Date of publication: September 2, 2010
Source: In These Times
Author: David Moberg
During a 13-month tour in Iraq with her National Guard unit, Amber Hicks ate her share of the military rations known as "meals ready to eat," or MREs. Then, as chance would have it, she returned to her hometown of Cincinnati and found a job in the Wornick Company's factory -- making those familiar MREs.
Most of her fellow workers were immigrants -- African, Mexican, Vietnamese, and Cambodian -- and most of them made less than $10 an hour, with very few able to pay for the company's health insurance. The work was fast-paced and stressful, and conditions were worsened by frequent forced hours of overtime work, which caused day-care problems -- even job loss -- for workers with children. The pressures also likely contributed to the company's above-average injury rates. And on top of those problems, Hicks says, "there was a lot of favoritism from the 'good old boy' gang that ran the plant. It wasn't what you know but who you know, for getting promotions."...
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