U.S. to Look at Poultry Labor Issues

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Tuesday he was concerned by "harsh and perhaps unlawful conditions" in the poultry processing business and his department would launch an investigation of the industry.

Reich announced the project a few hours after a coalition of consumer, farm and labor groups asked for action to safeguard workers throughout the poultry processing industry.

"Sweatshop conditions -- whether in garment factories, fields or poultry processing plants -- will not be tolerated," Reich said in a statement.

"The Department of Labor shares the concerns of the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice about the harsh and perhaps unlawful conditions faced by workers in the poultry processing industry," he said.

"The department has examined the working conditions in this industry and will initiate a special targeted enforcement project during the coming year to gauge the seriousness and extent of the problems."

A department spokeswoman said the project would entail checking worker safety, wage and housing conditions at processing plants.

Earlier in the day, the alliance of groups called for an aggressive review of the poultry processing industry, similar to the Labor Department's review of the garment industry.

"As we sit down to our Thanksgiving meals, consumers want assurance that their food has been produced in safe working conditions -- safe for the food and safe for the workers," said Ed Rothschild of Citizen Action, a consumer group that was part of the alliance.

The alliance said workers in the poultry processing industry complained of low pay, poor working conditions and overwork from slaughter work lines that moved too fast.

In asking for Labor Department action, the group pointed to a dispute in Morganton, North Carolina, where workers say they voted overwhelmingly in July 1995 to unionize but their employer allegedly refused to negotiate.