Worker Safety in US Meat and Poultry Slaughterhouses,Including Impact of COVID-19 *

Abstract

From Upton Sinclair's The Jungle published in 1906 to the 2019 Report by Human Rights Watch, When We’re Dead and Buried Our Bones Will Keep Hurting, the continuous hazardous working conditions facing workers in meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants have been well documented. Sinclair singled out the breakneck line speeds as the key source of worker misery over 100 years ago. Meatpacking workers still face dangerous working conditions that now result in injury rates 3 times the national average, exceptionally high numbers of amputations and lacerations, and extraordinarily high rates of repetitive trauma disorders. Declared essential workers who worked throughout the pandemic, meatpacking workers, and their communities suffered disproportionally high rates of COVID-19 infections, illnesses, and deaths. Congressional reports documented the meat industry's failure to protect workers during the pandemic, underscoring how the meat and poultry industry not only failed to implement effective mitigation measures but actually fought to avoid protecting workers. As a result, meatpacking plants witnessed some of the worst outbreaks in the country, endangering not only workers but their families and their local communities – resulting in preventable widespread illness and death. Government studies found that the overwhelming majority of meatpacking workers infected with the coronavirus were racial and ethnic minorities.