The in-house medical care at Tyson Foods allegedly conceals injuries, throwing what it’s like to be a meatpacking worker in the United States into sharp relief.
Nearly all the meat and poultry workers I interviewed for the report identified production speed as the biggest factor making their job dangerous. Human Rights Watch documented alarmingly high rates of serious injury and chronic illness among meatpacking workers, and called on the USDA to stop pursuing this rule which at the time was not yet in effect and other policies that increase work speeds in meat and poultry plants. We also described concerns raised by workers’ rights advocates about the failure of the agency’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to adequately consider the effects that eliminating line speed limits would have on workers.