Traditionally the most common dangers in meatpacking were knife wounds and falls due to wet conditions. Since 1980, repetitive-motion disorders have become the most prevalent form of workplace injuries, as the danger to workers shifted from the hand holding the meat to the hand making the cuts. The increase in these forms of workplace dangers is closely associated with the collapse of union power and the sharp decline in meatpacking employment to jobs of last resort.

The current injury-and-illness reporting requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conceal the extent of workplace injuries in meatpacking. Unlike methods prevalent before 2002, injuries that do not require absence from work are exempt from reporting requirements. Similarly, firms are not required to report injuries developed through cumulative activity, such as repetitive-motion disorders. Consequently, the level of workplace dangers in meatpacking is no longer accurately reflected in government statistics.

In their generally sympathetic responses to Tichenor, economist Barry Chiswick stresses the costs of the modern-day welfare state as an additional consideration affecting political discussion in recent years, Nancy Foner expands the political dimension to encompass the diversity of state and local polities, while David Gutiérrez suggests that older, static ideas of "social membership" are being upended by the presence and uncowed activism of "noncitizens" in an era of global economic realignment.