Blog 11

In my Justice and Identity class we recently read an article by David Henry called Class Relations and Social Justice and the Politics of Indifference about a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina that accidentally burned down on September 3, 1991. In the plant 25 people, including 18 Black women, were killed and another 56 were seriously injured. These workers earned the minimum wage at the time, $4.25 an hour and could earn up to $5.60 an hour. They had no benefits and no job security and workers claimed that bosses let them have one toilet break a day and they were often cursed at. The working conditions were so awful, in fact, that they caused the deaths of all those people. Workers were trapped inside the building because emergency exit doors were locked.
North Carolina has the lowest number of health inspectors per state, 14 health and 28 safety inspectors, when the recommended federal guidelines call for at least 114 per state. To make up for the difference, federal personnel were supposed act as inspectors but had not visited the plant in its 11 years of operation. The conclusion of the article was that these people were more concerned with making money than investing time and energy to see to the needs of the poor working class minority.
The poor, especially poor working women are simply not a top concern for the powers that be. The government seems to de indifferent to the issue of proper working conditions for the poor. What makes a government act, according to the article, are the implications of political opinion on elections, which are rarely issues that have to do with women in poverty. Also, the media also made no fuss about this event at the time because it occurred when Rodney King was all over the news. So those who were concerned with racial injustice, if they even heard about this, were too busy to care about a few deaths in small plant in North Carolina anyway. In regards to women’s justice, most advocates were concerned with Anita Hill’s accusations against associate justice of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas.