New Campaign Exposes Widespread Abuses of Workers in America’s Poultry Industry

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/new-campaign-exposes-widespread-abuses-of-workers-in-americas-poultry-industry/

October 26, 2015 By Oxfam

Oxfam America calls on top poultry companies to publicly commit to core labor rights, including fair compensation, safer workplace conditions, and greater workforce engagement

Poultry workers in the United States suffer extremely high rates of injury, earn poverty level wages, and work in a climate of fear, Oxfam America said in a new report released today. The report is central to Oxfam’s new nationwide campaign that exposes the human cost of the modern poultry industry and rallies consumers to call on the nation’s largest poultry companies--Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s, Perdue, and Sanderson Farms--to treat workers with fairness and dignity.

Oxfam’s report, Lives on the Line, examines the hazardous plant conditions that lead to elevated rates of illness and injuries, and exposes industry practices designed to discourage workers from reporting violations and prevent organizing. The report also examines the industry’s complex history of tapping marginalized populations for its workforce. Most of the roughly 250,000 poultry workers are minorities, immigrants, and refugees, and a significant number are women.

“Poultry workers are among the most vulnerable and exploited workers in the United States,” said Ray Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America. “The industry is booming, profits are climbing, but poultry workers remain trapped at the bottom. Oxfam believes the consumer has tremendous power to put pressure on these companies to change their unfair policies and ensure that workers can assert their rights without fear of retribution.”

The report cites dozens of medical studies and government studies that document how the relentless pace of the processing line and more than 20,000 cutting, pulling, and hanging motions per worker per day contribute to painful and crippling musculoskeletal injuries. Poultry workers suffer carpal tunnel syndrome seven times more often than workers in all other industries; they suffer occupational illnesses at five times the rate.

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