USDA Meat Grader’s “Union”

The USDA Meat Graders collectively voted-in a Union in 1970. At that time there was a much higher number of Meat Graders (around 750) than exist today (only about 160 today) because back then there were still a lot of small beef harvest plants scattered around the U.S. Market beef (young fed cattle) industry consolidation into just several big plants; with each plant killing & grading 5,000 plus head a day on 2 shifts, was getting well underway at that time. Continued consolidation has now concentrated things to the point where Meat Graders are mainly found only in the “Beef Patch region of the Country (Nebraska, West Kansas, Eastern Colorado and the Texas panhandle). The pork industry opts not to used voluntary official USDA carcass grading. Modern market hog carcasses are comparatively uniform and about 75% of the average carcass goes into further processed pork product production (not sold as fresh retail cuts). Lamb and veal carcasses are however often officially Graded, but both species have small volume markets compared to beef, pork & poultry. Lamb grading, veal grading and further meat processing certification (meat plants are required to use meat graders when further processing when further processing Government donated meat) work are all more geographically separated Meat Grader covered services than beef grading. And still, there are a few big beef plants in the eastern Midwest, and on both both coasts. For the most part, big beef patch plants are located “in the middle of nowhere.” A lot of graders working in remote regions are former local meat plant employees because the USDA has trouble keeping new hires at such locations. It is not uncommon for original non-locals to relocate as soon as vacancies near bigger towns or closer to one’s roots becomes open.

The concept of 160 graders scattered across the U.S. being in union with each other’s needs is logically an oxymoron. Many meat graders go their entire career mainly associating with only a handful of local graders. There also exist several single grader Duty Stations scattered about. And, at multi-grader meat certification Duty Stations the graders work alone at different plants and on different shifts; while rotating monthly through around the clock shifts. Not knowing each others working condition realities is in and of itself enough information to conclude that the Meat Grader’s Union cannot present any real representation of all meat grader’s legitimate concerns. In my case, a single grader Duty Station carcass grader located 209 miles away from our 8 grader certification station was designated as our local shop steward. The concerns of the “beef patch” and from the few other big market beef plants are what the Basic Union Agreement is written for. The Basic Agreement is written using a long list of qualifier words; since Meat Graders are not allowed to go on strike and they are still subject to all Government wide employment regulations. In the end, the Meat Grader’s Union only succeeds in making life miserable for some of its bargaining unit members; by being able to do unorthodox things such as taking away seniority benefits. Such actions help lead to a higher grader attrition rate; which is an anti-worker result that helps Management keep overall labor costs down via less longevity pay.

Not all Government employees are as bad as you have heard, but the laziest and most entitled among them often end up in supervisory positions. Meat Grading supervisors are normally in charge of 17 to 20 employees, which they will visit face to face with every couple months or so. These visits are the primary tool used to fill out elaborate looking quarterly performance reviews; that are very hard to make any meaningful sense of. On the plus side, graders almost always receive fully-successful job performance review ratings. Fully Successful ratings help avoid conflict while not justifying performance awards. An old time Grader told me that it would take an “act of Congress” to get a Meat Grader fired. And, from what I have witnessed that seems to be somewhat accurate. Supervisors also get involved in making out their graders weekly work assignment schedules. What Supervisors do the remainder of the time is anybody’s guess. Just go along and get along. Feckless Meat Grader’s Union bosses are routinely chosen to become Supervisors. In reality The “Meat Grader’s Union” has over time morphed into being a QAD Management Union. Pay your optional Bargaining Unit dues so that you might eventually obtain a sweet deal. That scenario is likely not what Graders had in mind back in 1970, but it is very in tune with current Government employment realities.