The Slaughterhouse Workers

In “Cogs in the Great Machine, “Eric Schlosser reports on the shift in the meatpacking industry toward a reliance on “the new industrial migrants,” noting that as meatpacking corporations reorganized, they transformed what had been a “middle-class” profession into one that pays “poverty wages” or less (160). Discuss the impact of this system on the migrants themselves by focusing on one specific aspect of the problem; then, present a solution- either your own or one that Schlosser endorses. In your discussion, consider the opposing argument: that employment at a meatpacking plant offers migrants a toehold in the American economy and perhaps an opportunity to move on to a better job.