010831 Activists Fight for Poultry Worker Back Pay

Louisville, KY - Labor activists took the offensive in their fight to win back pay for the time poultry plant workers spend putting on, taking off and cleaning safety equipment.

They held a news conference in front of the federal building here urging the Labor Department to force the payment from the industry, a bill that could total $350 million.

“Instead of getting paid real wages, they are getting paid chicken feed,” Chris Sanders of Kentucky Jobs With Justice said during a news conference Thursday. Sanders is also secretary-treasurer of the Kentucky AFL-CIO.

The dispute stems from a 2000 survey released by the Labor Department in the waning days of the Clinton administration. It found 51 poultry plants had not paid workers for the preparation time, which the department said should count as work time.

The industry disputes the department's view that workers should be paid for “donning and duffing” time, and found support in Congress.

Sixteen mostly Southern senators, including U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., wrote President Bush's labor secretary, Elaine Chao, urging her not to take enforcement actions against the poultry industry.

Chao has met previously with industry executives and clergy and union officials backing workers. Chao spokeswoman Sue Hensley said Thursday that no decision has been made by the department on the issue.

Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council, said preparation time for killing, cleaning and cutting poultry takes only a minute or two and is traditionally not counted as work time. It mainly consists of workers putting on and taking off smocks, hair nets and earplugs, he said.

“It's something people can literally do as they walk to their work stations,” Lobb said in a telephone interview.

In a letter to Bunning, Kentucky Jobs With Justice and the Catholic Conference of Kentucky said poultry plant workers include recent immigrants who speak little or no English, and other people “marginalized in the workforce.”

“Our nation must not lessen its commitment to protecting all workers to the fullest extent of the law,” the letter said.

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