Warmth Exhaustion, Amputated Fingers, Crushed Limbs: The Hidden Price of American Turkey

By Gray Moran, Miriam Fast, Sentient

You probably haven’t heard of the employee at a Prestage Meals plant in South Carolina who suffered a head damage after a pile of lifeless turkeys fell on him. Or the Butterball plant employee in Arkansas whose index finger was crushed whereas cleansing the gizzard peeler, a machine that separates a turkey’s gizzard from the remainder of its physique. Then there’s the farmworker who injured the cornea of his eye, whereas wrangling turkeys at a farm owned by Choose Genetics in Missouri — only a few of the 351 accidents skilled by staff within the turkey manufacturing trade, as reported to the Occupational Security and Well being Administration in 2024.

In a evaluate of 2024 OSHA damage and sickness information, Sentient recognized 100 accidents that resulted from falls, 100 sprains and strains, 72 accidents involving cuts and lacerations, together with amputated fingers and arms, 17 eye accidents, 35 crush accidents and 27 different accidents and sicknesses suffered by staff throughout each stage of turkey manufacturing, from the farmworkers amassing turkey eggs at hatcheries to the road staff processing turkeys alongside a fast-paced conveyer belt.

For an in depth rationalization of how we analyzed OSHA’s damage and sickness information, please see our methodology information.

This information provides removed from a whole tally of turkey trade office accidents, on condition that not each damage is reported to OSHA, but it does provide a glimpse into the human price of turkey manufacturing.

For a pay of round $18 per hour, turkey trade staff in meatpacking crops, slaughterhouses and hatcheries threat a minefield of potential accidents that may be debilitating and even deadly. In March, the Trump Administration moved to extend the road speeds in processing crops, making it tougher for staff to maintain up as turkey, in varied phases, whizzes alongside the meeting line — a choice that’s anticipated to result in an uptick in accidents in an already harmful trade.

“There’s a direct correlation with repetitive trauma accidents and the pace of the road,” says Jose Rivero, a staff’ compensation lawyer who represents immigrant staff in Illinois, together with these employed at poultry crops. “That’s been my expertise.”

These accidents had been unfold throughout 50 completely different institutions, owned by simply 9 corporations that produce turkey: Aviagen, Buckhead Meats, Butterball, Cargill, Farm Recent Turkey Merchandise (the proprietor of Plainville Farms), Jennie-O Turkey Retailer, Prestage Meals of SC, Choose Genetics and West Central Turkeys.

These corporations produce the overwhelming majority of turkey offered within the U.S., together with the 46 million turkeys which can be eaten on Thanksgiving day yearly.

Together with accidents, this information encompasses sicknesses probably contracted on the job. This consists of an occasion of avian influenza spreading to a farmworker who was tasked with killing a flock of turkeys uncovered to the virus, a course of often called “depopulation,” on a farm owned by Jennie-O-Turkey Retailer, one of many largest turkey producers on the earth.

Most of the reported accidents concerned the arms, particularly amongst staff utilizing instruments and machines in turkey processing crops.

“You see quite a lot of hand accidents as a result of they’re coping with sharp edge instruments. There’s quite a lot of cuts. There’s quite a lot of amputations. There’s quite a lot of accidents to the arms that may become very severe,” says Rivero.

The chilly temperatures in meat processing crops can even result in numbness within the arms, provides Rivero, contributing to the excessive variety of hand accidents. Some staff additionally expertise the opposite finish of temperature extremes: there have been three reported incidents of warmth exhaustion. One such incident concerned a employee at a Butterball plant within the “blood room,” the place slaughtered turkeys grasp the other way up by their necks, letting the blood drain.

“Your Fingers Simply Freeze Up”

In Rivero’s observe, the commonest accidents amongst poultry staff come up from repetitive motions that may turn into debilitating over time. This was mirrored in OSHA’s information to a level: there have been a complete of 30 accidents attributed to repetitive actions, together with 4 cases of carpal tunnel syndrome. Nevertheless, Rivero suspects that many of those repetitive accidents go unreported, on condition that “it’s not a single incident that’s reportable to OSHA. Repetitive trauma simply type of develops over time so it’s not as clear-cut as maybe a single trauma.”

In a single incident, at a poultry plant in Virginia owned by Cargill, a employee is reported to have developed De Quervain’s tenosynovitis, a painful swelling of the tendons on the wrist from repetitive motions. In one other, a employee at a Butterball processing plant in Arkansas developed carpal tunnel syndrome that progressed right into a musculoskeletal dysfunction, in accordance with the OSHA report — an indicator that the damage might have been left untreated, says Rivero.

Repetitive movement accidents are sometimes “extreme sufficient that that rigidity must be relieved with both surgical restore, injections or bodily remedy,” says Rivero. “But when left untreated, you may develop a incapacity. You might develop contractures the place your arms simply freeze up, and that’s it. You’re now not ready to make use of your arms.”

A lot of these repetitive accidents, prone to worsen with the rise in line speeds, could be prevented by means of “10 minute, 5 minute breaks, simply to provide their extremities a relaxation,” he says.

The excessive variety of accidents from falls didn’t come as a shock to Rivero, reflecting what he additionally sees in his personal observe. “That’s quite common within the meat processing or poultry industries as a result of the bottom is roofed with particles, proper? So even simply traversing to the lavatory, you’re prone to slipping and falling,” he says.

Likewise, the 17 reported eye accidents didn’t strike him as irregular, particularly on condition that at many meatpacking crops, the coverage is “you want eye safety, however that’s as much as you, proper? We don’t have company-issued eye safety,” says Rivero. In a single incident, an worker at a Butterball processing plant developed conjunctivitis after soiled water splashed onto the employee’s eye.

There have been additionally 12 accidents among the many staff categorised by OSHA as “catchers,” accountable for capturing reside turkeys and loading them onto a truck to be slaughtered. Within the technique of attempting to catch the customarily 30-pound birds, the catchers suffered a variety of accidents, together with to the eyes, elbows and shoulders. After catching the birds, they hung them the other way up by the toes certain by shackles, whereas nonetheless acutely aware, often called “reside hanging.”

“I’ve heard about lots of people getting harm in the course of the reside hanging,” says Richard Russell, who beforehand labored as a sanitation employee at a turkey plant in California’s Central Valley. “They’re accountable for taking them out of the cages and placing them on the hook, so you may undergo the entire cleansing course of.”

Russell says that his job was “bodily taxing,” particularly the cleansing of the scalders — huge metal tanks of sizzling water that loosen the feathers from the turkey carcass.

“I needed to bodily bounce contained in the scalders,” he says. “I’d principally undergo and I’d spray it down. We’ve got pressure-washing hoses that spray a little bit little bit of bleach as properly.” He’d additionally use a scrubber to take away the remainder of the carcass residues. “After that, I might bounce inside and I’d bodily scrub no matter remains to be on the wall.”

Heightened Strain to Not Report Accidents

These reported accidents signify solely a phase of the entire accidents endured by staff throughout the turkey manufacturing chain. The information is incomplete for a number of key causes. For one, solely turkey operations with a minimal of 100 staff are mirrored within the information, excluding small turkey farms and processors. As extra farms mechanize, counting on fewer staff, even massive CAFOs have been deemed exempt from most damage reporting.

The information additionally solely displays on-site accidents and accidents that required extra therapy past first support — necessities that legal professionals and advocates argue are weak to abuse and under-reporting. As an illustration, meatpacking crops rent in-house nurses who allegedly restrict the therapy of extra extreme accidents to first support.

“We’ve heard dozens of stories from meatpacking staff and their advocates that severe accidents like musculoskeletal problems, first diploma burns and extreme lacerations are handled by in-house nurses who merely present ibuprofen and direct staff to get again on the road,” writes Amal Bouhabib, a senior workers lawyer at FarmSTAND, in an e mail to Sentient. “Not solely are these accidents not getting reported to OSHA, they don’t seem to be being characterised as work-site accidents for functions of employee’s compensation.”

When denied staff compensation, “staff are additionally bearing the numerous prices of any later essential therapy, together with hospital and ambulance charges,” provides Bouhabib.

There’s a longstanding situation of undocumented and in any other case weak staff being fearful about talking out about accidents, however the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda has positioned a further stress on immigrant staff to stay silent — to some extent the place some employers are weaponizing staff’ immigration standing towards them.

“Employers are reminding them that they might have immigration issues in the event that they pursue their (employee’s compensation) case,” says Rivero. “They’re mentioning, ‘Hey, you don’t need any issues with ICE,” to discourage staff from asserting their rights. Unsurprisingly, he’s seen extra immigrant staff preserving their heads down, hesitant to file employee’s compensation claims when injured. “They’re afraid of doing something at this level,” he says.

A few of Rivero’s shoppers are even afraid of going to the physician, involved that ICE may be taught the placement of the medical workplace by means of their insurance coverage. “I don’t need to say it’s an irrational concern as a result of at this level, I don’t know what’s irrational as a result of, you understand…they’re taking folks from daycare facilities,” he says. He nonetheless encourages them to hunt medical therapy, apprehensive that the damage will worsen right into a incapacity whereas left untreated.

These days, he’s discovered himself pleading together with his shoppers: “Hey, I get that’s an actual concern, however you nonetheless have this damage, and it’s important to do one thing about it. You’ve acquired to see a health care provider, as a result of that’s your physique. You’re not going to get one other one.”

This text initially appeared in Sentient at https://sentientmedia.org/the-hidden-cost-of-american-turkey/.

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This story was initially revealed by Sentient.

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