Technicality Takes Down Two-Decade Old Pork Processing Practice

WASHINGTON, DC – For decades five large pork-producing plants have been running at faster line speeds (1,450 hogs per hour), adding capacity – 20 percent more throughput than they otherwise would have had – without any data suggesting negative impacts on worker safety.

Based on more than 20 years of data, USDA rolled out a rule that said all plants would be able to use the tried and proven techniques but a lawsuit filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) challenged USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and led to a judge vacating a portion of the new rule on a technicality.

“It didn’t have an impact on worker safety,” says the Ranking Member of the House Ag Livestock Subcommittee, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) who says they are talking to USDA and the Department of Justice to find a way forward, and he says “there is a way forward”.

The District Court judge in Minnesota vacated a portion of the rule because FSIS asked for comments on the impact of line speed increases but didn’t consider the comments in the final rule. Therefore, all packing plants – including the five pilot projects operating since the Clinton administration – must reduce the maximum line speeds before July 1, 2021.

UFCW International President Marc Perrone says “it is well known that dangerous production speeds increase the risks of injury to workers”.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)