"we're family" is one of the biggest red flag phrases there is.

The fact that this show will never run out of material is depressing

If you fine them a fraction of a percent, don't be surprised when they give a fraction of a fuck. That is brilliant

The ghost Upton Sinclaire: “wait a sec? we've been here before haven't we?”

"If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exist for the lower class"

Just rename this show to: John Oliver: exposing American industry one week at a time

Managers describing their companies like a "family" is the biggest red flag ever.

I would not want to be in a knife fight with someone who can process a chicken in 2 seconds

"And If you fine a company a fraction of a percent of their profits, don't be surprised when they carry on only giving a fraction of a fuck about the welfare of their workers." - John Oliver

"Surely this is NOT in our country" America is like two different countries: one for the rich, and one for the poor. This reaction shows that perfectly.

When a company says "We treat our workers as family" what they mean is "We think you should prioritize us above everything else in your life in exchange for the bare minimum and we don't believe you deserve boundaries"

Reminds me of how Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” was about workers mistreatment and corruption in meat packing, but consumer takeaway was that the conditions were gross: it caused a push for food health standards more than it did a push for better labour conditions.

When I drive recklessly and kill a person, I get charged with manslaughter and face a prison sentence. When companies act recklessly and kill a person, no one is convicted of anything and they get a small ass fine.

Coming from a girl who's worked in slaughterhouses for the last 15yrs,Thank you for this story. We work in terrible conditions, cold and wet all day with bare hands in ice and under running water. Once the leadman starts killing everyone works at breakneck speed until it's done, so that bathrm break thing doesn't surprise me. The company doesn't pay to heat the building in the VT winters. When company housing oil tank broke we were responsible for getting wood for the simple woodstove in the kitchen we depended on to heat the 8rm farmhouse from 1800s. When the water pipes busted they didn't fix it, we've been 3yrs now without water in the house. Sometimes they don't pay us and sometimes when they do, the checks bounce. A coworker got 2 fingertips ripped off in the plucker and they refused to help with his medical bills. They pay the leadman who's been there 30yrs less than $15/hr. This isn't even a corporation I worked for(finally left last yr), it's a "small family owned farm"; that's part of how they get ppl to put up with it. The owners use a combination of pretending they consider u family, making empty promises, and passive aggressive guilt-tripping to keep employees with low self-esteem working. They also refuse to pay unemployment and will fight you, I found that out when I left to avoid sexual harassment. I have a hundred horrifying examples that someday I'll expose. Meatpackers need a union!

I was expecting a soul crushing bit about animals, but got an equally soul crushing bit about factory workers. This show never fails to keep me informed and depressed

Hewlett Packard called me "family" two weeks before outsourcing all of us to India.

Cheap meat isn't cheap. The actual price is just being paid by someone else.

I find it fascinating how almost every problem starts with "it's controlled by these few companies" in a country that big with over 300 million people.

John, Your work should be an every high school history and/or sociology class. They might have to bleep out passionate your F bombs, but you’re such a good teacher.

As a news producer, the work that Last Week Tonight does is seriously impressive. Not just comedically, but journalistically. These are the things people across America need to know are happening in their back yards.

After 4 jobs that were borderline abusive, I've made it a rule. At the interview I will ask "how does this company feel about their employees?". If the answer involves the word "family" anywhere in it, im not taking the job. Family means that they expect you to drop everything for them. They will chew you up and spit you out and then move on to a new poor fool without a second thought. It means they will fire you for the smallest slight and make up some bullshit reason so you can't fight back. If you can, avoid any place that calles their employees family.

Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle” came out in 1906...over 100 years later, and conditions for workers in the meat industry are still terrible.

Not just in the US, Canada has the same issues. Alberta’s meat packing plant was the largest outbreak there too.

As someone who's lived in Texas for most of his life the phrase "I don't think he was trying to give me a Christmas present" is the most Texas way of saying he tried to bribe me.

Whenever a company describes its employees as “family,” you know something’s up. Edit: ukposts.info4vqTcNHpqK4

I just want to say, thank you so much for covering this topic. My dad, an immigrant, worked at a meat packing facility for 23 years, and when he finally was experiencing extreme pain and swelling in his hand from the deboning process and other related injuries, they fired him after an on site doctor said his injuries were not work related. My father sued the company and won, but he now has the live out his years in pain. Edit: Thank you for all of the kind comments and wishes in the replies ❤️

one thing I've realized is that when a corporate representative talks as if you're his family, it's not good. They use that as an excuse to treat you like family: Get free labor from you, and for you not to complain about getting abused.

Wouldn't forcing someone to sign a waiver to sue before getting medial attention is the definition of under duress

For people who saying immigrant are taking over this country , remember they’re the one working in these factories, where most of the American refuse to work in. I’m myself an immigrant and my mother worked in Tyson for many years dealing with horrible conditions. And No they don’t get pay enough for the job they do.

Treating your employees like “family” is rich white guy talk for doesn’t get paid for overtime or mandatory work on the weekends.

I love John Oliver he has a huge heart and knows how to talk shit where it counts. Best combination

John is a truly compassionate human being.

I hate that people act like “this isn’t our country” due to their own ignorance of EXACTLY how the US is. Welcome to the party ma’am!

"we are a family here and can talk about everything" around the world, code for: we don't want a union, don't you dare to ask for more rights!

Back in December a friend of mine lost his arm working in a meat packing plant, altho we’re in Canada. The conditions are awful and I’m glad someone is talking about it.

I literally fell to the floor to finally hear someone in the mainstream acknowledge the animal agriculture here and in the "the next pandemic" video THANK YOU OMG I'm dedicating my whole career to this and no one talks about it. we HAVE to change how we interact with animals.

a whole episode on packing meat without a single joke about adam driver, im proud.

It’s so nice that since Trump’s loss John moved from “how shitty is everything in politics” to “how shitty is everything else besides politics that we didn’t have a chance to cover for about four years”

The delivery of "while a perverted owl...just watches" killed me

Nothing tells you to run faster than being told at an interview that we’re “family.”

BRAVO!!👏👏👏 I have been transitioning to a plant based diet lately due to the horrors of the industry, this just gives me more motivation to stick with it, thank you John Oliver!

I love that the one host notes, “I get people need jobs...” without pointing out that the plant owners should be held to account for the horrid conditions, not the workers for having to do that in order to survive.

John Oliver, you are my number 4, my family is number 8 at best.

"We're family...until I think you've been talking to a union organizer."

Both my father and sister work at meatpacking plants and they’ve told me a lot of this, but I’m really glad John is talking about it so it can become a national conversation.

I remember learning about the horrendous conditions of factories in the industrial revolution in middle school. Funny how it was all referred to as if that kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore

You should do a story about the working conditions of nurses - especially nurses who work in hospitals.

Finally we’re getting these in the UK

I love it when someone tells me Unions and labor laws are no longer needed in this country.

This genuinely made me shed a tear for those people. How could anyone treat a human being like that? It's modern slavery.

30 years. That man gave up 30 years of his life and they sold him out over being too cheap to follow safety protocol. My chest hurts.

Me: Oh yay, a new john Oliver! Me, 19 minutes later: god i'm depressed.

"This company is like a family..." Sure. The Lannisters.

I think that John Oliver as hilarious as he is, is my favourite journalist. I know that he's not going into physically dangerous places and reporting from war zones but he's a British man who is uncovering the important and insane truths in America. He is a citizen there now.

This man is truly a hero without a cape.

John Oliver consistently makes me care about issues I never thought about. He is a voice we can trust for sure.

"We don't need unions anymore" they said. "Their just taking your money" they said.

115 years later, "The Jungle" is still a novel that exemplifies the American meat industry. Like, nothing's changed.

Sometimes when you see the suffering of the animals, you kind of forget of what the workers have to go through.

John Oliver's team and investigative reporting is just so top notch.

"Put a box on your head" is among the most ridiculous things I've heard today. They're literally trying to fool the OSHA inspector the same way I rob a store in Skyrim.

When a company says "we're like a family here" they don't mean you'll be treated with compassion and respect. They mean "We're the parents and you'll do everything we say without question or we will beat you or disown you"

I live in a small town in Texas where one of the Tyson plants are. It’s one of the biggest employers in our area and everything Oliver is talking about is true. They treat their people like shit, but people can’t quit because they need the job. My brother currently works at one of these plants. He works 14 hour work days slicing up animal guts and barely gets a lunch break.

Back to good ol' normal depressing stories, instead of maga depressing stories.

Whenever boss says that his company is like family then you can be sure they have issues.

That ad legit took a whole right turn.

As a guinea pig owner, the commercial is 100% absolutely factual, if I open the refrigerator and don't feed them produce.

When an employer says “it’s like family here “, what they are really saying is “working here will probably leave you with some serious psychological trauma “

Upton Sinclair just out here like "I TOLD YOU A CENTURY AGO. A CENTURY"

I've worked a few jobs where people have to wear diapers or otherwise are generally not able to take a bathroom break. I'm in Canada. Also I'm used to how insane it is that people in office jobs get paid more and get more opportunities for free or discounted gym/meditation stuff. I wish it was available for the labourers. It's needed there so badly.

As an Australian I am forever grateful for the safety authorities with genuine power and for the people who fought for workplace safety years and decades ago that today I benefit from.

This is absolutely why we need stronger unions. Yeah, there are problems that arise from them, but companies will inevitably abuse their workforce if there isn't anyone standing up for them.

Upton Sinclair is rolling in his grave like "damn this shit STILL going on?!"

Transition of being a major comedy show to being a major reality check comedy show 🙌

as a health and safety representative in Denmark at a meat packaging facility, this video made me realise how good we have it. We have a lot of work to do in making conditions proper here, but at least the managers listen, care about people and allow fucking bathroom breaks.

I believe that guy about treating his employees like family. But then, I also believe he'd sell his grandma if it made him a buck...

My mom broke her hand and she had to work the next day. I worked for these plants many years. It’s also humiliating they don’t give you a bathroom break when you need one. Sometimes none at all all day long. The lines are at a very fast speed. The knives are always dull. It’s horrible. I cried every day. There’s no sick day benefits. Poor families.

As a factory worker I can confirm yeah shits fucked up man, I got second degree burns all over my left hand when I was 22 and they tried to stop me from going to the hospital, kept demanding I admit it was my own fault and that I wouldn’t be able to get workmans comp for it, and then made me go to a doctor hand picked by the factory who they could then had a company liaison sit in on all my appointments taking away any doctor patient confidentiality because they were looking to fire me and hoping I’d fail a drug test or get something else to document on me

"Family" the truly offensive F word. The only "family" like treatment you get from corporate managers is just like the alcoholic uncle who askes for more all the time.

To think nothing really has changed since Upton Sinclair wrote the book “The Jungle” is truly depressing.

"It is futile to speak of liberty as long as economic slavery exists."

Love this one. The first time I became aware of this topic was when I read "Fast Food Nation." This issue was only one of the subjects the book spoke about, but it was pretty significant. Fortunately, I was living in Sicily at the time, because after reading the book, there was a lot of food I did not want to touch. Some of the things it talked about included the conditions in the plants and the lack of availability for any government agency to do anything about it. There was a part about a USDA agent who shut down a plant. Less than a day later, the plant was open, and the USDA worker was reprimanded and sent to work elsewhere. It made me completely lose faith in the "USDA" label. While I am far from being vegetarian, I strongly support anything that can be done to keep workers safe. Even slowing those lines down would do a lot to help. Even if that meant less product for higher prices, I believe that in the U.S., we consume way too much meat. It's not like I want to give it up, but it definitely wouldn't hurt for most of us to cut back. Who knows, American health could actually improve. Two birds, one stone.

I worked two summers in a chicken processing plant in the 90s, and I still have pretty serious issues from the RMI I got. I saw a lot of minor and moderate injuries, nearly daily, and a couple of significant injuries. Generally, they were the result of a worker being irresponsible and cutting corners or clowning around, but some were clearly due to sheer fatigue or the sometimes unreasonable speed demanded by the floor supervisors.

"I fucking warned you dude. I told you, bro" - Upton Sinclair

More people need to read "The Jungle". It's relevant 100 years after it was written.

Productivity goes up while wages go down. Thanks Reaganomics!

As someone who worked in a Meatpacking plant in Canada. I suffered with Carpel tunnel, Golfer's elbow and nerve damage. My friend had surgery to move the nerve from his elbow joint to the outside of the joint. Etc.Etc. Horrid stuff all the time. 😪😠😡

What I have learned from this show is, that if the company claims their clients or workers are like family it means they are actually fucked.

I want someone to run for president on the platform that they will watch every John Oliver episode and then fix it.

I am so glad I live in New Zealand.

I wish I could be interviewed! I have worked for two of the biggest chicken companies (Tyson and George’s) and I have so much dirt. There is literally a Marshallese graveyard that filled up during Covid because of those companies. They either caught it there, from being forced to work with sick people, or brought it home, to their elderly and children. It happened to one of the largest populations of Marshallese people in the WORLD. Their immune systems are weakened because of what we did to their land, and the companies said they had to show up or lose their livelihood, even though other employees were showing up sick and some even refused to wear masks. They did nothing to help or protect these people. I have personally witnessed (and reported) their management making fun of their Marshallese and Hispanic employees, and actively discriminating against them. I hate those places.

When he said “family,” he meant in the Charles Manson sense.

I find It depressing that we learn more on a comedy show like this than our “news networks” across the board.

That was Epic! Thank you Mr. Oliver.

Imagine if a fraction of the defence budget was repurposed to OSHA, would more Americans be kept safe than spending on a foreign war?

I work as a French interpreter in Iowa and almost every job is for French Africans who are going to therapy from injuries at their meat-packing jobs.

Once you say, “we are like family,” I am running away.

When people tell you that you're family you know they about to use you big time.

The spirit of Bob Murray is still going strong.

George Zimmerman's auction of a murder weapon will forever go down in history as one of the most grotesque, heartless, and appalling endeavors ever.