Uploaded March 2013 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 15 million Americans work full time on evening shift, night shift, rotating shifts, or other employer arranged irregular schedules. The International Labor Office in 2003 reports that working hours in the United States exceed Japan and most of western Europe. Both shift work and long work hours have been associated with health and safety risks. For more information, go to the NIOSH webpage cdc.gov/niosh/topics/workschedules . This clip is from the video, Deadly Corn was made in 1994 by labor video activists by Rose Feurer and Dave Rathke of Labor Vision of St Louis.and supporters of the strike by workers at the A.E. Staley corn sweetener plant in Decatur, Illinois. The video shows the grievances behind their decision to strike, with particular attention to safety issues. It shows that because of corporate attitudes about the dangerous chemicals used at the plant, the Staley company was becoming dangerous to the health and safety of its 800 workers and the community around it. The workers were members of the Allied Industrial Workers Union (AIW) Local 837. The AIW is now affiliated with the United Steelworkers Union (USW). Members of Allied Industrial Workers Local 837 averaged 21 years in the plant at the A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, a corn-processing plant in Decatur, Illinois. In the 1980s, Staley and the Union cooperated to correct many health and safety hazards after a deadly fire and dust explosion in the late 1970s. When British multinational Tate & Lyle bought Staley in 1988, nearly 80 years of peaceful and mostly cooperative labor-management relations ended. The new owners hired union-busting experts as top managers in Decatur. The company's systemic neglect led to deadly consequences in 1990 when a worker was gassed to death in a corn starch processing tank. During 1992 contract talks, these managers attacked seniority and the grievance procedure, and they sought to impose 12-hour shifts, with workers switching between nights and days every 30 days. They were locked out by Staley in June 1993 after nine months working without a contract. Local 837 then mobilized nationwide support for an aggressive corporate campaign against Staley. The workers and their Union struggled for another 30 months, returning to work in December 1995. The grain handling industry is a high hazard industry where workers can be exposed to numerous serious and life threatening hazards.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 15 million Americans work full time on evening shift, night shift, rotating shifts, or other employer arranged irregular schedules. The International Labor Office in 2003 reports that working hours in the United States exceed Japan and most of western Europe. Both shift work and long work hours have been associated with health and safety risks. For more information, go to the NIOSH webpage cdc.gov/niosh/topics/workschedules . This clip is from the video, Deadly Corn was made in 1994 by labor video activists by Rose Feurer and Dave Rathke of Labor Vision of St Louis.and supporters of the strike by workers at the A.E. Staley corn sweetener plant in Decatur, Illinois. The video shows the grievances behind their decision to strike, with particular attention to safety issues. It shows that because of corporate attitudes about the dangerous chemicals used at the plant, the Staley company was becoming dangerous to the health and safety of its 800 workers and the community around it. The workers were members of the Allied Industrial Workers Union (AIW) Local 837. The AIW is now affiliated with the United Steelworkers Union (USW). Members of Allied Industrial Workers Local 837 averaged 21 years in the plant at the A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, a corn-processing plant in Decatur, Illinois. In the 1980s, Staley and the Union cooperated to correct many health and safety hazards after a deadly fire and dust explosion in the late 1970s. When British multinational Tate & Lyle bought Staley in 1988, nearly 80 years of peaceful and mostly cooperative labor-management relations ended. The new owners hired union-busting experts as top managers in Decatur. The company's systemic neglect led to deadly consequences in 1990 when a worker was gassed to death in a corn starch processing tank. During 1992 contract talks, these managers attacked seniority and the grievance procedure, and they sought to impose 12-hour shifts, with workers switching between nights and days every 30 days. They were locked out by Staley in June 1993 after nine months working without a contract. Local 837 then mobilized nationwide support for an aggressive corporate campaign against Staley. The workers and their Union struggled for another 30 months, returning to work in December 1995. The grain handling industry is a high hazard industry where workers can be exposed to numerous serious and life threatening hazards.
