American Thinker:
In 2004’s preachy, much panned leftist mockumentary, A Day without a Mexican, the supposedly hypothetical scenario, about how California would fall apart if all its Mexicans, including illegals, somehow disappeared, was acted out. The film had a grand old time portraying white people as a bunch of soft, privileged fools, unable to clean even their own toilets.
This is annoying because it lumps most Americans into a stereotype of a typically feckless, over-monied limousine liberal, such as you might really find in Hollywood circles.
But it did raise the question of U.S. dependence on illegal foreign labor.
Seems we might just be experiencing that now with the big meat plant shutdowns, based on problems with much of the labor force being out with the coronavirus. The plants also are described in news reports as having an “immigrant” workforce. Based on the number of ICE chicken plant raids seen in recent news, it’s very likely that these plants, too, may be dependent on illegal alien labor. With those workers now either out with COVID-19 or else in, and spreading it to others, the plants are going down. Worse still, industry consolidation means that these plants are now few in number, so nothing can pick up the slack. The shutdowns are expected to mean meat shortages at the groceries, curiously similar to Venezuela’s. read more
Mexicans! We don’t need no stinkin’ Mexicans!
I just checked and we are a little low on Tater Tots and popsicles, but no meat shortage in our basement freezer. Where we face a crisis is that we are getting a bit low on tamales, down to dozen or so six pack trays and the little chillens don’t go for no half assed tamales. I usually make a run to Yakima and restock in May and September and it’s getting down to crunch time.
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/eastern-washingtons-los-hernandez-tamales-wins-a-james-beard-award/
My sister works for the USDA inside a private chicken plant in Ohio. Mostly Nepalese and Hmong. All with the proper credentials. Now, the papers might have been faked, but she isn’t privy to enough info to determine that. If her plant had illegals, she’d blow the whistle. Her job (among others) is to make sure everything in the plant is proper.
It’s not ‘mexicans’, but poor mexicans. Poverty is a state of mind.
Don’t bother me none. Got plenty of beans!
“A day without a Mexican”
I fired three of them that day. They decided it would be a great idea to protest out in the street in front of our building.Two documented verbal warnings and one written. I was well documented. And they were in shock.
Somehow I think we’ll manage to get by without these entitled and uninvited invaders.
It’s back to the shithole with the lot of them.
Worse than that. Illegals work in American meat plants owned by the Chi-Coms.
We couldn’t have screwed ourselves worse if we tried. The chickens are indeed coming home to roost.
I haven’t checked yet, but I’ll not be surprised if the vegans jump on this bandwagon with cries of God’s retribution (from a group who overwhelmingly believes there is no God).
Something else to think on: Does anyone else see a pattern of “crisis addiction” coming from the unstable psyches of those on the Left? Crisis junkies don’t feel fully alive unless there is something truly awful happening. It’s their escape mechanism.
So 8% of the employees at a meat plant test positive and the entire plant is shut down.
Does that indicate the other 92% did not or that only a few were tested and an extrapolation was made from that number? Or does it mean the other 92% were not positive? Or that everyone that tested positive was actually sick and those were the only ones tested?
All too often, I find myself reading an article that just poses more questions that I cannot find an answer for, and these questions are something I would have been necessary to take rational actions in such a large and widely impacting action so they must be compiled somewhere.
Does anyone know where to find the answers without trying to read a thousand pages of text on the internet to somehow derive them?
Mexican? Hispanics are a MINOR part of the UN staffed food plant I work in!
Mostly African Muslims, with Ghana, Kenya, Eritrea, and Senegal represented, but no Somalis. We had some once, but Somalis are almost universally lazy. We used to have Christian Africans too, but they ran most of them off during the “Obama administration” (big surprise there).
…we do have quite a few Asian nations represented, Cambodians going back to fleeing from the Khimer Rouge to Koreans, Vietnamese, Thai, and a smattering of Formosans, with some representation from the Philippines. Most are females. We have a few Russans and Lithuanians, a lone full-bog Irishman, and the rest is mostly White and Black Americans (again heavily weighted towards female), and then some Hispanics, but from Honduras on down with little Mexican representation.
We do have some Indians from India too, but none in line work, all H1B visa technical management jobs.
…when I first came here in the mid 90s it was ALL American, everyone gave a crap, even management would come work the line if we were short, and I knew what EVERYTHING we made tasted like, because I KNEW it was made by people who could communicate and actually had pride in their work.
Now, two sets of venture capitalists, one bankrupcy, and a foreign ownership later, it’s all immigrants, you can’t teach them anything, all communication is in gesture because no one can speak 40+ languages, and there’s NOTHING here I would put in MY mouth, these people’s work skills are low, they can’t or won’t improve, and they have DISGUSTING hygiene practices besides.
But it’s not like it’s better anywhere ELSE.
…as I said before, the food business is pretty universally incestuous, with many folks having worked in many plants, so you hear about ALL the local ones, and that’s just how it IS now. Screw quality, just make a lot and hope you don’t kill any one and the Government doesn’t look too close.
And, with Muslim workers and hygiene practices and H1B visa tech management, the Government turns a politically correct blind eye.
…just found out the local Smithfield plant has 4 cases of Coronavirus, but they’re not shutting down. Just a matter of time, noe, before it shows up here, and ain’t none of the plastic wrap they have dangling from the rafters now gonna change it…
…if we all die, it won’t be from Corona.
It will be from PC.
Muslims are DISGUSTING in both bathroom habits AND eating habits (they still ALL eat this vile-smelling concoction from a COMMUNAL food bowl with their BARE HANDS in the break room).
But you’re not allowed to notice.
The Government doesn’t want to hear it.
And the Muslims are EVERYWHERE.
…we wouldn’t even NOTICE a day without MEXICANS.
But we’d not even be able to START if you changed that to MUSLIMS.
God help us…
SNS — Would you mind sharing some vital info? Which “food plant” do you work at? Just asking for a friend.
AbigailAdams
APRIL 21, 2020 AT 7:26 AM
“SNS — Would you mind sharing some vital info? Which “food plant” do you work at?”
No, sorry, can’t be specific. Truth would not be welcome here, and firings and lawsuits I do not need, not to mention being stalked by the Muslim community the way they did here when a guy got murdered somewhere else, they were ALL out for blood.
Doesn’t matter any way, they are ALL the same because they ALL have the same rotating work force and management, and ALL have the Muslim-scared regularory oversight, so none of these things are not like the others, as I’ve said…
Heh heh … “meat shortages” ….. heh heh ……….
SNS
So it’s a meat packing operation you work at that processes pork products? I would think those facilities would be so automated they would run lights out with very little need for anything that breaths. Am I over simplifying the process or are these facilities making no effort to keep up with technology?
Only cheap for corporate america. Not the consumer or taxpayer. What a scam no more immigration. Pay american citizens a decent wage dammit! Costs of 3rd world immigration are off the charts
Bad_Brad APRIL 21, 2020 AT 8:27 AM
…no, there’s a LOT of automation, but that’s just to produce sheer volume. All the red label commerical customers want different containers, volumes, shapes, sizes, etc., and for some of them it’s simply not cost-effective to purchase an automated line that’s dedicated to that exclusive container that you may run for a year or less if it doesn’t sell well.
Sometimes, the larger red labels will purchase equipment for us that we are contractually bound to use for their product for a time, but if they give up on that line of product, we are then free to use the automation as we will. We have repurposed palletizers and case fillers that way on numerous occasions, but again there are a multiplicy of pallet stacks and case sizes that customers might want for short-term runs that it simply makes no sense to purchcase and develop automation for, as the OEM isn’t even going to be able to produce the machine in the time frame available.
And the building size, or buiding sizes, are not unlimited. The automation takes room, and again, you don’t dedicate a line to a short run, odd size product as that takes finite room, so you run this on a manual line instead.
Also, automation is never perfect, and what we do in my case isn’t convient sliced meat or any one thing like that, but usually complex formulations that are very liquidy and made to proprietary customer specificatios, and to make things like this shelf-stable, you have to have a LOT of confidence in the seal integrety, which can be comprised by something as simple as filler splash, as well as tight air control which can also drift as the day goes along, and too much headspace can lead to spoilage and unreliable process. No one has developed something that can inspect these volumes reliably in the detail we need, so the Mark 1 human eyeball is deployed to perform the lion’s share of the inspections even on the heavily automated lines, as they may remove a container, look closely at it, and return or reject it, and you need a LOT of people to do that to be able to maintain very high speeds.
I’ve been in and know a LOT of food plants, and there is no such THING as one automated to the level of the robot plant in “I, Robot”, simply because food products are in more varieties and more subject to human whimsicality and minor deficits than, say, the same car made from the same metal stampings is. Different lots of the same beans may gas differently during the same process, someoene has to preinspect for infestations from the supplier before you even let it in the plant, there can be inconsistiencies in the manuracture of the containers again because of the short runs, etc.
A soup plant like, say, a Campbells, or a bean plant like a Bush’s can run what’s called a continuous process where they spin cans of the exact same dimensions of the exact same product by the millions through a continuous retort and have some consistency and a high level of automation, simply because they are doing heroically long runs of the exact same thing. Most of the (relatively) smaller type plants like mine are BATCH plants doing a diversity of products, and so don’t lend themselves to automation that does the same thing all day long. We may change one line over three times during a shift just to accomodate short runs of a vast variety or products, and not all of them are regulated the same, some require a USDA/FSIS presense at all times, and some do not, its a lot of different things, not the same thing at ALL, and different things done differently are anathemia to hands-off automation.
…and that’s just the commercial products. We are literally feeding armies besides. The volume alone is staggering, but also all different and with an assembly component from other manufactuers to it, too…
There’s a lot to it, but you’re not going to eliminate humans from food production whatevver you do, just because things that serve as food for humans are not consistent. Believe me, they do NOT LIKE to hire people and resist it and spend gobs of money to try to ELIMINATE people, but at the end of the day, since none of the equipment is made by Jesus, it just ain’t gonna happen…
A day without Mexicans? Just don’t make it a Thursday. That’s when my yard guy comes.
SNS
This facility is sounding like a huge, super sized butcher shop without their own brand name.
After reading what you’ve written here I see a real resurgence of the “Neighborhood But her Shop”. Which is where I purchase my bacon and sausage. Scary stuff.
SNS – why call them Moslems? They are all Filthy Mohammedan Savages
@Bad_Brad, there is no slaughter or rendering done here, we usually get it in some frozen form and in pieces from someone ELSE who employs Muzzies, and go from there. Slaugher and rendering are completely different, and MUCH more disgusiting, subjects and have their OWN rules.
And you are right, we do not currently have a house branded product, but that’s what a “red label” is. Most of the brands you see in a supermarket are NOT produced by the company who’s name is on the label. If you look closely, you may see a smaller verison of their logo on the back, but instead of saying “Manufactured by xxxxx”, it says “DISTRIBUTED by xxxxx”. MOST of the big name brands don’t WANT to run factories, factories are awkward, have HUGE labor issues and regulatory burdens, constantly changing tech, and a TON of things that just get in the way of having a good time. As a result, they just contract with someone ELSE who actually RUNS a factory, tells them specifically what to make, what to put it in, and what the label needs to look like, and someone ELSE makes it to spec.
That’s what I mean by batch production. We’ve made stuff for a BUNCH of labels you have in your stores even in CA, but I’m not at liberty to say which ones (NDA’s dontcha know), but again it doesn’t matter because WE may make their product THIS year, someone ELSE make it NEXT year, and so forth, and ALL the food plants are run just about the same, again with the same work force and management becuase the food industry is very inbred and has a lot of trouble attracting labor. If I looked at a container I could usually tell you if I touched it or not because I know the specific codes we use, but you otherwise would never know.
And yes, I would recommend you make your own to the greatest extent possible. I’ve been to plants in other states too, it’s the same there, sometimes a little more Hispanic, sometimes a little more African, sometimes a little more Asian, but rarely English speakers and the are ALL run basically the same way.
When I say I won’t eat anything made HERE, that’s only becasue I SEE this all day, not because they’re doing anything DIFFERENT. I am able to practice “rational ignorance” about OTHER places, though, simply because I DON’T see them, so I can ‘pretend’ that they’re better.
And it’s NOT that I do not believe it is SAFE. If I thought THAT, I’d be hitting alarm bells EVERYWHERE. Safe process falls on ME to a large extent, so I’m absolue DEATH on anything that may compromise the actual processing step of the system. What’s IN it may not be delicious and may have a Muzzie hair or two, but that hair IS safe to eat.
Just nasty.
…the cock washing and all THAT comes in on the OUTSIDE of the containers, and THAT I can’t vouch for; but again, that’s EVERYWHERE, not just HERE. Don’t handle ANY container and THEN touch what’s IN it if you can at all AVOID it, and it’s probably a good idea to wash the continer BEFORE opening it for that same reason.
You gotta eat SOMETHING, and I’m a TERRIBLE farmer.
Plus, I don’t have a farm.
And they don’t let me hunt in the city, and the possum does not look delish anyway.
…So to the extent you can, go to Mom and Pop if you can FIND an M&P still in operation, and cut your own if you can.
…but I would’t swear that Pop doesn’t pull his pants out of his ass crack, then handle YOUR pumpernickel, EITHER…
But the PROCESSED stuff does THIS much. It WILL help with your herd immunity, just sayin’…
The meat packing plants I know of are either mostly Mexicans, Asians or Moslems.
Not all Mexicans, but many who are recent to this country are nasty. They don’t bathe, they just drown themselves in cologne, they’ll just as quickly shit in a corner as a bathroom.
I have a family member that is a plumber and he’s told me how nasty Asian ran restaurants are, behind the scenes that customers don’t see. That’s why I don’t eat Chinese food. I honestly don’t know why we bother with health inspectors if they just ignore this shit.
Everyone knows how nasty Moslems are. So really no need to go into that before lunch.
That’s why I eat very little processed food and prefer to raise my own meat and vegetables and when I run low I only buy from local butchers or from the one grocer we have that gets all of their beef from local ranchers and pay local butchers to slaughter and age the sides of beef. Then the store butcher cuts the sides up.
I like deli meat every now and then, but I buy it from a local Amish company. Same for my cheese.
You might want to rethink that Amish purchase. I was at a restaurant trade show and saw lots of Amish. When asked why there were there they replied “we buy all our cheese from Sysco.” Also local Amish store buys bulk from big producers and repackage under their brand.