The Escalating, Bloody Exploitation of Meat Workers Under Trump

[justaprogressive]

Last edited Wed Jun 11, 2025, 01:44 PM - Edit history (1)

As the CEOs of some of the largest corporations in the world tripped over their feet to throw cash at President Trump’s inauguration fund, one outspent the rest: JBS, one of the largest meat processing companies in the country, was the single largest contributor with a colossal $5 million gift. As the Trump administration got under way, we began to see what the other inaugural contributors seemingly hoped to gain from their gifts: JPMorgan Chase was subject to an ongoing FTC price-fixing inquiry that Trump’s admin shut down; Palantir has secured a number of defense contracts; and the crypto industry, which faced a litany of SEC investigations and lawsuits under the Biden administration, is now seeing all oversight efforts drop like flies.

JBS, the biggest contributor toward Trump’s inauguration, has plenty of regulatory hurdles it could use Trump’s help to overcome. The company has long been engaged in sordid monopolist behavior: It has paid over $150 million in settlements over price-fixing allegations, has an extensive list of workplace safety violations too long to summarize, and was charged by the SEC in 2020 for “an extensive bribery scheme that took place over multiple years” during its purchase of Pilgrim’s Pride.

This behavior is, unfortunately, pretty typical for the meatpacking industry, which has spent decades consolidating into just four big meatpacking companies (Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef). Together, these companies control 80 to 85 percent of the beef market, and are dominant across pork and poultry markets as well.

During the Biden administration, the meatpacking industry came under increased scrutiny, including investigations into its high degree of concentration and use of child labor. JBS’s “investment” in Trump’s inauguration will likely benefit not just their company, but the entire industry’s deregulatory agenda. Just witness what Trump’s appointees are already working on.

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-06-11-escalating-bloody-exploitation-meat-workers-trump/

[zorbasd]

1. Well, ICE has not visited those industries in Red states

Wonder why?

[Mike 03]

2. Speeding up the line puts the workers at high risk, but it also puts meat eaters at higher risk:

From the article:

(GROSS WARNING)

Scaling down the number of independent federal inspectors while increasing line speeds makes it more likely they will miss contaminants, such as feces, sex organs, toenails, bladders, and hair, as well as bacteria such as E.coli, salmonella, and campylobacter.

I wonder if we will see a surge in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (which thankfully we haven't heard much about in a long time) or maybe other (or new) prion diseases?

[cbabe]

3. People are meat: The Plot to Keep Meatpacking Plants Open During COVID-19

https://www.propublica.org/article/documents-covid-meatpacking-tyson-smithfield-trump

The Plot to Keep Meatpacking Plants Open During COVID-19

Newly released documents reveal that the meatpacking industry’s callousness toward the health of its workers and its influence over the Trump administration were far greater than previously known.

by Michael Grabell
May 13, 2022, 3:40 p.m.

As hundreds of meatpacking workers fell sick from the coronavirus that was spreading through their plants and into their communities in April 2020, the CEO of Tyson Foods reached out to the head of another major meatpacker, Smithfield Foods, with a proposal.

Smithfield’s pork plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, had been hit particularly hard, and state and local officials were pressuring the company to shut it down.

“Anything we can do to help?” Tyson CEO Noel White asked in an email. Smithfield’s CEO Ken Sullivan replied that he wished there was.

But White had an idea. Would Sullivan like to discuss the possibility of getting President Donald Trump to sign an executive order to keep meatpacking plants open?

… more …