After reading this article it is hard to see how the meat packing industry can function without cheap labor. At the same time it is not fair for the immigrants who come here, like this guy:
At St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, Eduardo Santos, 27, who came from Guatemala and lost two of his fingers working at the factory, said the raid was “fair . . . but it’s bad for everybody. There’s no work.” He plans to go home.
Workers are losing appendages in unsafe factories, probably while earning low wages. Americans in these conditions would want to unionize or would refuse to work in the factory at all. Where undocumented workers are willing to suffer through thse conditions and if they try to get better conditions the factory owners can have them deported very easily.
All this probably does lead to cheap meat but at the cost of worker safety and probably food safety as well.