Slippery floors and flying knives

Slippery floors and flying knives

Many people work hard. Many people work hard for not a whole lot of money. Many people work hard, for not a whole lot of money, at disagreeable tasks.

And then there are people who work hard, for not a whole lot of money, at disagreeable tasks -- while putting their bodies in danger.

Who would choose to hold such a job? No secret there -- it's people who as a practical matter don't really have a choice at all. That makes them prime candidates for exploitation.

In North Carolina, the nastiest, most dangerous jobs tend to be located far from the urban prosperity belt stretched across the state's midsection. For those of us who go about our comfortable lives in places like Raleigh, those jobs and workers usually are out of sight and out of mind.

But just how was it that all those nice chicken breasts and pork chops came to lie so temptingly in our favorite upscale grocery's display case?

Meat processing is a huge industry in this state, in tandem with production of the meat on factory farms. The chicken plants and slaughterhouses are mainstays of rural counties where any job at all that lets somebody pay the rent and buy shoes for the kids can be hard to find.

The latest reminder of just what goes on in these places comes from researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in partnership with Centro Latino of Caldwell County, astride the Blue Ridge northwest of Charlotte.

A study by the team focused on workplace illnesses and injuries among Hispanic poultry plant workers in six counties in that part of the state. Hispanics often find themselves at the bottom of the employment ladder, and they now make up a large share of the workforce in the factories that kill, dress and package meat for those glistening display cases.

The researchers conducted in-person interviews with 200 poultry workers. Of that group, 119 workers reported experiencing symptoms of one or more of five types of occupational injury or illness during the previous 30 days. The categories of ailments included breathing problems, skin problems, and problems with the legs and feet, neck and back, and arms and hands.

It was those ergonomic complaints that proved to be most common. "Workers who lift chickens onto hooks at the beginning of the process, for example, must keep up with line speed," the study report says. "Those who cut or trim may make the same cutting motion as many as 40,000 times per shift. Back and neck pain account for a significant portion of the musculoskeletal injuries, frequently the result of trips and falls on slippery floors."

The report cites the perils involved in maintenance, which takes place during work shifts on equipment that may not have been fully deactivated. Amputations can result.

Infections of the hands and nails are common among workers who must handle raw chicken carcasses in a damp, cold room.

The study, led by Professor Sara Quandt of Wake Forest, attempts to penetrate to the reality of work-related health problems in the poultry industry that is masked by official reports.

As the researchers explained, "Workers often see the hazards as just part of the job, or they move on to other jobs as they begin to develop symptoms, especially when those symptoms limit work activity. Among immigrant -- particularly undocumented -- workers, reporting illnesses and injuries brings with it the fear of job loss and deportation."

The pattern surely is a familiar one in North Carolina's other huge meat-processing sector, pork. Labor conditions at the world's largest hog slaughtering plant, the Smithfield Foods facility in Bladen County about 75 miles south of Raleigh, may have improved since the national spotlight was turned in that direction in 2000 by The New York Times and early this year by the group Human Rights Watch. But they remain harsh by any normal standard and are an ongoing cause of contention.

The plant manages to process hogs in mind-boggling numbers, upwards of 25,000 a day. Speed on the lines where the wretched animals are killed, gutted, cut up and packaged is at a premium. Knives are flying. It's work that only the desperate would take, and once taken, work that can make you desperate to get out.

Unionizing efforts and the company's attempts to beat them back add to the tension. The state Democratic Party's executive committee recently took a stand, calling on the company to disband its police and stop the use of "threats, intimidation and violence."

When people must work to survive, they can be put in hazardous situations with little recourse of their own. Well-meaning companies won't take advantage of that vulnerability. But experience shows there's no substitute for tough workplace safety rules and careful enforcement. That's something we're all in the end responsible for. Don't eat meat? The animals appreciate it, but for the workers it doesn't matter.