Congressman Dan Goldman Fights for Safer Working Conditions for Meatpacking Employees

The ‘Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act’ Aims to Improve Working Conditions for the Meatpacking Plant Workforce

Read the Bill Here

Washington D.C. – Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) joined Congressman Ro Khanna (CA-17) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) in introducing the ‘Protecting America's Meatpacking Workers Act,’ which addresses high injury rates and worker exploitation in the meatpacking industry.

Workers in the meatpacking industry face significant hazards in their work to feed America, including amputations, hospitalizations, and sometimes death. The ‘Protecting America's Meatpacking Workers Act’ seeks to implement comprehensive reforms to ensure safer working conditions foremployees who endure significant physical and psychological risks.

"We must protect the hard-working Americans who provide meat to families across the country," Congressman Dan Goldman said. “It’s these American workers who ensure that the meat on our dinner table is clean and safe to eat. Now, it’s our job to ensure that they have a safe place to work that is free from physical and psychological hazards.”

Specifically, the ‘Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act’ would do the following:

• Protect meat and poultry workers by:

  • Preventing the Secretary of Agriculture from issuing line speeds waivers unless meat and poultry plants agree to a USDA inspection which must show that an increase in line speeds will not adversely impact worker safety

  • Establishing occupational safety and health standards to protect employees in meat and poultry plants

  • Implementing a regional emphasis inspection program for meat and poultry plants which will cover multiple aspects of worker safety including amputation hazards, ergonomics, and hazards related to line speeds, bathroom breaks, use of certain antimicrobials, and temperatures of work sites

  • Allowing meat or poultry plant employees the ability to authorize a representative, who may be a member of a worker-based community group, to accompany physical inspections

  • Strengthening existing protections against retaliation from employers when employees refuse to perform work duties under conditions of reasonable apprehension and sets up a system wherein employees may file a complaint in the event retaliation has occurred

  • Establishing a standardized, publicly available, reporting process for use during pandemics, which will require meat or poultry plants to report the number of employees who have become ill, their racial demographics, and their employment status

• Reform the farm system by:

  • Requiring that all grants funded under USDA AMS for Expanded Meat & Poultry Processing include labor peace agreements and prohibiting small processing plants that received a grant from being sold to meat and poultry packers with over 10 percent of market share for a period of 10 years

  • Strengthening the Packers & Stockyards Act to crack down on the monopolistic practices of meatpackers and corporate integrators

  • Restoring mandatory country-of-origin labeling requirements

• Calling for GAO reports that would explore:

  • The fragility of our nation’s food system with respect to meat and poultry

  • Racial and ethnic disparities in meat and poultry processing

  • The actions taken by the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to determine the effectiveness of those actions in protecting animal, food, and worker safety

Congressman Dan Goldman has worked throughout his first term to fight for the rights of all workers.

In June of 2023, Goldman cosponsored the ‘Job Protection Act’ to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to protect millions of workers who are currently unable to take time off to care for themselves or their families. Gaps in FMLA coverage lead nearly 2.6 million workers every year who need family or medical leave to not take it because they fear they will lose their jobs if they do.

Last September, the Congressman cosponsored the ‘No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act.’ This legislation would classify corporate interference in worker organization campaigns as political speech under the tax code making any money spent in these efforts non-tax deductible.

Congressman Dan Goldman is a member of the Labor Caucus and proud cosponsor of the PRO Act.

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