Meatpacking workers at JBS Foods in Worthington, Minnesota are demanding safer work conditions and several new provisions regarding the Trump administration’s policy allowing pork and poultry facilities to maintain higher line speeds. United Food & Commercial Workers Local 663 workers have proposed line speeds be posted on each production line, additional training be provided and to give workers the authority to enforce the line’s speed. The group says they also want to ensure every worker understands how line speed, injuries and food safety are interconnected.
“We have brought up issues of line speed and safety to JBS and they’ve rejected our proposals over and over again. It’s gotten to a point where workers decided to organize this march to send a message that they need to listen to us, that we need our bodies protected and we need a safe workplace,” said UFCW 663 President Rena Wong during a march held Thursday afternoon outside the pork processing plant. “Safe line speeds means safe meat products for consumers.”
While the total number of injuries declined during the pandemic as line speeds slowed, dropping from 114 in 2020 to 88 in 2022, by 2024, the number of injuries had climbed back to 100, UFCW 663 noted.
Last month U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins instructed the Food Safety and Inspection Service to extend waivers allowing pork and poultry facilities to maintain higher line speeds, ensuring they can meet demand without government interference. FSIS will also no longer require plants to submit worker safety data, as research has confirmed no direct link between processing speeds and workplace injuries.
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