Trump Rule Speeds-Up Hog Killing: Danger to Workers and Consumers

On a visit to a beef slaughterhouse in December, I was told by workers they feared that the Trump administration would speed up allowable “chain speeds” for slaughterhouses.

Under USDA and Department of Labor rules, the chain speed for moving dead steers is 400 per hour; hogs are 600 per hour.

Now, the Trump administration is raising chain speeds in hog plants.

Speed limits are in effect to protect workers from injuries. Workers are especially prone to slicing injuries because they work in a cold room, and cut carcasses that have globs of fat that are slippery in that setting.

The new chain speed for hogs will rise to 1,106 per hour—a feverish pace.

This will impact consumers, too. There are meat inspectors at every plant. They cannot keep up with that blistering speed.

The workers I met—about half from Mexico, the other half from Nebraska and Iowa—were already looking into other jobs in December. They told me they won’t make as much money. But the unemployment rate in Sioux City, Iowa is 1.8%. They said they’d settle for a buck or two less per hour—from $15/hour—to save their fingers and protect their backs from rotating heavy carcasses at blinding speeds. Also, they predicted that meatpackers would have trouble maintaining a full workforce under oppressive chain-speed conditions.