Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 32
Book Description
The Tragedy at Imperial Food Products
Author: The Hamlet Fire
Author: BRYANT. SIMONPublisher:
ISBN: 9781469661384
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
The Hamlet Fire
Author: Bryant SimonPublisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620972395
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
"Captivating and brilliantly conceived. . . [The Hamlet Fire] will provide readers with insights into our current national politics." —The Washington Post A "gifted writer" (Chicago Tribune) uses a long forgotten factory fire in small-town North Carolina to show how cut-rate food and labor have become the new American norm For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses searching for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Food Products. The company paid its workers a dollar above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping gobs of fat off frozen chicken breasts before they got dipped in batter and fried into golden brown nuggets and tenders. If a worker complained about the heat or the cold or missed a shift to take care of their children or went to the bathroom too often they were fired. But they kept coming back to work because Hamlet was a place where jobs were scarce. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day, this factory that had never been inspected burst into flame. Twenty-five people—many of whom were black women with children, living on their own—perished that day behind the plant’s locked and bolted doors. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past. After spending several years talking to local residents, state officials, and survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy.
Review of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service Workplace Safety Regulations
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture. Subcommittee on Department Operations, Research, and Foreign AgriculturePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 104
Book Description
Hearing on H.R. 3160, Comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Reform Act, and the Fire at the Imperial Food Products Plant in Hamlet, North Carolina
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education and LaborPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Factories
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
A Comparison of Two High-life-loss Industrial Fires: the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, New York City, March 25, 1911 ; the Imperial Foods Fire, Hamlet, North Carolina, September 3, 1991
Author: Guy D. NewgrenPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68
Book Description
The Triangle Shirtwaist fire (New York City, March 25, 1911) took 146 lives. Amazingly (to U.S. firefighters) another, similar U.S. fire occurred in this "enlightened" decade (the Imperial Food Products fire, Hamlet, North Carolina, September 3, 1991), killing 25 employees. The problem that this research project addressed was "What lessons can we learn from former, high-life-loss, industrial fires that can help us prevent the continued repetition of such tragedies?"
The Hamlet Fire
Author: Bryant SimonPublisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469661373
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses in search of cheap labor and almost no oversight. Imperial Food Products was one of those businesses. The company set up shop in Hamlet in the 1980s. Workers who complained about low pay and hazardous working conditions at the plant were silenced or fired. But jobs were scarce in town, so workers kept coming back, and the company continued to operate with impunity. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the never-inspected chicken-processing plant a stone's throw from Hamlet's city hall burst into flames. Twenty-five people perished that day behind the plant's locked and bolted doors. It remains one of the deadliest accidents ever in the history of the modern American food industry. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past in the United States. However, as award-winning historian Bryant Simon shows, the pursuit of cheap food merged with economic decline in small towns across the South and the nation to devalue laborers and create perilous working conditions. The Hamlet fire and its aftermath reveal the social costs of antiunionism, lax regulations, and ongoing racial discrimination. Using oral histories, contemporary news coverage, and state records, Simon has constructed a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that exposes how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was destined to result in tragedy.
Management
Author: Thomas S. BatemanPublisher: Irwin Professional Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 938
Book Description
Author: 
Author: