Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Tuesday introduced the Safe Line Speeds in COVID-19 Act that would suspend all current and future USDA waivers and regulations that allow companies to increase production line speeds at plants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reps. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11), Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), and Bennie Thompson (MS-2) have introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
Also this week, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and five of its local unions represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that also seeks to end the USDA line speed process.
Tom Super, NCC senior vice president of communications, issued the following response:
“Line speeds of up to 175 birds per minute have been around for 25 years and the section of the plant in question is almost entirely automated these days. A pilot program using almost two dozen chicken processing plants was initiated under the Clinton administration allowing line speeds of up to 175 bpm. The modernized system has been studied, debated, prevailed in court cases, and has been reviewed in depth for more than two decades to assure its effectiveness in further modernizing chicken inspection while improving food safety and protecting workers. In fact, while the industry has been safely increasing line speeds over the past 25 years, the poultry industry’s injury and illness rate has fallen 84 percent, according to the Department of Labor.
“There is no data or evidence to suggest workers in plant operating their evisceration line at 175 are any more susceptible to the virus. Again, the line speeds in question are a part of the line that is almost entirely automated in poultry processing. Regardless, the virus doesn’t discriminate based on line speed. Whether plants are operating at 125, 140 or 175, plants have taken every precaution to help keep workers safe, including: social distancing, temperature checks, installing plastic barriers between work stations where social distancing is challenging, providing masks, face shields and gloves for workers, staggering shifts, making breakrooms available outside, multiple hand sanitizing stations, extra cleaning and sanitation of the plant, educating employees about steps to take at home to keep healthy, encouraging sick or vulnerable employees to stay home with paid sick leave, and testing for the virus.”
