With all the upheaval, there is a lot of management shifts at the plant level. They use the model of bringing in a "stern, clean-up plant manager" for a couple of years to shake up the plant and get things running smoothly. Then they alternate that with a "warm, fuzzy plant manager" to boost morale and help the plant population lick their wounds. I worked for both. The gestapo tactics employed by the stern plant managers - that any other human resources department would balk at - are endorsed and supported by the corporate office. Sometimes, at the expense of diversity initiatives and endorsing what amounts to workplace violence. They are excused as, "He's a tough manager and we knew that bringing him in."
Surprisingly, that's not why I left ConAgra. I was unfortunate enough to work at a microwave popcorn plant. When I started developing early signs of popcorn lung (bronchiolitis obliterans) even though I always wore my respirator in the mixing areas, management turned on me. Suddenly, I was considered "the enemy" instead of a team mate, bunched in with the hourly workers who participate in the class-action lawsuits for butter lung (even though I never joined the lawsuits). I went in to ConAgra healthy, bright-eyed, eager to show my ability to foster success - and perhaps, a bit naively for believing what they told me about popcorn lung. I left with an obstructive airway that puzzles pulmonologists and has resulted in expensive tests and medications, shortness of breath and chest pain. Only time will tell if I have the disease - there is no cure.
As you might imagine, I'm a little bitter about being lied to about the dangers of diacetyl exposure. Now, ConAgra management treats me like a pariah, a traitor, which leave me disillusioned and disheartened. I poured my heart into working for that plant, and I believed in the vision Gary Rodkin painted for us. But when management turned their back on me at the first cough, I was shocked to be left behind so easily. I had no choice but to move on in my career.
Finally, insult to injury was when ConAgra decided to remove diacetyl from its butter flavorings in response to ONE CONSUMER'S UNPROVEN COMPLAINT that the diacetyl in his 4 bags of popcorn a day caused him to develop a respiratory disease. For years, ConAgra claimed it COULD NOT remove the diacetyl from the butter flavorings to protect its workers. But ONE CONSUMER complains, and suddenly - it's gone. Why couldn't they have they done that years ago, and spared hundreds of workers additional exposure?
You never really know how valuable your health is, until you cannot climb a flight of stairs without stopping to gasp for air. Until you look at your children and wonder if you will live long enough to see them graduate high school. Until you don't qualify for life insurance. I trusted ConAgra when they told me the respirators would protect me. I believed that diacetyl exposure was a necessary evil to make popcorn and keep everyone's jobs, so I accepted the explanation that it was essential to the product and could not be replaced. Then when I got sick, the company turned their back on me, and that trust was completely destroyed.
