One of Trump’s cruelest policies yet has received almost zero attention | America’s slaughterhouses could become even more dangerous for workers and animals
One of Trump’s cruelest policies yet has received almost zero attention | America’s slaughterhouses could become even more dangerous for workers and animals
One of Trump’s cruelest policies yet has received almost zero attention
America’s slaughterhouses could become even more dangerous for workers and animals.
Last week, the US Department of Agriculture proposed a strikingly cruel policy, even for this administration: speeding up the kill lines at America’s chicken, turkey, and pig slaughterhouses. The plan will make one of the country’s most dangerous jobs — working in a meat processing plant — even more unsafe, labor advocates argue.
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Chicken slaughterhouses would be able to increase kill line speeds from 140 birds per minute to 175 — a 25 percent increase. Turkey slaughterhouses would be able to accelerate from 55 birds per minute to 60. Pig slaughterhouses currently have a maximum line speed limit of 1,106 pigs per hour, but under the new rule, there will be no speed limit.
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The proposed rules are all but certain to increase injury rates for these workers, who already have some of the highest in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (and which, according to numerous federal government sources, are likely severe underestimates).