December, 2011 - Midwest Coalition for Human Rights

(Minneapolis and Lincoln) Meatpacking remains one of the most dangerous jobs in America with one of the highest rates of injury in manufacturing. These injuries are directly related to the fast pace of work that is required by companies as they seek to maximize profits.

In the fall of 2011, the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights and member organization Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest gathered over 500 signatures on a petition calling for slower line speeds in meatpacking and poultry processing plants. The petition was sent to government agencies responsible for ensuring worker and food safety, including U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S Department of Labor (DOL), and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA).

Many modern plants process over 400 cattle per hour; more than six live animals per minute. Individual line workers can make 20,000 cutting motions in a day. As a result workers often develop crippling cumulative trauma disorders, hands and limbs can be mangled by meat processing machines, and workers may sustain deep wounds from knives that slip.

The fast pace of work in meatpacking and poultry processing plants compromises the heath of workers and contaminates the meat they process. Food borne illness is a rising problem because fecal matter from recently slaughtered animals splatters on the meat in a sloppy rush to maintain the fast production speed.

The meatpacking and poultry industry has failed to respond to the documented evidence of deplorable conditions and OSHA has not sufficiently recognized the connection between production speed and worker safety. The Midwest Coalition for Human Rights looks forward to hearing from OSHA as well as the USDA and DOL with regards to the recently submitted petition on this issue.

The Midwest Coalition for Human Rights is a network of 56 advocacy organizations, service providers, and university-based centers collaborating to promote and protect human rights in our Midwest region, in the U.S., and internationally. Working together we provide broader visibility for urgent human rights issues in the Heartland and project a strong Midwest advocacy voice in the national and international human rights debate.