Chapter 3: Workers’ Perspectives
Introduction and methodology
Workers in Arkansas’s poultry processing industry reported that their jobs are often difficult, dirty, and dangerous. In survey responses and interviews, workers paint a bleak picture of the plants they work in, which can be sweltering in the summer, freezing in the winter, and are often littered with poultry debris, droppings, or toxic chemicals. These conditions can result in illness and injury for workers, in addition to creating an environment in which the risk of contamination of the poultry meat is high. Furthermore, workers reported suffering from violations of their employment rights, discrimination and harassment, and significant barriers to speaking up to try to change these conditions. The findings of this survey suggest that workers and consumers alike would benefit from higher standards for health and safety in poultry processing plants, as well as improved pay and benefits for plant workers.
This chapter describes the working conditions in Arkansas’s poultry processing plants, based on around 500 worker surveys and thirty interviews with workers. The surveys and interviews were conducted though the help of local churches and allies. NWAWJC organizers conducted community outreach and met with poultry workers wherever they could find them.
Working conditions and job quality
The surveys revealed that jobs in Arkansas’s poultry processing plants are difficult for workers in a variety of ways, including substandard health and safety conditions, low wages, meager benefits, few opportunities for career mobility, violations of wage and hour laws, and discrimination. In this section, we discuss in detail workers’ responses to survey and interview questions about their working conditions and experiences on the job in poultry processing plants. Survey results demonstrate that poultry processing jobs are tough and demanding for all workers, but that foreign-born workers often have worse outcomes than U.S.-born workers. In addition, non-white workers and women also reported facing more discrimination in the workplace.
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