EAT LESS CHICKEN!

Each year, Alabama produces more than a billion “broilers,” or chickens that are bred to be cooked rather than to produce eggs. The industry generates about 75,000 jobs in Alabama, but with a heavy price. Small teams of workers slice, gut or hang more than 100 chickens each minute, every minute, for at least eight hours a day, often under unsafe and abusive conditions. Workers are denied bathroom breaks, knives that are sharp enough, adequate safety equipment, and get fired for getting injured or for complaining. Many live in rural areas and have no other way of making a living.This is the gruesome reality depicted by Alabama Appleseed and the Southern Poverty Law Center in their report, “Unsafe at These Speeds: Alabama’s Poultry Industry and its Disposable Workers.”

Alabama Appleseed and SLPC interviewed around 300 workers in Alabama’s poultry industry for this project, which is modeled after Nebraska Appleseed’s 2009 meatpacking safety study, “The Speed Kills You.” More than two thirds of the workers interviewed suffered significant work-related injuries or illnesses, were scared or reluctant to report injuries, and were not comfortable asking their employer to fix hazards. The workers endure gnarled fingers, chemical burns, respiratory problems, and extreme pain in their hands–carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis, caused by repetitive motion.

KJ