According to a report released in October by Nebraska Appleseed called “The Speed Kills You”, meatpacking remains “one of the most dangerous jobs in America”. Citing its survey in which packinghouse workers reported higher injury rates than official statistics, the survey asked open-ended questions about how workers were treated, and it counted more than 500 instances of abusive supervision, bullying, ethnic or sexual harassment, “petty tyranny” and other abuses, including 250 instances of “generalized workplace abuse.”

This is the story of just a few workers in a meat processing plant and their triumphs in the face of adversity.

Every day Flores spends 10 hours on a meat cutting line at a meat plant in Southeast Iowa. She is a mother of three young children. One day she notices that the line is running at a fast speed, and workers could not keep up. The supervisor saw that all the workers were not able to keep up with the work load; he then started to yell at a woman named Maria who works at the head of the line.

He said to her “you stupid lazy Mexicans can’t keep up”. Flores could see that Maria felt disrespected and humiliated. She was working on the line across from the commotion and was overcome with anger. She knew that the supervisor should be held accountable, but this could mean endangering her job and the jobs of others. At break, Flores approached Maria and said to her, “you should report that to his supervisor or better yet, go to human resources”. Maria was frightened and did not want to report it for fear of getting fired. She said they never do anything to the supervisors. Flores told Maria that if she kept silent that this will happen again and again. After much persuasion Flores and Maria went to human resources to report what had taken place. The only thing human resources asked of Maria was if she had any witnesses. She told human resources she did and indicated Flores as her witness. Head of HR told her that they would look into it.

This is a typical day at a meatpacking plant, but the actions taken by Flores and Maria are extraordinary.

Flores has taken on more and more leadership by organizing worker safety training with her co-workers in the community. Now she is always advocating on behalf of others. She tells us that she no longer is afraid and she will no longer sit silent while injustice and racism occur around her.

The human resources management staff at her plant have tried to intimidate her, but she always stands her ground. Because of her leadership, the head of human resources has told her that his door is always open and she can come and report anything that she feels needs to be brought to his attention. She told him she would, but only if he actually addressed the issues and ensures that workers would not be punished for speaking out.

We believe that all workers – native, foreign born, documented or undocumented – should be treated with respect and dignity.

Flores has illustrated the kind of leadership that will build healthier communities throughout America’s heartland.