Cutting Into the Meatpacking Line: Workers and Change in the Rural Midwest (Studies in Rural Culture) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The culture of the Perry IBP porkpacking plant is unlike that of rural Iowa outside the plant, although working in the plant radically reshapes people's..." (more)
Key Phrases: Iowa Beef, Oscar Mayer, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A chilling portrait of how economic restructuring reshapes everyday life and exacerbates longstanding oppressions of class, race, and gender.

Journal of American History

Forceful, visual, evocative, and well-placed .

Nebraska History

A model of American social and labor history.

Choice

[H]er important study of working people in Perry, Iowa, evokes the horror, grimness, and humor of rural working-class life.

Nancy Gabin, Purdue University

Product Description

The nostalgic vision of a rural Midwest populated by independent family farmers hides the reality that rural wage labor has been integral to the region's development, says Deborah Fink. Focusing on the porkpacking industry in Iowa, Fink investigates the experience of the rural working class and highlights its significance in shaping the state's economic, political, and social contours.

Fink draws both on interviews and on her own firsthand experience working on the production floor of a pork-processing plant. She weaves a fascinating account of the meatpacking industry's history in Iowa—a history, she notes, that has been experienced differently by male and female, immigrant and native-born, white and black workers. Indeed, argues Fink, these differences are a key factor in the ongoing creation of the rural working class.

Other writers have denounced the new meatpacking companies for their ruthless destruction of both workers and communities. Fink sustains this criticism, which she augments with a discussion of union action, but also goes beyond it. She looks within rural midwestern culture itself to examine the class, gender, and ethnic contradictions that allowed—indeed welcomed—the meatpacking industry's development.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (March 18, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807846953
• ISBN-13: 978-0807846957
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #743,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's not just for illegal immigrants, November 21, 2005

By	bubblezz78 - See all my reviews

While I do not disagree with the previous review, I felt the need to point out that illegal immigrants are certainly NOT the only ones forming the backbone of the workforce at these rural meatpacking plants. Indeed, in the small Midwestern town in which I grew up, meatpacking is just about the only job that pays something resembling a living wage for those who choose to stay in the rural Midwest. And from observing the people I knew who worked there, believe me, it's not exactly living high on the hog. In my opinion, these blue collar workers are being squeezed just about as hard as they can be, and not enough light is shed on that fact. But for many people who choose to live in the place of their birth (or a place they've come to call home), they don't have much choice when it comes to where to work.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meatpacking Line is Dramatic, Eye-Opening and Wake-up Call, November 24, 2003

By	Grace Walters (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

If you're not already aware of the heroic struggle immigrants undergo as they pursue the American dream, this book will clue you in.

We've all heard xenophobes rant about immigrants taking jobs away from American workers. Now meet the immigrants who sign on to jobs Americans won't touch -- the ones with no safety nets -- low wages and no benefits, i.e., no paid vacations, no profit-sharing, no health insurance (despite dangerous working conditions), no compensation for loss of limbs, no pension plan, no social security contributions.

One's perspective is changed with the realization that these new Americans are proud to be working at a place where the hourly wage is a whopping $7-8/hr. If this is the American dream, imagine what life must be like at home!

Fink goes to work in a meat-packing plant in Iowa for an up-close look at the conditions and environment in which immigrants (mostly from Mexico and Central America) toil to support families both here and in their homelands. Her sensitivity to the workers' pride and plight, and her empathy with their every-day existence is remarkable for an American. She is to be commended for her courage in wading into a stark and noisy reality -- one not altogether known by many U.S. citizens -- while retaining her writer's objectivity.

This book is highly recommended.