Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE 1/27/20

A federal district court in Minnesota will hold a hearing at 3 p.m. on the government's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by labor advocates against a USDA rule that eliminates line-speed limits in pork slaughterhouses and shifts certain inspection tasks from federal inspectors to plant workers.

— The United Food and Commercial Workers and advocacy group Public Citizen argue the final rule should be thrown out because the agency didn't consider how the policy would affect worker safety, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

— USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has repeatedly said it doesn't have the authority or expertise to regulate worker safety issues, although the agency did seek public comment on that specific issue during the rulemaking process.

The three UFCW local unions that filed the lawsuit represent slaughterhouse workers in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Oklahoma, at plants that USDA expects will accelerate their processing line speeds and adopt new inspection methods under the final rule, according to the complaint.

How we got here: The government filed a motion to dismiss the case in December, arguing the union and its locals don't have standing to bring the suit because "no establishment that employs their members has adopted — or has concrete plans to adopt" the new inspection system. USDA also reiterates in its motion to dismiss that it doesn't have a statutory mandate to regulate worker safety.

The rule is also the subject of additional lawsuits, including a case recently filed by food safety advocates who argue the inspection changes will increase the risk of tainted meat reaching the marketplace. USDA's own inspectors have also warned "unsafe" pork would likely reach consumers under the new system, NBC reported last month.