A Georgia congressman thinks poultry plants should be able to increase line speeds to 175 birds per minute. That was a bad idea from Obama’s USDA. It was nixed, but now it’s resurrected.
Restaurant workers in California experience severe injuries and disability; OSHA pushes back against a judge’s ruling in poultry plant inspection case; Gov. Chris Christie vetoes a $15 minimum wage bill; and the women making Nike products in Vietnam often earn poverty wages and face grueling production expectations.
For the just the second time in 10 years, OSHA issued citations to a poultry company for repetitive motion hazards that cause musculoskeletal injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
For 17 years, Salvadora Roman deboned chickens on the processing line at Wayne Farms in Decatur, Alabama. Because of the repetitive movement and speed of the processing line, Roman developed a chronic and painful hand injury that affects her ability to do even the most basic household chores. About three years ago, she was fired from the plant for taking time off work to visit a doctor for the injury she sustained on the line.
How much more evidence does Secretary Vilsack need before he scraps the USDA’s ill-conceived proposal to “modernize” the poultry slaughter inspection process?
Pilgrim’s Pride is the world’s second largest poultry producer. The firm’s repeat violations of chemical process safety management should earn them OSHA’s severe violator label.