I used to work at a sausage factory with my grandma every summer and we would get home around 1or 2 am and start at around 4pm. This job took half of our day, and we only receive a fifteen-minute break and a 30-minute lunch break for the whole day, but I guess that was the minimum we need to receive for jobs like these.
The job consisted of wearing lab and coat and we were able to layer our clothes because the room was so cold to keep the sausages refrigerated. While working there, I noticed more Hispanics and African Americans dealing with the sausages and packing boxes. I mainly packed boxes because it was my favorite thing to do at a fast pace and it kept me warm. Whenever the machines would get stuck or stopped working it was like my toes fell off because it was so cold that I couldn’t feel sensation in my feet and that’s with wearing 3 pairs of socks.
The people in charge of us and in charge of fixing the machines were mainly white people. I can say they relied on me the most to finish my labeling the total of boxes needed to differentiate from each batch. I was the person that would translate for my grandma and two other Hispanic people in my line that spoke mainly English. They would often tell me what to ask our supervisor because they were embarrassed of their accent when they would speak English. They eventually taught me to do many things and relied on me to help because I was the main person who took the time to learn the machinery and know how to produce paperwork at the end of the day. This would happen especially when they were short staffed because of the strict policy they had there. They said for every day you miss work you get a point and if you get 8 points you get terminated from the job because it would be known as an unreliable employee. They even left me to work my line alone once because there were not many people that came to work that day.
I can’t tell if they took advantage of me using me to work many positions when I only applied for one, but they have been reaching out to me to come back and work for them even though I got up to 8 points for termination. I would be so tired working 6 days a week. I would even have to watch people harass my grandmother while trying to work. They would take her supplies and pick fights with her knowing she doesn’t speak proper English. Which showed me how much she goes through working there for over 4 years now. She never misses a day and is always busy and completing her work for the day.
