Today’s announcement by the USDA is a dangerous step that puts corporate profits over the lives and safety of the essential workers who keep our food supply chain running. By proposing to permanently increase line speeds and remove critical worker safety oversight, the USDA is knowingly inviting a surge in workplace injuries and fatalities in an industry that is already among the most hazardous in the country.

Today, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) issued a new report on how “the H-2B visa program has ballooned without being fixed.” Suggesting that “expanding it to year-round jobs like meatpacking would lower wages and revenue.” Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which represents over 15,000 poultry workers at facilities across the southern United States, as well as meatpacking and processing workers in other parts of the country issued the following statement…

Congressman Brad Finstad (MN-01), recently introduced the American Protein Processing Modernization Act, which would provide a permanent framework to increase poultry and pork line speeds, a clear danger to workers and America’s food supply. Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which represents over 15,000 poultry workers at facilities across the southern United States, as well as meatpacking and processing workers in other parts of the country issued the following statement:

In the early hours of December 26, 2024, a gas line to a boiler exploded at Tyson Foods’ poultry plant in Camilla, Georgia. The plant, where workers are represented by the RWDSU Southeast Council, quickly filled with smoke and confusion as the emergency unfolded. Two RWDSU members were severely injured in the blast, suffering life-altering harm. The explosion was sudden, but the danger was not. More than six-months later we learned this was a preventable tragedy, caused by Tyson’s failure to follow critical safety protocols.