Jackson, Mississippi

June 5, 2004

Center to help empower workers

·  Poultry plant pay, conditions at issue

By Lora Hines
lohines@clarionledger.com

Civil rights advocates want the state's 25,000 poultry workers to stand up to poor working conditions and low pay.

And they think a poultry workers' center could empower plant employees.

A $200,000, two-year grant from a New York City civil rights foundation will pay for a center staff to work statewide with poultry workers. The center could be running near the end of summer, said Bill Beardall, executive director of the the Equal Justice Center in Austin, Texas.

The poultry workers' center would be the first of its kind.

Anita Grabowski, also of the Equal Justice Center, said it makes sense to create a center in Mississippi because nonprofit groups like hers and religious organizations already have been providing help to poultry workers. That isn't happening in other poultry-producing states, she said.

"Mississippi is really unique," Grabowski said. "There's a strong desire to help workers. They really embrace U.S. workers and immigrant workers."

Workers will determine what programs they want. But Beardall thinks the center will "bridge divisions," such as race, national origin and language, within the work force. The center could provide English or Spanish lessons if employees want them, he said.

Isidro Delangel, a three-year employee at Koch Foods in Forest, said such a center could help employees get a better understanding of their rights. Delangel, 45, said an interpreter could help workers be "more united when there are problems."

Delangel of Mexico didn't want to discuss issues he has faced.

No one from Koch Foods could be reached.

Mississippi has almost 25 poultry plants, according to the Equal Justice Center. Each plant employs as many as 1,400 people.

In 2001, plants in seven counties produced 50 million to 150 million chickens, according to statistics from Mississippi State University.

A poultry plant salary starts at $6 an hour, Beardall said. Minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. A veteran employee makes about $10 an hour.

"It is one of the hardest jobs in the country, and one of the most physically difficult," Beardall said.

Employees process about 90 chickens a minute, Beardall said. Many suffer repetitive motion injuries.

Ed Nicholson, spokesman for Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods, said the company tries to make resources, including benefit counselors, available to its people. "If they have questions, we do have the means to get questions answered, " Nicholson said.

Mike Cockrell, spokesman for Sanderson Farms Inc. in Laurel, said he couldn't comment.

Poultry workers, especially unskilled immigrants, generally don't know their rights and won't complain about poor conditions because they need their jobs, said Leslie Gross, advocacy director at the Mississippi Center for Justice.

"It's a vulnerable population fearful for their jobs," Gross said. "There is a culture of fear."

Last summer, about 200 immigrants were fired from Peco Foods Inc., a Canton chicken processing plant, after the Social Security Administration told plant officials those employee names didn't match Social Security numbers given.

That, however, is not grounds to fire employees, according to the Equal Justice Center. The center persuaded the plant's union to get back fired employees' jobs. The union filed a grievance against the company, and the company agreed to reinstate the workers.

No one from the union could be reached. Also, Steve Conley, Peco Foods human resources director, couldn't be reached.