SPLC: U.S. must protect poultry workers' rights
Every day, tens of thousands of people work in poultry plants gutting and slicing chicken carcasses zipping by at a rate up to 140 birds a minute.
The grueling speed often leads to debilitating pain and disabling injuries in workers’ hands and arms. Yet Congressman Doug Collins thinks this dangerous speed is too slow. He has asked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to allow faster line speeds so that poultry plant owners can make bigger profits.
The poultry industry, its allies in Congress, and the Department of Agriculture must stop treating poultry workers like disposable parts of machine assembly lines. If Secretary Perdue follows through on Representative Collins’ request, it will be yet another example of this administration’s rhetoric about protecting American workers ringing utterly hollow.
