On the Line: Slaughterhouse Lives and the Making of the New South

Ribas, Vanesa

ISBN 10: 0520282957 / ISBN 13: 9780520282957

Published by California University Press, 2015

About this Item

Bringing to the fore the words, ideas, and struggles of the workers themselves, this book underlines how deep racial tensions permeate the factory, as an overwhelmingly minority workforce is subject to white dominance. Num Pages: 270 pages, 13 b/w photographs, 1 table. BIC Classification: 1KBBS; JFSL3; JFSL4; JHB. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 20. Weight in Grams: 499. . 2015. Illustrated. hardcover. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9780520282957

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On the Line: Slaughterhouse Lives and the Making of the New South
• Publisher: California University Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520282957
• ISBN 13: 9780520282957
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

“How does one put into words the rage that workers feel when supervisors threaten to replace them with workers who will not go to the bathroom in the course of a fourteen-hour day of hard labor, even if it means wetting themselves on the line?”―From the Preface

In this gutsy, eye-opening examination of the lives of workers in the New South, Vanesa Ribas, working alongside mostly Latino/a and native-born African American laborers for sixteen months, takes us inside the contemporary American slaughterhouse. Ribas, a native Spanish speaker, occupies an insider/outsider status there, enabling her to capture vividly the oppressive exploitation experienced by her fellow workers. She showcases the particular vulnerabilities faced by immigrant workers―a constant looming threat of deportation, reluctance to seek medical attention, and family separation―as she also illuminates how workers find connection and moments of pleasure during their grueling shifts.  Bringing to the fore the words, ideas, and struggles of the workers themselves, On The Line underlines how deep racial tensions permeate the factory, as an overwhelmingly minority workforce is subject to white dominance. Compulsively readable, this extraordinary ethnography makes a powerful case for greater labor protection, especially for our nation’s most vulnerable workers.

About the Author

Vanesa Ribas is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego.