‘They’re killing you’: US poultry workers fear faster lines will lead to more injury | Trump administration

The Trump administration will speed up processing lines for poultry and pork meatpacking plants while halting reports on worker safety, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced recently, in a move that workers and advocates say will lead to more injuries.

Some poultry and pork plants already receive waivers to speed up production lines, and the USDA plans to update its rules to make the changes permanent and applicable to all poultry and pork plants, the department said in a press release.

At the same time, the USDA will no longer require reports on worker safety data, calling the information “redundant” and pointing to research that the agency says “confirmed no direct link between processing speeds and workplace injuries”.

Four people working at different poultry processing plants described to the Guardian fast-paced working conditions that compound the risks for injury. They asked that their names and locations be withheld for fear the Trump administration would revoke their visas.

One young man had only worked at the chicken processing plant for two weeks, and he was still scrambling to learn the job and keep up with his expected workload.

After sustaining one workplace injury, he said, he kept working – until he fell from a 13ft ladder and broke his back.

He hasn’t been able to return to work as the fracture slowly heals.

“I could’ve been paralyzed for the rest of my life,” the man said. Now, he’s “living with remorse and regret”, he said, unable to work or pay bills on his own.

A January study from the USDA found that faster line speeds were not the leading reason for injuries – but a higher “piece rate”, or a different way of measuring speed, did correlate with injuries.

The report cautioned that the injury rate among poultry workers was already high at speeds of both 140 and 175 birds per minute, with 81% of workers at high risk for musculoskeletal disorders – “indicating that current risk mitigation efforts are insufficient”.

The majority (70%) of workers first experienced “moderate to severe work-related pain” within their first three months on the job, the report said.

“There’s injuries occurring on a regular basis, and it’s most definitely associated with the speeds that people are moving,” said Michael Payan, director of operations at the Sussex Health and Environmental Network (Shen), an organization based in Delaware and Maryland.

Maria Payan, executive director of Shen, noted they were “putting more through input – that’s more injury”.

“Why, at the same time you’re increasing line speeds, would you eliminate collecting worker safety data?” she asked. “If they don’t think it’s going to affect the workers, then why would they stop collecting the data?”

One woman worked in poultry processing for 11 years before being fired after getting sick with Covid, she said. She would chop chicken carcasses hanging from a hook – the same motion, over and over again.

Her hands and shoulders still swell regularly, and her hands cramp every night, despite not working the line for five years.

“They’re killing you,” she said of the fast-paced work demands.

Under the new rules, workers may process up to 175 birds a minute, a rise from the maximum speed of 140 before 2020. But unlike in 2020, when meatpacking workers were devastated by high rates of illness and death from Covid, there are no shortages of meat.

The move will “reduce burdens on the US pork and poultry industries … ensuring they can meet demand without excessive government interference”, the USDA said in a statement.

There are about 250,000 poultry workers in the US, and in some states, agricultural workers are exempt from federal labor laws.

About 78% of poultry processors surveyed in Alabama said faster line speeds made their work more dangerous, according to a 2013 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Poultry workers suffer five times as many occupational illness cases compared with the average worker in the US. Their rates of carpal tunnel syndrome are seven times higher and repetitive strain injuries are 10 times higher than average workers.

Workers also experience allergic rhinitis, or chronic cold-like symptoms, from the cold temperatures and exposure to chemicals. Peracetic acid, a substance used to battle pathogens like salmonella and E coli, was found in the air at rates that exceeded regulatory limits at one in five jobs in all locations, according to the January USDA report.

A 2015 report from Oxfam pointed to increasing line speeds as one of the reasons for injuries.

Reported injuries are probably lower than the actual rate, because many poultry processors offer care through on-site medical clinics, which means they may not need to refer workers to outside medical practitioners, the Oxfam report noted: “If companies can avoid doing more than this, they don’t have to record the incident, or report to the US government’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (Osha).”

One man worked on the processing line for 15 years. He spent “15 years doing the same thing five days a week, eight to 10 hours a day”, he said. He developed pain after eight years, but he kept working.

In 2020, he had to undergo surgery for his repetitive stress injuries. He was fired while recovering, he said, with no benefits or severance. He still suffers from back pain, and his family now supports him financially.

Recent arrivals are frequently in the lowest of the “pecking order”, as Payan calls it, “which means, basically, they’re put in the lines where you would do the repeated cuts consistently”.

A lack of training and persistent language barriers also contribute to the high rate of injuries, as workers are pushed to move fast as soon as they begin work.

“We have a lot of workers who are not being trained properly in their language,” Maria Payan said. New workers are frequently instructed to imitate the person next to them. “If you understand this industry – these are very, very, very dangerous jobs,” Payan said.

A third man, on his first day working in the sanitation department of a processing plant, was dipping machine parts into caustic chemicals, and he started feeling an itch on his arms. Soon, the burning intensified. He pulled back his sleeves, and the skin of his forearms, from wrist to elbow, was blistered and peeling.

His co-worker said he must have raised his hands above his elbows – which he hadn’t realized was forbidden – and the chemicals dripped from his gloves down his sleeves.

“There was no proper training at all,” the man said.

The on-site nurse told him to wash the chemicals off with soap, and she later referred him to occupational therapy – not the emergency room, the man said. He wasn’t able to work for three months.

Back home in Haiti, the man was an accountant, but in the US, he will work any job he can. “It’s about survival,” he said.