I was distracted from posting by a freelance editing contract, and so was slow to post this weekend. Bluestem watched the hearing on this bill and so post this article from Session Daily.
When I was in graduate school at the University of Arkansas, some friends lived in a local trailer court where many of their neighbors were poultry processing workers--or former poultry processing industry workers, when their line injuries prevented them from working.
It's good to see Minnesota move to include poultry processing workers in the Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights.
From Session Daily:
Updates to food processing, ag worker labor laws clear key committee
By Steve AbramsA multitude of laws governing labor standards for workers in Minnesota’s food processing and agricultural industries have lay dormant for over a decade. HF70 would make numerous substantive adjustments to this sleepy area of state law.
“These laws that we’re modifying here haven’t been changed in a long time. Our state has changed, our world has changed, and we need to update and evolve,” said Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), the bill’s sponsor.
Hansen noted his longstanding involvement in these issues – he played a key role in passing many of those statutes 16 years ago.
On Thursday, the House Labor and Industry Finance and Policy Committee approved his proposed updates on a split-voice vote, sending the bill to the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee.
The bill would amend labor law in several notable ways.
Currently, the Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights only covers workers at meatpacking plants and only requires new employee paperwork to be provided in English and Spanish. The bill would expand the statute to include workers in poultry processing and mandate paperwork be provided in a recruit’s native language.
Protections found in the Bill of Rights would also be enlarged, affirming that new workers are entitled to receive information about worker’s compensation insurance at the start of employment.
These updated protections would be applied to migrant workers in the agricultural sector as well.
Fines levied by the Department of Labor and Industry and penalties handed down by court order for violating the terms of these employment standards would also be increased.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, which represents food processing workers across the state, signaled its strong support of the measure with both written and oral testimony. The union believes the bill is needed to ensure worker safety because of increased slaughter rates and employee diversity in recent years.
But not everyone is on board.
Noting he had worked on issues related to meat processing at the federal level, Rep. Isaac Schultz (R-Elmdale Township) expressed alarm that the bill would hurt the state’s ability to remain competitive in the industry.
“We need to ensure we have a competitive marketplace to do this, so that we are not increasing those costs for producers to send this meat to another state … where Minnesota workers don’t benefit,” Schultz said.
Here's the Minnesota Information Services YouTube of the House Labor and Industry Finance and Policy Committee meeting in which the bill was heard:
Related post
Photo: A poultry processing line. From Grunge.
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6
Comments