Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued over 20 citations to Pilgrim’s Pride, one of the largest poultry processors in the country, for violations of health and safety standards. Notably, OSHA took an important step to address the shoddy and dangerous medical treatment of poultry workers by citing Pilgrim’s Pride for failing to provide appropriate medical care… Read more →
For Immediate Release November 19, 2015 Contact: Jeff Sheldon Communications Director Nebraska Appleseed Office: 402-438-8853 Mobile: 402-840-7289 jsheldon@neappleseed.org Thanksgiving places the Human Cost of our food Front and Center Poultry and meat workers call for safe working conditions, fair wages, and increased worker voice As millions of Americans sit down for their Thanksgiving meal next week, most don’t think about… Read more →
Earlier this month, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released a study of a Maryland poultry plant which found that 34 percent of workers had carpal tunnel syndrome while an alarming 76 percent exhibited signs of nerve damage. As NIOSH noted in a blog post accompanying the release of its report, more than half of the positions… Read more →
***For Immediate Release*** March 18, 2015 CONTACT Jeff Sheldon Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed Office: (402) 438-8853 Mobile: (402) 840-7289 jsheldon@neappleseed.org Emma Weinstein-Levey Southern Poverty Law Center (334) 324-6580 emma.levey@splcenter.org Meat and Poultry Workers Denied Better Workplace Protections by Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA: Lack of Resources Preventing Action to Protect Workers MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The U.S.… Read more →
Last Wednesday, ProPublica and NPR launched a detailed and extensive series on the troubling trend of states reducing workers’ compensation benefits over the past 10 years. These reductions – drastic in some states – have left workers who were injured on the job without support for medical treatment and recovery to get back to work. In fact, the report states… Read more →
For Immediate Release December 17, 2014 Contact: Jeff Sheldon Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed Office: (402) 438-8853 Mobile: (402) 840-7289 jsheldon@neappleseed.org Kyleah Starling, Southern Poverty Law Center Phone: (334) 956-8420 kyleah.starling@splcenter.org Civil rights groups demand formal OSHA response on worker protections Letter requests written response to 2013 petition demanding safeguards from crippling injuries LINCOLN — Today, a coalition of civil… Read more →
For those following the longstanding problems of high injury rates and relentless work speeds in meat and poultry processing, this may sound familiar. An important new article from The Nation, “Americans Are Working So Hard It’s Actually Killing People,” outlines how “the jobless recovery means massive speedups for many workers you depend on.” In industries as varied as nursing, meatpacking,… Read more →
Yesterday, OSHA issued 11 serious safety and health citations to Wayne Farms, resulting in fines over $100,000. The agency found that one of Wayne Farms’ poultry plants in Alabama exposed workers to dangerous musculoskeletal hazards and serious injuries, and failed to accurately record and manage injuries suffered by workers. OSHA documented what medical evidence, reports, and surveys have shown for… Read more →
For Immediate Release October 30, 2014 Contact, Jeff Sheldon Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed Office: (402) 438-8853 Mobile: (402) 840-7289 Email: jsheldon@neappleseed.org OSHA issues noteworthy fine to poultry plant for injuries and abuses Violations echo concerns of Nebraska meatpacking and poultry workers Yesterday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a fine of more than $100,000 to an Alabama… Read more →
***For Immediate Release*** Contact, Jeff Sheldon Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed Office: (402) 438-8853 Mobile: (402) 840-7289 jsheldon@neappleseed.org Obama Administration Approves Dangerous USDA Poultry Rule Advocate coalition decries regulation as harmful to food and worker safety LINCOLN — Today, despite the opposition of hundreds of thousands of consumers, dozens of Members of Congress, and more than 100 food and worker safety… Read more →
***For Immediate Release*** July 16, 2014 Contact, Jeff Sheldon Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed Office: (402) 438-8853 Mobile: (402) 840-7289 jsheldon@neappleseed.org New poultry industry standards threaten to endanger workers’ health, food safety, and animal welfare On July 10, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget a final version of a new rule… Read more →
As the USDA continues to push its proposal to allow increased line speeds in poultry plants – with dangerous implications for food and worker safety – a Washington Post article raises new questions: Did USDA mislead the public, Congress about risks for poultry workers? Just the week before, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued an unusually… Read more →
Note: As we reported last week, meatpacking and poultry workers, Nebraska Appleseed, the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights, and Southern Poverty Law Center testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on March 25. The Commission is investigating crippling injuries and human rights abuses in U.S. meat and poultry processing facilities. Petitioners called for better U.S. government policies to protect… Read more →
Note: As we reported earlier this week, meatpacking and poultry workers, Nebraska Appleseed, the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights, and Southern Poverty Law Center testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on March 25. The Commission is investigating crippling injuries and human rights abuses in U.S. meat and poultry processing facilities. Petitioners called for better U.S. government policies to… Read more →
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 25, 2013 Contact: Apreill Hartsfield Southern Poverty Law Center (334) 782-6624 apreill.hartsfield@splcenter.org Jeff Sheldon Nebraska Appleseed (402) 438-8853 jsheldon@neappleseed.org Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Hears Testimony About Worker Abuse in U.S. Meatpacking, Poultry Plants WASHINGTON – Civil rights groups and meat and poultry workers testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) today, describing how the… Read more →
Over the last couple of years we have kept you informed on the high rates of crippling injuries in meatpacking and poultry processing and our fight against the USDA’s dangerous Poultry Rule, which will further increase work speeds and remove federal food safety inspectors, posing great dangers to food and workers’ safety. Washington Post: “Poultry workers take fight to Capitol… Read more →
WASHINGTON – Congressman Bennie Thompson and other congressional leaders joined poultry workers today urging the Administration to stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from allowing poultry plants to increase processing line speeds – a decision likely to lead to more worker injuries and threaten food safety in Nebraska and across the country. The USDA plans to enact new regulations… Read more →
The Charlotte Observer has published two strong pieces in the past few days that address the risks of the USDA’s proposed poultry rule — a rule that would increase line speeds to a punishing 175 birds per minute and decrease the number of federal inspectors in favor of company-trained (or not trained) employees. These changes would considerably increase the risk… Read more →
Bloomberg BusinessWeek has published a compelling piece today by Ted Genoways who examines the work and food safety issues of five U.S. pork plants that have been participating in a pilot program that increases the processing line’s work speed and reduces the number of federal inspectors, including the Hormel plant in Fremont, Nebraska. This pilot program is identical to the… Read more →
Today, as the Thanksgiving turkey gets pardoned by the President and as Americans get ready to spend time with their families for the holiday, we would like to highlight some excellent blog posts and articles that call attention to how a proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture would be harmful to consumer and worker safety. These posts clearly… Read more →
Dr.Celeste Monforton, a health and safety expert who writes at The Pump Handle, a health and safety blog, wrote a superb post last week that expresses disbelief at the USDA’s insistence – in the face of extensive and contradictory evidence – that the poultry rule will improve food safety. Dr. Monforton lists all of the evidence that has piled up… Read more →
Last week, a coalition of worker and food safety advocates and allies gathered in front of the White House and rolled out a petition that contained over 500,000 names of people from all over the country who strongly oppose the USDA’s proposed poultry rule. This dangerous rule would increase the already high speed of the production line to an unfathomable… Read more →
Workers Suffer Injuries, Illnesses Due to Punishing Processing Line Speeds A coalition of civil rights groups filed a formal petition today urging the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to better protect workers in poultry and meatpacking plants where federal policies allow workers to operate in hazardous conditions that often leave them… Read more →
Over the weekend, the Lincoln Journal Star published an article about Tom Conover, an award-winning journalist, who went “undercover” as a USDA inspector in a Nebraska meatpacking plant and has recounted his experience in the May 2013 cover story for Harper’s Magazine. (Conover’s article, “The Way of All Flesh”, is available online with a Harper’s subscription.) During his time at… Read more →
For the next few weeks, we will continue to take an in-depth look at the powerful new report from Southern Poverty Law Center and Alabama Appleseed, Unsafe at These Speeds, that exposes the dangers poultry plants pose to workers and consumers. This post will examine the second section of the report, which focuses on how workers are afraid of reporting… Read more →
