USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service released the results of a pair of third-party studies commissioned in 2022 to evaluate the impact of faster line speeds at poultry and pork processing plants on worker injuries. The debate over line speeds heated up after the USDA took steps to speed them up during Trump’s first presidential term.
The studies compared worker outcomes at plants with varied line speeds and did not find a clear correlation between the slaughter line speed and worker injuries. However, the studies found 81 percent of poultry workers and 46 percent of pork workers had increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders across the board and reported high rates of moderate to severe upper extremity pain. Workers who had a higher “piece rate,” a measure of individual job pace, did have increased risk of injury. In other words, working faster did have an impact, but line speeds weren’t always associated with faster work.
In response, the Republican Agriculture Committee chairs released a joint statement that characterized the studies as a Biden administration attempt to villainize the chicken and pork industries and as proof that faster line speeds are safe. “We look forward to working with the incoming Trump administration to develop a long-term solution to ensure meat and poultry companies have the ability to operate at higher line speeds, while maintaining rigorous food safety and worker safety standards,” they wrote.
Worker groups, on the other hand, said the studies emphasized the increased risks revealed in the reports. “We call upon OSHA and the USDA in the incoming administration to make worker safety a priority, and mitigate risk at poultry plants to address the dangerous conditions outlined in the reports,” Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which counts 15,000 poultry workers among its members, said in a press release.
“We need to mandate job modifications that reduce ergonomic stressors and additional staffing to decrease repetitive motion and work speed; increase workers’ access to early and adequate medical treatment; and create better tool-sharpening programs to reduce the impact of cutting jobs.” (Link to this post)
