Talk:Humane Slaughter Act
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A lot of this stuff seems like it can't possibly be true. Both cattle and pigs are hung by rear legs, bled, then cleaned before any disassembly occurs. There is absolutely no chance they are alive when cut apart-- even the cleaning process, though a horrible way to die it would be, would easily kill them before they reached that stage-- it simply is not logically possible for it to be true. Much of this article smacks of propaganda.
There is tons of information on the issue of unions and slaughterhouse worker abuse. See http://cyberactivist.blogspot.com/ for one example. Virgil Butler is now involved in animal rights issues but his background was originally in workers' rights. His site contains plenty of stuff about worker abuse, that which he experienced and some from other former (and current) slaughterhouse workers as well. Fast Food Nation also describes related info.
If someone feels that my statement in regards to unions and poor treatment of workers is too general, that's fine; I fixed it. To delete it outright is overkill since there is plenty of evidence that at least some of what I described does exist, and at a scale large enough that it warrants mentioning. Devotchka 20:43, 9 November 2005 (UTC)
In the United States, and in most countries, unionization is never forbidden for any company with more than 50 employees. Only in the more corrupt parts of the world would slaughterhouse workers be prohibited from unionizing, and even there, it seems unlikely, as generally corrupt labor unions hold enormous influence in some parts of the world. In the US, employers are required to engage in good-faith negotiations with labor unions, and only in the event of an extended strike can an employer hire permanent replacement workers. Union-busting is even more onerous in Western Europe and parts of Asia.
This is an impartial encylopedia of facts, not a political forum, and unless you, Devotchka, or another member can provide conclusive proof of slaughterhouses blocking unionization, that compenent of this article needs to go.
-Wgw2024 06:12 11/17/05
I agree that this is not meant to be a political forum, so I'll take the part about unionizing out until I CAN find "conclusive" info. (And I don't have time to look for it right now. Maybe someone else will.) I'm still going to leave the stuff about slaughterhouses threatening employees with termination of their jobs, though, since that isn't related to unionizing and I do have more concrete evidence of that. Oh, and thanks for your informative and polite response. I want to keep Wikipedia from becoming biased, too. Devotchka 22:00, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
