• Poultry Line Workers

    Keep Our Jobs and Food Safe

Warning Tape

Jobs inside poultry plants are some of the most dangerous and difficult in America, and the risk to food workers and our food supply increase when the line speeds increase.

Poultry Line Worker

Why?

As line speeds increase, so do injuries — including serious and bloody cuts. Unbelievably, major poultry industry groups are ignoring these risks and lobbying the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Congress to eliminate line speed limits entirely.
Forcing poultry workers and federal meat inspectors to work significantly faster will increase the odds they’re injured and make chicken less safe for every consumer to eat.

Tell the USDA what you think

For the sake of keeping hard-working families and the chicken we eat safe — tell the USDA to reject the petition to eliminate line speeds at poultry plants by leaving a comment.

It is critical that we make comments against this petition. Feel free to use the following sample language in your comment:

Please keep consumers and poultry workers safe and reject this petition to eliminate line speeds. We depend upon America’s poultry workers for safe food.

Poultry jobs are already difficult and dangerous for workers. Injuries are high at current line speeds and may only increase at faster speeds.

Eliminating line speed limits makes it harder for federal meat inspectors and quality control workers in plants to do their jobs. That means it will be less safe for all of us to eat chicken.

We deserve safe food, and America’s poultry workers deserve safe workplaces. Reject this petition and keep safe line speed limits in poultry plants.

FACTS

Here are some facts you can include in your comment as well:

Safety Icon

Poultry workers are at twice the risk of being injured on the job compared to other American workers, according to a 2016 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). These injuries are directly related to the fast and forceful nature of their work.

Contamination Icon

If current line speeds are increased, federal inspectors who are tasked with spotting contaminated birds may be forced to examine more than two per second for abscesses, tumors, or other diseases.

Bacteria Icon

Countries which allow faster line speeds have more issues with food safety. Germany allows line speeds up to 200 BPM and their poultry meat is found to have higher levels of Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination.

No Bathroom

At current line speeds, poultry workers at nonunion plants were regularly denied bathroom breaks and forced to wear diapers, according to a 2016 Oxfam report.