During the Progressive Era, meat packing company owners in Chicago did not care how the product got handled or who handled it, all they wanted was the money that came with it. Working in the meat packing industry was dangerous for various reasons and consuming the product they packed was equally as dangerous.
Going by what Upton Sinclair wrote in his book The Jungle, a person can assume that working in the meat packing industry of Chicago was Hell on Earth. The reason one can assume that is, by the way, Sinclair narrates on how a character in his book named Jurgis, feels about working in that specific industry.:
He was working in the steaming pit of hell; day after day, week after week—until now, there was not an organ of his body that did its work without pain, until the sound of the ocean breakers echoed in his head day and night, and the buildings swayed and danced before him as he went down the street. And from all the unending horror of this there was a respite, a deliverance—he could drink! He could forget the pain, he could slip off the burden; he would see clearly again, he would be master of his brain, of his thoughts, of his will. His dead self would stir in him, and he would find himself laughing and cracking jokes with his companions—he would be a man again and a master …show more content…
The workers worked under unsafe conditions. Some of them would die from the heat or a work related accidents. The workers would also lose fingers or hands by the cause of them using acid all day without the use of safety equipment or crushing their hands with machines and equipment due to the workers being tired of working hard for long periods of time. Even though, workers stayed in the company regardless of how unsafe it was or accidents they had. They would get fired if they were no longer useful to the company due to them getting injured on the