Last week, numerous meatpacking workers shared horror stories about work conditions they’ve seen firsthand and they urged Minnesota lawmakers to support a proposed bill aimed at improving employee safety within meatpacking plants.
Meatpacking employees shared stories of grotesque lacerations, broken bones, pinched nerves and more among employees at Minnesota meatpacking warehouses, and they urged lawmakers from both the House and the Senate to support bill HF23/SF207. That proposal would enhance current safety regulations for large meat and poultry processing plants, and it would lead to the creation of a worker rights coordinator in the State’s Department of Labor and Industry.
“During my time at Hormel, I’ve seen injuries unfortunately become the norm in meatpacking plants,” said Dan Lenway, who has worked at the Austin plant for more than 27 years.
Lenway is a member of UFCW Local 663, which represents thousands of meatpacking workers in Minnesota. Aside from traumatic injuries like fractures, chemical burns and crush injuries, he also said that repetitive strain injuries are quite common. Many workers are plagued by conditions like arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. Lenway went on to say that even though safety hazards have been reported, employees are still being injured because these businesses place a higher emphasis on production than safety.
“Any of these injuries could have been and can be avoided,” said Lenway. “Management continues to run too fast, short-staffed – and corporate greed just doesn’t allow management to maintain machinery to protect our people.”
Meatpacking Safety Bill
The proposal, authored by Rep. Dan Wolgamott, DFL-St. Cloud, states that meat and poultry processing plants with 50 or more workers would be required to create worker safety committees made up of workers, a professional ergonomist, and a physician to identify potential hazards and develop a plan to reduce ergonomic injuries. Additionally, workers would be legally allowed to refuse work they reasonably believe to be dangerous, and meat processing plants would need to continue paying employees for missed hours until the hazard has been addressed.
Additional provisions in the bill include:
- Meatpacking facilities would need to train new workers on how to safely perform all necessary tasks, identify the early warning signs of musculoskeletal injuries, and how to correctly report injuries to their supervisor.
- Meatpacking facilities would have to keep records of all worker visits to medical personnel and maintain records of all ergonomic injuries suffered by workers for at least five years.
- Additional worker protections in the event of another public health emergency like COVID-19, as meatpacking facilities were hit extremely hard by the virus.
- Minnesota’s Attorney General or individual workers would be able to sue employers who do not follow the new law or maintain safe working conditions.
“The intention is that we have the backs of the workers who are putting food on our tables,” said Rep. Wolgamott.
The bill is designed to add additional protections to large meatpacking facilities, but would not apply to delis or grocery stores.
If you or someone you know suffered an injury in a meatpacking plant or have developed a slower-developing condition like arthritis or carpal tunnel, know that you have legal options. For help collecting compensation or to talk with a lawyer to see if you have a case, reach out to the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.
