NC: The Human Cost of the poultry Industry by The Charlotte observer

NOTE: UPDATE can be found at U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry 3-08-07

From: The Charlotte Observer
*Click within the Flash below to view the entire project

The Charlotte Observer has produced an unreal look into the dark side of todays meatpacking industry, with a investigative story entitled The Cruelest Cuts: The human cost of bringing poultry to your table. I urge all of my readers to check it out, according to their plants records they are safer than a toy store, can you imagine that?

Safer than a toy store?

Workplace safety experts also question a reported drop in musculoskeletal disorders. In 2006, 20.8 of every 10,000 poultry workers missed work because of MSDs, down from 88.3 in 1996, according to the Labor Department.

That 2006 rate would make poultry plants safer than toy stores. "It's intuitively implausible," said Dr. Michael Silverstein, a former OSHA policy chief. "Something is clearly wrong."

Here are the rates of MSDs resulting in lost time, per 10,000 workers:

47.4 Hobby, toy and game stores

38.6 Average for all industries

27.5 New car dealers

25.9 Pharmacies

20.8 Poultry processing

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Seems to me they probably have an tremendous illegal alien workforce, injuries occur, but don't get reported for fear of employer retaliation. God forbid they try to unionize, ICE will storm in and raid the place. Big props to the investigative writers at the Charlotte Observer, I can wait to read the entire work.