tendon ripping work of slaughtering hogs, forty hours a week, 52 weeks a year, are just barely, faintly above the poverty level.
So just who are these people the GOP sees as the enemy? These awful, greedy, lazy Union people?
If you take a look at the largest unions in the U.S., you will see that they are teachers, hotel workers, truck drivers, laborers, electrical workers, machinists, communications workers, letter carriers, firefighters, nurses, sheet metal workers, bakers and bricklayers. They are all people who shouldn’t have to listen to lectures from men in expensive shoes about the American work ethic.
And, given the recent global meltdown, no one is particularly interested in taking advice on an economic plan from the people who have been steering the Titanic for the past 8 years. Especially since the news on the availability of lifeboats does not appear to be happy news.
I also suspect it must be especially galling for the people of Michigan to hear the senator from Alabama go on and on about how Detroit needs to get more in line with Alabama. That’s because ‘Bama ranks 47th in median household income in the U.S, 47th for Infant mortality rates and 47th in fourth graders who scored at or above the proficient level in math. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Yes, the mantra for the conservatives this in this past election cycle was more or less: “At least you aren’t all dead!” It looks like moving forward it going to be along the lines of: “Dream of an America like Alabama – only colder!” Good luck with that.
– Barry Nolan
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Hey, Barry, long time listener from Massachusetts, first time commenter. I recall your ballsy stance on O’Reilly’s award and Cumcast made an enemy of me when they fired you just for speaking your mind. I mean, what take did they have in the matter?
Contrasting the slaughterhouse workers with Senators brings to mind Bill Clinton’s famous joke: “The two things you never want to see made are sausages and laws.”
December 14th, 2008 at 6:20 pmRepublicans are working as fast and as hard as they can to destroy the middle class, turning labor in America back about a hundred years to the age of the robber barons.
December 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pmGOP Senators, the largest group of hogs in D.C.
December 14th, 2008 at 6:44 pmWell put, RUC.
December 14th, 2008 at 6:47 pmHogs at the trough.
From the story above this needs repeating in bold –
If you take a look at the largest unions in the U.S., you will see that they are teachers, hotel workers, truck drivers, laborers, electrical workers, machinists, communications workers, letter carriers, firefighters, nurses, sheet metal workers, bakers and bricklayers. They are all people who shouldn’t have to listen to lectures from men in expensive shoes about the American work ethic.
These people are the underpaid and trampled amoung us!!! The most useless American today is a CEO!
December 14th, 2008 at 6:58 pmi live in SC — this is our rank in median income:
South Carolina 42
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Income_by_state
Mississippi 1
Louisiana 2
South Carolina 3
Alabama 4
Delaware 5 (yikes! why?)
Tennessee 6
North Carolina 7
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ranks/rank17.html#footnote1
North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama also saw increases.
(in infant mortality rates)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/may2007/mort-m03.shtml
look at the “right to work” states — they hate unions
December 14th, 2008 at 6:59 pmhttp://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm
I have no compunction to broil every Goooper in the country. Seriously. None. They are not human.
December 14th, 2008 at 7:33 pmRe: dixie blood Says
These people are the underpaid and trampled amoung us!!! The most useless American today is a CEO!
Shoes to the heads of CEO’s!
Scare the Crap Out of Them!
Let them all move to Iraq and Dubai!!!!!!
Their spoiled children Too!
December 14th, 2008 at 7:46 pm“Dream of an America like Alabama – only colder!”
They ought to be here in the summer, when it’s above 90 and the humidity is in the 60-70 per cent range.
They call this a right-to-work state, but it ought to be called a right-to-work-cheap state.
December 14th, 2008 at 8:05 pmExcellent post. The Republicans have chosen to move even farther to the right. So be it. It will be our job to point this out to the nimrods. Go internet tube devices!!!1!!!
December 14th, 2008 at 8:32 pmOne of our repliers coined the phrase “Gooopers” I like it! It has a really nice ring to it and should be passed on throuhout the blogosphere. My three year old grandson is constantly going about the house talking about Poopers. Hell, I think we’re on to something here.
December 14th, 2008 at 8:33 pmIt’s hard to imagine why anyone would protest an award for Bill O’Reilly. Nolan must have done it out of season when Bill wasn’t saving us in the war on Christmas.
What is important to remember about the Smithfield ham story is that many of those workers voted for the Corkers and the Shelbys because of their shared “traditional values.”
Obama and other Democrats (including the much maligned Howard Dean) made great inroads among “values voters,” but we have a lot more to do to convince people that when they vote for right-wing ideologues, they’re voting against their own best interests and those of their children.
The Constant Weader at RealityChex.com
December 14th, 2008 at 8:42 pmI think this post is a wonderful story. But I think we should all help the Dems to hammer home an even more salient point that effects even more working Americans than just those that in unions: the GOP voted against raise the minimum wage this year and has declined to raise it for YEARS.
They are completely anti-working class and complete in the tank for corporations. With these facts in hand, having such large governing majorities should not be any surprise.
December 14th, 2008 at 8:45 pmre: the minimum wage
a diarist on TPM called for a maximum wage: make no more than a certain percentage than their average worker.
from PBS’NOW with David Brancaccio:
so, let’s make a typical executive in the US bring home something like –> 12-15 times what a typical worker brings home
December 14th, 2008 at 8:57 pmThe auto workers in Alabama should be more like the workers in Michigan and join the UAW. Why should anyone strive to go backwards? Because backwards is the Republican way.
December 14th, 2008 at 9:20 pmMost of these States are part of dumb fcukistan. That is explains it all. These folks just love being trampled on by their Senators and Representatives.
December 14th, 2008 at 9:27 pmHear! Hear! Barry Nolan!!!
thanks for that… love the bites and growls!
!
a gloomy and scary financial future ahead as seen on 60 minutes tonight…
and barney frank is even more a hero… wish i knew what she asked that offended him so…
the final segment was truly uplifting – usc coach pete carroll and his work with gangs and trying to end that madness…
there are still good heroes out there…
bring on the whistle blowers and truth tellers!
December 14th, 2008 at 9:56 pm“right to work” states
what does that mean exactly?… or rather, what is meant by that phrase?
December 14th, 2008 at 9:59 pmKaty,
December 14th, 2008 at 10:24 pmIt means a union can’t include in it’s contract with an employer, a clause forcing the employer to hire only union members. The employer can independently hire non-union workers, and they don’t have to join the union to get the job.
We have been in a class war since Reagan took the first shot at the air controllers union. When he fired them all because they wanted equipment that made flying safer. And in that critical and intense job, a few shorter hours so they would not be exhausted. Reagan that jerk, who benefited from a union himself caused damage that still has not been fixed.
That bit of history is the start of the most recent beginning of the class war. We have always had this class war. Without unions wanting better conditions and decent wages you cannot depend on employers to be decent voluntarily. What is the only leverage workers have? The right to strike. What is the reason any of us have a lunch break, a vacation, sick leave, any fragile kind of health care, the right to an employment lawyer for unwarranted firing, or for harassment?
Unions fought and died so that we could have decent work conditions. There are very few employers that really care about anything other than the bottom line. And these Republicans that want business to step on the backs of workers so that workers have to spend time in unfair sweat shop environments could care less. There is not one of them that would work for 10 or 11 dollars an hour. These same Senators that have the best health care that we pay for. The health care that most of us out here don’t have.
These employers who maintain a standard of living that most of us only dream of. If people are not paid a decent wage, they cannot afford to purchase goods, homes, food etc. It is as simple as that.
What most employers and big corporations want is simple. To go back to two classes of people. RICH AND POOR. This is what the Republican party has consistently tried to do. To destroy the middle class. To keep workers in survival mode. And that means barely surviving. When you keep people hungry and discouraged you keep them weak and unable to look past their next meal. You keep people as a third world underclass. You keep them working for slave wages.
What kind of country would want to be known for an uneducated, poor population? The Republican kind.
Non of those idiot people we elect, non of those politicians that continue to screw us without our enjoyment, none of them could do our jobs, or live on the average persons wage. With lousy health care to boot. None of them.
December 14th, 2008 at 10:26 pmkaty,
“Right to work” is code for union busting. It’s a law that worker don’t “have to” join a union in order to work on an auto line or construction site. “Right to work” makes it seem like it’s good for the worker, which it is not.
December 14th, 2008 at 10:29 pmLest we forget the WEEKEND is from unions.
I simply love how the 8 bully senators from dumbfukistan KY, TN, SC, GA, show the world the true pussies that they are, by going after pensions and retirement benefits. What a bunch of whimps. So typical of pussy bullies to go after little old ladies and little old retired men. You disgust us normal humans.
There is not enough ROPE to hang you fuking pricks, but it is gonna be fun trying.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=12815
December 14th, 2008 at 11:07 pm( katy Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN… AN ALYSIS… HORRORS!!!!! )
thank you, House of Roberts and Zooey, for those answers…
i figured it had to be some kind of opposite reality from bizzarro world…
…
i just found some headlines on the googlenews page… another fine example of republican governance…
stuff like this makes me very angry:
New study firmly ties hormone use to breast cancer
The Associated Press – Dec 13, 2008
SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Taking menopause hormones for five years doubles the risk for breast cancer, according to a new an alysis of a big federal study that reveals the most dramatic evidence yet of the dangers of these still-popular pills.
[…]
Wyeth’s Use of Medical Ghostwriters Questioned
New York Times – Dec 12, 2008
By DUFF WILSON Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in …
in-fooking-credible. grrrrrrrrrrr…
that’s all for me now… g’nite…
December 14th, 2008 at 11:50 pmI bet the profit smithfield will be giving up is less than 2 cents a pound.
Greedy ass pokers.
December 15th, 2008 at 1:18 amThe base salary of a U.S. senator is $169,300 a year or $3,255 a week.
Whoa there. Senator don’t work fulltime. They hold additional jobs. They aren’t suppose to get rich on taxpayers’ backs. Highway robbery.
Their salaries need to be cut pronto.
December 15th, 2008 at 1:23 amDid they really say that?
yeah thisis a flashback but still can this be true. It seems a few decades back that most Americans still thought that homosexuality was a mental disease. Even after the scientist had voted that it was not .
Vote to determine science? hmmmm. Still it was time to do whatever it took to get the culture to where it needed to go. So these two guys wrote a book and here is a quote (money line is in bold)
“The public should be persuaded that gays are victims of circumstance, that they no more chose their sexual orientation than they did, say, their height, skin color, talents,
or limitations. (We argue that, for all practical purposes, gays should be considered
to have been born gay even though sexual orientation, for most humans, seems to be the product of a complex interaction between innate predispositions and environmental factors during childhood and early adolescence.)”
Kirk and Madsen, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of the Gay’s in the
90s,p.184
Excerpts from The “Born Gay” Hoax Ryan Sorba
Does Jon Stewart know this?
December 15th, 2008 at 1:37 amCitibank is going to layoff 35,000, arent they non-union?
What about Mandoff, was he a union worker?
I suppose Enron was union labor?
December 15th, 2008 at 3:49 amDown here we have these “right to work” states. Basically a small group of good ole boys, who hold the power and money, determine what any worker can and cannot do. Won’t change soon. It is entrenched down here. You can get fired at whim for ANY reason. Any.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:54 amRepublicans are fascists without the balls and brains.
I needn’t tell you that opposition to labor unions is a staple of fascist and totalitarian governments–as is opposition to abortion, militant xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny, the use of private paramilitaries, the use of surveillance, rigged elections, etc. In other words, fascism is the whole Republican ball of wax.
And now…Ann Coulter with her Jaw Wired Shut:
December 15th, 2008 at 6:55 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFhy7S2WFPA
Brilliant piece of work.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:37 amBrilliant article. If you can spare the 32 minutes, you can have a look at the republican idea of desireable labor conditions here.
December 15th, 2008 at 8:18 amWhen James Madison and the others met to write the Constitution, they knew that there was already a “class” system in the Confederation and they also were well aware of the fact that the rich benefited from the poor and that is one of the reasons that they wanted to secure justice and representation for both rich and poor in the Constitution. I won’t discuss the issue with slavery at this time or the lack of female representation in the government. These are topics for another discussion.
December 15th, 2008 at 8:38 amSince we’re talking Smithfield, please boycott that Paula Deen creature. She’s sponsored by Smithfield and has refused to talk to former Smithfireld workers, having them escorted from her public speaking engagements by security. She’s all “family value’s y’all” as long as the checks keep coming in.
December 15th, 2008 at 8:59 amYou can get fired at whim for ANY reason. Any.
Which is why Senators Corker, Shelby et al are fighting the auto bailout so vigorously. It’s all about shredding the unions, and if thousands of people are thrown out of work, well, that’s just collateral damage.
December 15th, 2008 at 9:00 amOn MTP yesterday, Romney repeated the debunked claim that UAW workers make more than $70/hour.
December 15th, 2008 at 9:12 amFacts and truth are irrelevant to repugs.
Paula Deen
Speaking of hogs…
They way that ‘woman’ eats, she’s not too long for this World. And her makeup is worse than Tammy Faye’s.
“And here ye go, top that double-bacon-blue-cheeseburger with gravy and a fried egg ya’ll, mmmmm!”
VOMIT IN MY MOUTH YOU DISGUSTING PIG.
December 15th, 2008 at 10:09 amI am getting quite frustrated by the active misinformation about the pay of unionized automobile workers. The UAW members make slightly more than the non-union workers and actual costs of labor make up only about 10% of the cost of an automobile. The big advantages the foreign firms have is the absence of legacy costs of paying for their retirees promised benefits. The GOP adds retiree costs to the costs of current wages. That is inherently unfair. The retiree costs should be attributed to the executives that agreed to those contracts, just like the executives are responsible for building factories, buying equipment, etc. Unless our society finds a way to correctly account for retirement benefits, I fear we will be in a vicious cylce of younger workers being hired to replace older workers just before their retirement benefits vest. When Toyota, Honda and Nissan’s factories reach the ten to fifteen year mark, what is to stop them from closing their factories or selling them to another company that can then hire new ones at lower wages?
December 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pmFacts and truth are irrelevant to repugs. araç sorgulama
March 18th, 2009 at 5:21 am