1) Upton Sinclair believed you must have certain qualities to succeed in Packingtown. One of these qualities was the idea that you had to be a "pace-maker", someone who is able to keep up to the pace of the work environment. If you failed to do this, there was a long line of people waiting for your job.
2) The plant owners main goal was to maintain their profits. Factories continuously oppressed their workers through capitalism and treated the animals terribly before they were killed. Anything they did was justified to the owners as long as they maintained the profits.
3) When Sinclair says "…there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar", he's saying how there was no decency between the workers and no one was loyal to each other. Everyone was there to make money and not lose their job, they didn't care about the others. The workers wanted to keep their place in "The Jungle" and didn't care about being friendly and having allies.
The government still relies on meat packaging today, making new safety and health regulations a priority. Years ago when meat packaging was handled so poorly, many people got sick and injured. That's why it's necessary to have guardrails, ventilation, etc, to keep people safe from risk.
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