Hanging Tongues: A Sociological Encounter with the Assembly Line

In the essay, “Hanging Tongues: A Sociological Encounter with the Assembly Line,” William E. Thompson, a sociology professor, describes his analysis and experience in the meat-packing industry affecting workers’ lives.
Thompson begins his essay by giving a visual description of a particular meat-packing industry that employs over 1, 800 people. The plant is divided into two sections: slaughter or kill floor and processing. Most of the equipment is made of stainless steel. The most dominant feature he describes is the combine smell of fresh meat, blood, and smoke. But workers are so focused on the salary, which in most cases exceeds the minimum wage by at least $5.50, that the smell is not a problem to them. In this place employees work as a social network (the social ties radiating outward from the self that like people together) at a fast speed slaughtering 187 head of cattle per hour with the exception of two breaks they are given. On average, a worker hangs, brands, and bags between 1,350 to 1,500 beef tongues. Workers would work ahead of the line to add a few more minutes to their break. Because the work is monotonous, they feel like the machines have control over them. Employees feel more like objects or products than people, a term for this is alienation (Max’s term for workers’ lack of connection to their product of their labor; others use the term in the general sense of not feeling a part of something). To get out of the routine, workers tend to daydream which is dangerous because this causes accidents and improperly done jobs at the same time. The job requires undivided attention.
Thompson also describes other aspects of the dangerous meat-packing job. Serious cuts occur almost daily. Getting infected with animals’ blood is also another problem. Workers who constantly cut meat suffer of muscle and ligament injuries. Although the job is dangerous and any worker can become a victim, the meat-packing company is proud to have only three employee deaths in a period of twelve years.