{"id":377,"date":"2020-03-27T08:07:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T08:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/?p=377"},"modified":"2020-07-24T08:56:57","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T07:56:57","slug":"sociology-meets-chicken-processing-in-county-durham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/2020\/03\/27\/sociology-meets-chicken-processing-in-county-durham\/","title":{"rendered":"Sociology meets chicken processing in County Durham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jake Pointer is a first year Sociology PhD student studying the lives of workers in the meat processing industry. Here he shares some thoughts on his recent trip to a chicken processing plant in County Durham.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo credit<\/em>: Nick Bondarev<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In late February, I had the chance to visit a chicken processing plant in County Durham on a university trip organised by the Centre for Rural Economy. As my research concerns those working in the meat sector, it was an excellent chance to have my first glance into the working lives within such a facility. I went into this with mixed feelings: my vegan beliefs are naturally against any meat-orientated food producers, but my scholarly mind was telling me to put my biases aside and go in as objectively as possible. In this context, and as I\u2019m quickly learning is the case for all my research, the scholarly mind was certainly the appropriate one to tap into for this visit (although this is sometimes challenging).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\narrival to the plant, the first thing I noticed was the smell of (perhaps not\nsurprisingly) chicken. As we walked through the large gates and into the\nreception the smell only grew stronger until, for me at least, it was almost\noverpowering. After a brief talk from one of the managers about the plant we\nwere split into groups and were given a tour. Before entering the processing\nareas we had to gear up with protective clothing and hairnets as well as wash\nour hands thoroughly. It seemed to me health and safety was of high importance\nhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside\nthe working areas were large machines, which, in various ways, processed the\nchicken. Slicing, freezing, cooking, bagging, skinning; there was a machine for\neverything. Many of the workers engaged in these machines had seemingly\nmonotonous tasks, often involving repetitive motions such as continuously\nunloading a box of chicken pieces into a machine. Within the arrival area it\nwas very cold as this is also where the chicken carcasses enter the plant and\nso they need to be kept fresh before being processed. This also means that\nplenty of workers operate in a cold environment. It was also quite loud in the\nfactory, with various machines working away as well as speakers playing music\nhere and there. Having worked in a warehouse some years ago myself, I can\nappreciate the effect music has on making an otherwise monotonous and often\nboring task more tolerable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst\nthe tour was focused on the chicken, I was almost always looking at the\nworkers, trying to use my sociological imagination and see if I could notice\nanything of interest. Some of the safety signs I noticed were in Polish next to\ntheir English counterparts, an indicator of the presence of non-British\nworkers. I felt translating these signs was good work practice as safety\nshould, in my opinion, be the priority in a potentially dangerous job such as\nthis. The work-ethic seemed very high, with the workers seemingly never\nstopping whatever they were occupied with for even a second. I would not say\nthey looked happy, but rather indifferent to their tasks, almost robotic as\never more chicken came through ready to be loaded into this machine or that.\nFew were talking at all, with most applying their attention only to their task.\nI would say that all the jobs required focus as the machines operated at high\nspeed and a lapse of concentration would hinder this, and as a result,\nproduction. Many of the jobs also looked very physically demanding, often\ninvolving the lifting of large boxes or pulling huge pallets stuffed with\nchickens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe tour, we were led to the small conference room for a short Q and A session\nwith the director of the company. The majority of questions were about the\nchicken itself; the quality, the manufacturers supplied and so on which the\ndirector and his mangers were happy to answer. It was clear they were proud of\ntheir work there, supplying high-quality, British \u2018protein products\u2019. I\ninquired about the workforce, in relation to the Polish signs I saw, and was\ntold that around 30% of the employees were Polish. In addition, I was\ninterested to see if they ever have injuries and if so, what the common ones\nwere. The Director seemed a little surprised at my question. The Operations\nManager told me the majority are made up of cuts, slips or back problems. I was\nsurprised by how open they were about this. These answers raised more questions\nin my mind, why so many Polish workers? How are the injuries dealt with? but as\nI was there as part of a group, I did not want to dominate the session. A\nquestion was also posed about the vegan food factory which was operating just\nup the road. The director was very open to the changing food market and told us\nit was the company\u2019s responsibility to adapt accordingly. He made a point that the\nbusinesses that do not adapt are the ones that close down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went\naway from this trip with mixed feelings. The scholarly side of me was happy\nwith such an opportunity and experience, and I found observing the working\nenvironment fascinating. Worker safety did seem a high priority, which I was\npleased to see. However, I would have been intrigued to hear from the employees\nthemselves; their thoughts on the job, if they enjoyed working there, job\nprospects, what they thought of the management, whether the non-British workers\nintegrated well and whether anyone ever thinks of the chickens at all and how\nthey fit in with the process?  These\nquestions I will have to save for another day; with a bit of luck, my research\nwill help answer these and other questions in the future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jake Pointer is a first year Sociology PhD student studying the lives of workers in the meat processing industry. Here he shares some thoughts on his recent trip to a chicken processing plant in County Durham. In late February, I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}