Nearly everyone has stories of workers peeing on the line. Workers say there are seldom enough of these replacement workers available so they often have to wait an hour or more. The supervisor must in turn find someone to fill that spot. They have to ask their line supervisor to use the bathroom. Workers tell you that the company often denies these requests.Īlmost all workers report that it's nearly impossible to take a break. You wish you could rotate to different jobs on the line-to rest your muscles, learn new skills, and alleviate monotony. So you repeat the same motion tens of thousands of times each shift. Your supervisor is under pressure to meet his daily production quota, so the line rarely stops or slows down.Įach job on the line focuses on one small task, one single part of the bird: wing, leg, breast. Sometimes you spend hours on the line standing in a pool of blood. Cleaning involves water, chlorine, detergent. The birds produce blood, offal, and grease. You note that it causes your hands to stiffen and makes handling your tools harder. The US government's Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) notes that cold temperatures exacerbate the harmful effects of repetitive motions. This reduces microbial growth on the chicken carcasses-and it chills workers like you to the bone. In most plants, the temperature hovers around 40 degrees F. You arrive for your shift dressed in bulky clothes. Conditions pose constant dangers to the women and men who work there. The world inside a poultry plant is not only harsh, but unhealthy. So, we collected stories, photos, and video from workers who invited you into their lives to show you what’s wrong and how you can help. You need to know what really goes on behind the walls of those poultry plants. We deserve to know where our food comes from. And many have spoken out to ensure that the conditions under which chickens are raised are improving. Many of us choose to eat chicken because we believe it is a healthy and more environmentally friendly source of protein than other meats. Because of their precarious situations, most workers are afraid to speak out or do anything that might jeopardize their jobs.īig Poultry is keeping some crucial information from you. To find workers willing to do these jobs, the poultry industry exploits vulnerable people who have few other options: minorities, immigrants, and refugees-even prisoners. In fact, Big Poultry treats workers as replaceable cogs in their machine turnover in poultry plants can reach as high as 100 percent every year. These are demanding jobs-and the industry doesn’t make it any easier for the workers. Please implement changes throughout your poultry plants and lead the way in ensuring that your workers have the right to safety, opportunity, and dignity in their labor. I care where my chicken comes from – and I care deeply about the people who help get it to my family’s table. Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s, Perdue, Sanderson Farms: Please add your name below to demand respect for poultry workers’ rights.
But they won’t, unless they hear a loud and clear message from like you. As industry leaders, they have the power to make changes to quickly improve conditions for their workers. These problems are industry-wide, but the four biggest poultry companies control nearly 60 percent of the chicken market. As they process the chicken we eat, they face dangerous conditions and poverty-level wages on a daily basis. Roughly a quarter of a million people work on the processing line in American poultry plants. × Close Act now: Demand fair, safe working conditions for poultry workers