
During the years I worked for wages I had several job. I have worked in garment factories, which I absolutely hated, I worked as a cook around Branson MO. Not bad work but very uncertain employment. I worked for a long 6 months in a nursing home for the aged. This saddest job I ever had.
Most of my working years was spent in the processing plant for poultry. I have seen every aspect of that industry from killing the birds to producing the chicken quick cooked foods sold over most of the world. These foods are formed and precooked for the fast food industry.
I worked for Tyson Foods located in northwest Arkansas for many years. The work is very hard. You stand for hours on concrete floors doing hand work that cripples your hands and shoulders.
I have had my hands so damaged that I couldn't sleep because of the pain. In later years I worked in the futher processing part of Tyson Foods. The work was easier but the working conditions was bad in that the area had to be keep at a very cold temperature to stop bacteria growing on the meat. I have worked for 8 hours in a temperature controlled room at 50 degrees or lower wearing several shirts and pants and came out at the end of the day into 100 degree august days. The heat would slap you in the face and you couldn't breath.
I know people that have been crippled for life from accidents in the plant and some that have hand and shoulder injuries that they will carry to their graves.
I know some that lost their lives in that plant. I know 3 people that literary died on the job trying to make a living.
Tyson hires nurses that are at the nurses station to provide first aid. In fact their first job is to protect Tyson from law suits and keep records of injuries. I worked at this place until I was 67 years old. The last 4 years my job was to clean the break room and hand out supplies needed by the workers to perform the jobs I had done most of my life. This job was better but Tyson always is in a cost saving mode and you were in constant trouble with the workers.
The last 6 months I worked My supervisor J.D. Smith made me clean the men's toilet as well as my other duties. This was the worse thing I ever had to do because these men were the nastiest people I have ever seen. They threw their toilet paper on the floor after use, as well as using the floor for their body waste and finally I left that place and I have never looked back. I can say with out a doubt that I would rather go to my grave than to go back to Tyson foods.
 
 


3 comments:
Thank you for your story about working at Tyson's. When I graduated from high school in NW Arkansas I looked for a job and had a hard time finding anything that paid enough. One of my friends suggested that I take a job at Tyson's. I imagined it to be like you talked about and didn't even consider it. I've wondered whether I would have ever worked there if I hadn't had the resources to get some further education.
I'm sure that work took a terrible toll on your health. You deserve a medal of honor!
Old Sister, you worked so hard all her life, but raised 4 good kids and provided for all of them. You paid for a little place in Mo. near Ridgedale. I think it is 5 acres. I keep praying it will be worth 100,000s of dollars and you can sell it and be rich.
Sister, you deserve a "happy" last years of life where you do not have to labor in sweat and worry about having food to feed the family. May God grant it!
I wish we could correct comments...it should say you worked so hard all your life...not her...but can't fix it.
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