"While a handful of workers manage to rise up the corporate ladder, the vast majority lack full-time employment, receive no benefits, learn few skills" (Schlosser 6). The companies actually receive tax credits for hiring low-income workers although "in 1996 an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor concluded that 92% of these workers would have been hired by the companies anyway" (Schlosser 72).
"While the real value of the wages paid to restaurant workers has declined for the past three decades, the earnings of restaurant company executives have risen considerably" (Schlosser 73). This turns the concept of a company making an investment in its workforce on its head, and may be one reason for the resentful behavior of many fast food employees, as witnessed by the recent scandal of the YouTube video featuring disgruntled Dominos Pizza workers doing unsanitary things to their food. Poor treatment of workers within the industry is manifest at every link of the fast food supply chain -- particularly those in the meat packing and processing industry, where the workers are often illegal, and the work is extremely dangerous. Fast food workers run the risk of being held up by robbers when they work late, meat processing plant workers risk losing digits or even their lives.
Schlosser's portrayal of the life of a fast food employee immediately resonates with anyone who has worked at such an establishment or has a friend who has worked in a fast food franchise, although it could be added that many of his complaints would be true of working for any major American corporation, such as Wal-Mart. The anti-unionization activities he describes, while illegal and abhorrent, are also true of other major corporations. However, the impact upon the American -- in, fact the world -- diet is what makes the fast food industry so uniquely bad. The cultural logic of McDonald's might best be summed up as 'more is better.' "Workers at...
Therefore from the results of this study alone it would be quite easy to conclude that access to fast food is responsible for increased obesity. Other evidence may however dispute this conclusion though. A very recent study by Morland & Evenson found examined the relationship between the presence of different types of food establishments and a number of different diet-related health outcomes, including obesity, in the southern region of the
However, as bad as the conditions may be working inside the restaurants, conditions in the meat-processing plants that provide the animal products used by the industry are far worse. Workers safety laws are ignored, and disease is prevalent. Schlosser reports a heart-rending tale of a young boy who died from E.coli bacteria after eating a tainted Jack-in-the-Box burger. It is difficult to track the source of an infection because
Fast Food Nation" Chapter 3 "Behind the Counter" Process essay: The process of coaching children in youth sports In his chapter, "Behind the Counter," of his expose Fast Food Nation, the author Eric Schlosser highlights the darker side of working at a fast food restaurant. The labor is frequently young, often exploited, and regarded as a disposable commodity by the managers. In fact, it works to the company's advantage if there
The author talks about one farmer who refuses to use the tactics other big ranchers use to fatten up their cattle for the biggest profits at the consumers' expense. He writes, "None of the cattle used in Lasater Grasslands Beef spend any time at a feedlot. The meat is much lower in fat than grain-fed beef, and has a much stronger, most distinctive flavor" (Schlosser, 2002, p. 257). If
Fast Food Nation Effects of technology on personal, national, and global levels in "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser Eric Schlosser, in his expose entitled, "Fast Food Nation: The dark side of the all- American meal," had revealed to the general public information about the fast food industry, practices and facts that illustrated how, with the advent of new technologies, negative effects abound that threatened the welfare of human society, who
Fast Food Nation The Ramifications of Technology on Health Care and Welfare of Animals and Meatpacking Workers in "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser In the book "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, newfound information about the behind-the-scenes operations of fast food establishments such as the well-known McDonald's, had been discussed critically. In revealing the 'hidden operations' behind the production of merchandise associated with the fast food industry such as meat
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