Source: MEATINGPLACE, 11/20/15

Saying that they are continuing a public awareness campaign that began last month with the release of the Oxfam America report on poultry processing plant working conditions, a group of poultry worker advocate groups today released the text of a letter sent to the CEOs of three of America’s leading poultry companies demanding “immediate action to raise wages, improve safety conditions and guarantee fair treatment” for the workers who process the nation’s Thanksgiving turkeys as well as chicken.

The letter, announced in a telephone press conference held one week before Thanksgiving, was delivered overnight to Jim Perdue, CEO of Perdue Farms, Bill Lovette, president and CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride and Joe F. Sanderson, Jr., CEO of Sanderson Farms.

The letter was signed by officials of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, Interfaith Worker Justice and Western North Carolina Workers’ Center, and announced in a telephone press conference that also featured statements by a former poultry plant worker from Minnesota, a processing plant employee from Arkansas, and officials of Oxfam America and Southern Poverty Law Center.

The CEO of Tyson Foods was not included in the letter mailing because Tyson has committed to raising wages of some plant workers, a move the groups called “a small first step to improve working conditions” for plant workers.

Speaking at the press conference, Minor Sinclair, director of Oxfam America’s domestic programs, said that “the next big wave of changes” in the food industry would concern “fairness” for producers and workers who harvest and process food.

The Oxfam America report “Lives on the Line” in October said low wages, unsafe working conditions and workplace intimidation plague the nation’s poultry industry workers.

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