Workers

Reported

California Poultry Processor Ordered to Pay $3.5 Million for Labor Violations

The Biden administration moves to crack down on labor law violations in the meat sector.

Policy•4 min read

Investigation

Sentient Media Podcast: No One Wants to Work in a Slaughterhouse, with Undercover Investigator Pete Paxton

In this episode, Pete Paxton shares his experiences working in illegal slaughterhouses, the complex moral battles undercover investigators face, the corrupt world of puppy mills and more.

Podcast•47 min read

Perspective

What the Media Missed Covering Dutch Livestock Farmer Protests

News reports continue to omit Dutch agribusiness interests from protest coverage.

Policy•9 min read

Reported

Europe’s Chicken Supply Chain Has a Human Rights Problem

An expansive new report shows that cheap poultry for markets, restaurants, and pets comes at the expense of Indigenous peoples in Brazil.

Policy•3 min read

Reported

‘We’re Not Terrible People’: Animal Farmers Find Their Voice

Farmers and activists have more in common than they’re willing to admit. But the longer they fight amongst each other, the stronger the industry gets.

Policy•8 min read

Reported

Dead Animals Are Piling Up in PetSmart’s Freezers

Employees join advocacy organizations World Animal Protection and United For Respect to sound the alarm over dangerous working conditions at the popular retail chain.

Policy•6 min read

Explainer

Just Transition: Protecting and Empowering Frontline Workers

Just transition is a framework that aims to protect frontline workers by prioritizing their needs during the transition away from an exploitative economy.

Policy•8 min read

Reported

COVID-19 Hit Slaughterhouse Workers Harder Than We Thought

A new Congressional report found that slaughterhouses owned by five major meatpacking companies accounted for at least 59,000 COVID-19 cases and 269 deaths.

Policy•8 min read

Reported

At One of the Country’s Largest Slaughterhouses, Workers Say Their Injuries Were Ignored

Workers were told their injuries were “break-in pain,” soreness that comes from adjusting to life in a meatpacking plant. But some injuries were much more severe.

Policy•17 min read

Perspective

Want to Protect Workers, Animals, and the Planet? Ban the Sale of Meat

Big Meat—like Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and Big Pharma—is a ravenous machine of exploitation pursuing profits at almost any cost. It needs to be stopped.

Policy•5 min read

Perspective

The Human Cost of Turkey Farming

Despite production slowdowns due to COVID-19, the turkey industry is set to keep most of its facilities open through the holiday season, putting poultry workers and their families at risk.

Policy•8 min read

Reported

Meatpacking Workers Say Attendance Policy Forces Them to Work with Potential COVID-19 Symptoms

In April, despite his fever, a meatpacking worker continued to carve neck bones out of pig carcasses at a JBS plant in Iowa. Two weeks later, he would test positive…

Policy•7 min read

Perspective

The Food System Is Built on White Supremacy

The story of the American food system has been whitewashed; the labor of people of color and the systemic, deeply painful injustices they face have been erased from it. Yet…

Policy•5 min read

Reported

COVID-19 Exacerbating Systemic Racism and Abuse in Animal Agriculture

Big Ag has historically endangered the most marginalized individuals in its quest for profit. During the pandemic, slaughterhouse workers and farmed animals have often been the first to suffer.

Policy•5 min read

Reported

Slaughterhouse Workers File Civil Rights Lawsuit Against USDA

Black, Latino, and Asian slaughterhouse workers suffered disproportionately as the meat industry scrambled to respond to COVID-19. Now, they're demanding justice.

Policy•6 min read

Reported

120+ Organizations Target Meatpacking Giant Tyson Foods for Failing to Protect Workers from COVID-19

Food justice, labor, environmental, farming, and animal welfare organizations launch week of action, send letter to shareholders demanding worker protections.

Policy•4 min read

Perspective

COVID-19 Isn’t the Only Sickness Spreading Through Meat Plants

From coronavirus and E. coli, to crime, cruelty, and ecocide, the meat industry incubates a plethora of ills. Why, then, does government underwrite it with billions in subsidies?

Policy•21 min read

Reported

Slaughterhouses: Where Animal Rights and Workers’ Rights Suffer in Symphony

COVID-19 is exposing slaughterhouses as one of society’s most exploitative and unstable industries. In cramped, unsanitary conditions, workers and animals suffer endlessly.

Policy•3 min read

Perspective

Profit Over People: The Meat Industry’s Exploitation of Vulnerable Workers

Slaughterhouses have always been viewed negatively because of what happens to animals behind their walls. But how workers are treated is also despicable.

Policy•7 min read

Reported

JBS Kept Colorado Beef Plant Open for Weeks During Pandemic. Now 3 Workers Are Dead

Sources inside the facility say management failed to adequately inform workers when the first COVID-19 cases broke out on the line. In fact, they did the opposite—offering workers bonuses to…

Policy•6 min read

Reported

Dissociation and Delusion on a Dairy Farm: A Former Farm Worker Speaks Out

Susana Romatz struggled to mentally cope with the demands of working on a dairy goat farm—like separating mother goats from their babies—until she said enough was enough.

Policy•7 min read