My uncle came back from being a veterinarian in Vietnam shell shocked as fuck, and the only job he could get was at that very Greeley meat packing plant. He worked there until he broke down, and then he was never able to hold a job again. He had horror stories from both Vietnam and the meat plant, but he had a Vietnamese wife he’d married to get out and her GI baby someone had abandoned her with to take care of. A lot of peoples stories are like that, you don’t really have a choice, you’re in a bad situation and you take what you can get.

People in bad situations dependent on poverty wages are less able to whistleblow due to fear of economic consequences. There’s more abuse, more exploitation, and more harm done in any industry whose workers are dependent on their daily wages. That’s why even the most offensive, disgusting jobs in our country deserve a living wage.