WEBVTT - Immigration Pt. 1: Criminalized Work and the Chicken We Eat 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:01.960 One thing we're learning in this pandemic is that some 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.520 workers are more essential to our nations functioning than others. 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.920 And you know, we're not talking about bankers and politicians 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:14.320 and celebrities. We're talking about grocery store workers and nurses 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:18.760 and teachers and cafeteria workers and sanitation workers. We're thinking 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:20.720 of them in ways that we've never thought of before 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.720 because they're realizing that if these people don't show up 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.800 in person for their jobs, Americans can't stay healthy. They're 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:30.480 not going to be fed. So in this episode, we're 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.360 gonna take a look at a group of workers we 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.080 Americans required to keep our country going that that are 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.280 not only overlooked, underpaid, and undervalued, but we've been actively 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.199 attacking them for years. This is Tom Coliko and this 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:49.159 is Citizen Chef. We have immigrant workers who are growing 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.960 and picking and processing the vast majority of our food, 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.240 but according to the Department of Agriculture, half of them, 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:01.000 over million men and women, are undocumented labor contractors and 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.679 growers estimated that NUMB would be much higher around and 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.120 so right now, in the summer of we're in the 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.000 middle of a global pandemic and its growing season here 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.000 in the United States, and we've experienced several years of 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.600 a government that has systematically trying to do its very 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:21.119 best to prevent the so called illegal workers from making 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:27.600 a living in this country. These are people who pick 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:32.039 and process our food and they are absolutely essential. We 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.520 don't eat if they don't show up to work. By 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.039 this logic, they should have so much power, but instead, 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.000 immigrant workers are some of the most vulnerable people in 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.039 this country. In this episode, we'll take a look at 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.479 the paradox of the immigrant essential worker in America. They 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.880 work for low pay, they are subject to the whims 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:51.520 of a political party in power, can't benefit from our 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.360 unemployment system, are social security system that they pay into 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:57.800 if they're working on the books, and most of them 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.080 are and much of time to live in fear being 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.040 rounded up and detained, deported and separated from their families 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.240 for the crime of showing up to work and doing 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.000 a job that all Americans need them to do. I'm 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.600 really pleased that y'all are shining a light on on 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.800 this subject. So today I am talking to Dr Angela Stsi. 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.200 I'm Associate professor of anthropology at the University of North 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.360 Carolina Chapel Hill and we're going to look into the 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.080 conditions in which some of these workers do their jobs. 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.639 This is uh something that I really kind of has 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.360 been bugging me since I read of the raids in Mississippi. 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:36.440 But I guess to tea it off, and I guess 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.200 right now, American contumes about nine billion chickens a year, 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.679 so it's about twenty four million chickens per day. So 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.760 let's just start there where we always this chicken crazy 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.240 in this country. We are a bit chicken crazed in 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:52.079 this country. You're right, So Americans eat almost I think 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.880 we're at about ninety three pounds of chicken per year 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:59.079 per capita, so per person, which is virtually an all 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:03.639 time high, up considerably from when I was a kid 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.280 or when our grandparents were were consuming chicken. Um and 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.440 experts sort of point to two trends that have led 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:16.040 to to our appetite for chicken. That's really we're we're 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.600 ramping up in the nineteen eighties, and one is our 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:25.160 increased interest in our health and our recognition that cholesterol 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.280 contributes to to poor heart health. The poultry industry did 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.320 a really good job in the eighties and nineties of 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.679 of sort of capitalizing on that concern and marketing right 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.440 as as white meat that was that was better for 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.720 our heart health. And simultaneously there was a big rise 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.000 during those decades of our consumption of fast food and 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:51.000 that extended um or built on on the more traditional 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.760 meal fast food meal of hamburger, into chicken nuggets and 0:03:54.840 --> 0:04:00.360 chicken sandwiches. And together these two sort of trends in 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.600 in the US diet led to a dramatic increase in 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:08.520 the amount of chicken we eat, right and the majority 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.600 of the chicken. Again, this the new story of the 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:14.640 raids in Mississippi is what really sort of prompts me 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:19.159 to look at this. I mean, obviously I'm a chef, um, 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.360 I I sell a lot of chicken. Uh, we eat 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.400 a good amount of chicken at home as well. But 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.200 when I read about the raids in in Mississippi, I 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.120 started thinking of is this going to happen, um in 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.760 not only Mississippi. Is this gonna happen in Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania. 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:40.000 And if this, if this happens and we're losing um, 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.000 you know a large part of the workforce who's doing this, 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:43.599 What is this gonna do the cost of chicken is 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.159 it gonna is it gonna increase? And so I guess, 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.680 let's talk about chicken processing down south? Why the industry 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.480 um moved down south? How it started down south? And 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.640 starting I guess in World War two? Who was working 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.480 in these plants and and how did that labor force 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.839 change over over over the the poultry industry really grew 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.200 up in the South. So unlike meat processing, which was, 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.039 you know, an urban manufacturing job, poultry really grew up, 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.920 like you say, um around World War two in the 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.240 South because land was cheap, much of it was not 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:21.240 terribly fertile, and there was importantly a large supply of 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.679 of poor folks who needed jobs and who saw work 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.080 and chicken plants as a step up from other types 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.760 of jobs that they could have, principally farm work right 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:36.920 outdoor labor on farms. In in and around World War two, 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.440 the industry relied heavily on poor white women, many of 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.719 whom were who were alone with their with their partners 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.920 away at war. And and it really, you know, began, 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.200 as you're probably aware, tom sort of as a initially 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.760 a backyard industry that that supplemented people's dinner plates and 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.159 maybe a little brought in a little extra income with 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:57.839 the eggs that you could sell or the chickens that 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.520 you could sell. But starting around the nineteen thirties and forties, 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:07.240 it it became an industrial food source, and and women 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.640 worked largely on those lines, on the processing lines in 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.800 the early years. So let's let's focus on the raids. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.040 This is what really sort of piqued my interest again. Um, 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.640 like most people, I woke up to the news back 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.080 in August of these raids, and and obviously because I 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.120 am I'm a chef and and always look at things 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.800 through food lens, two things came to mind right away. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.120 Number one, Um, is this something that is you know 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:38.720 it is going to extend outside of Mississippi? And how 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.800 does something like this happen? Well, it was a coordinated effort, 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:47.000 so it was actually across UH, seven different plants simultaneously 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.320 in six different towns. It was an enforcement action that 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:56.000 took months, if not years to organize UH and the 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.960 government flew in hundreds of agents in order to carry 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.239 it out. I was taken by surprise by the raids, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:08.320 as I think many were, because our entire industrial food 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:13.880 system relies on undocumented labor, and there are undocumented workers 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.760 in our communities across our entire country, from Maine to 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:23.280 Florida to Washington State and Arizona right and everywhere in between. 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:28.560 So I'm not sure what stood out about Mississippi because 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.480 I don't think it's unique. You know, a town or 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.840 a series of towns, a region that have been transformed 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.080 by Latin American immigration due to the demands of industrial 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:45.400 food production. The investigation that led to these raids started 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:51.320 about eighteen months before August seven. This was the largest 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:56.200 single state immigration enforcement operation in our country's history. My 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.840 name is Alisa Zool and I'm an investigative reporter with 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:04.960 the Clarion Ledger. It's the newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. How 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.400 are you doing. I'm doing great. Thanks for agreeing to 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.240 do this. Yes, let's just jump right in. Okay. It 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.160 was actually really interesting to look at the search warrants 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:19.480 that were unsealed after the raids. Uh. They included details 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:23.280 basically making the case for why federal officials believed that 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:30.000 undocumented workers were employed at these chicken processing plants. What 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.079 we found in these search warrants is that federal investigators 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.520 used ankle monitors and informants to build a case for 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:41.280 writing these chicken plants. Some workers had been caught, maybe 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.120 at the border or during a traffic stop in other 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.160 parts of the country years ago. At that time, authorities 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.600 knew they didn't have permission to be in the country 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:55.440 and put them on electronic monitoring while their immigration cases 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.720 made their way through courts. So GPS coordinates actually showed 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.720 that for hours every day, several days a week, these 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.800 known undocumented immigrants were reporting to chicken processing plants. And 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:12.560 sometimes whenever undocumented immigrants were picked up by ICE agents, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.200 they directly told them we have jobs. We work for 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.480 a chicken processing plant in Mississippi. Sometimes they even gave 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.000 them their work I d S. What was the coordination 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:28.480 like to actually execute the arrests, UM, This was a 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:34.920 massive operation. Like you mentioned earlier, hundreds of federal officials, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:40.800 either Homeland Security or Immigrations and Customs Enforcement came into Mississippi. 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.320 A total of six and eighty people were arrested that day. UM. 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.400 They were all suspective, suspected of coming into the country 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.680 illegally in working without permission. UM. A lot of people 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:58.800 were busst away and taking uh in for processing. About 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.640 three people were least on the spot or within twenty 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.679 seven hours of the raids UH. The remaining a few 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:12.000 hundred people UH were sent into ice detention. UM and 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.920 that day, August seven, happened to be the first or 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.400 second day of school for a lot of kids in 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.560 the area. UM and UM. I think maybe that's part 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.000 of the reason why this drew so much national attention 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.560 and a lot of people it was just a normal 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.400 day at work for them at first. What alerted to 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.280 them to the fact that something strange was happening is 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:41.760 that they heard helicopters. And one woman told me that 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.600 she showed up for work, federal agents walked in. They 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.800 pointed their guns at her and ordered all the workers 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.640 to put their hands on the walls. They were searched 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.360 and and they were taken away that day and used 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.319 of the raids spread really quickly, because you got to remember, 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.440 these are really small towns. Everyone knows everyone else. And 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.600 what ended up happening is a lot of people showed 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.079 up outside the plant's gates as the raid was going on. 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.480 Some of them brought children, hoping to convince these agents 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.680 to love let their loved ones go. Children were crying, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.360 some people were chanting let them go as people were 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:26.120 herded onto these buses and taken away. And it's hard 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:31.520 to overstate the humanitarian impact that these raids have had. 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.640 Last my check, there were about a hundred and twenty 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:41.000 people who were charged criminally. These offenses were mostly related 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:45.840 to fraudulent use of Social Security cards. So in November, 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:51.160 an ICE representative testified at a congressional hearing. He said 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:56.480 that investigators have found that not one of the hundreds 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.520 of people arrested were engaged in any major criminal activity 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:06.679 besides immigration and identity fraud violations. And you know, even 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.640 if you didn't have criminal charges against you, a lot 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:14.760 of people are fighting deportation and immigration courts move really slowly, 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.280 so for some folks, their court dates aren't until later 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:23.560 this year. And this has created a humanitarian crisis because 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.880 even if you weren't arrested, if you were an undocumented worker, 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:32.640 most likely you were fired after these raids. And so 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.719 as a result, a lot of families are in tough positions. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.640 They're kind of stuck in this holding pattern. They want 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.200 to work, but they can't. They still have to feed 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.520 their kids and pay their rent and utilities, but they 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.040 can't move away to find job opportunities because they have 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.720 court dates coming up. So you know, there were always 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:56.360 people looking for jobs in these smaller communities, but the 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:01.000 employment pool isn't huge. UM, And have to think about two. 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:06.840 The conditions inside a chicken processing plant aren't ideal. It 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.520 can be a really messy, dirty, hard job to do. 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.880 And anecdotally, UM, just talking to some people who have 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.720 worked in these chicken plants, turnover is pretty high. It's 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.280 definitely not a job for everyone. I've stayed in touch 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.720 with a source who works at a chicken plant in Morton, Mississippi, 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.960 and she says she's just been incredibly busy since August 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.680 because they still haven't been able to replace all the 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.720 workers who are fired. So she's working double shifts and 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.439 and and over time. I guess, yeah, longer hours, double shifts. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.920 One of the things that is that probably draws employers 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:48.880 to undocumented workers is precisely their undocumented status dr angels. Certainly, 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:53.920 their undocumented status makes them exploitable and often UM less 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.720 likely to stand up for better pay or against dangerous 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.720 working conditions or us likely to organize a union, less 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:08.000 likely to report or to demand UM workers compensation when 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:12.800 they're when they're injured. But in Mississippi, actually Latin American 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.680 workers have been organizing since the early two thousand's when 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:21.600 I was there, there was a massive firing of immigrant workers, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.400 precisely at the time that they that they're organizing was 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.640 really gaining traction. I don't I don't know that organizing 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.840 was on the up swing in this particular moment um. 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.280 But people have pointed to the fact that you know 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.600 that that at least in the case of cook Foods, 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.120 that workers you know, had brought this class action lawsuit 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.800 against the company. It's hard to say whether that's you know, 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.440 whether that figures into into the raids, right, So let's 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.240 let's focus on the conditions. You know, we hear about 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.920 injuries in plants. In your book Scrouching Out a Living, 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.040 you talk about how workers would show up wearing diapers 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:03.240 and knew sort of just give me a sense and feel. 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.040 I did not work personally in the plants, but I 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.360 did have access to the plants while I was doing 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.400 my research as an interpreter with the unions and as 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:17.360 an organizer with the Mississippi Poultry Workers Center. Just kind 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:19.880 of take us through a shift I know you did 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:21.560 this really really well in the book. You kind of 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:23.600 walked just you know, sort of entering the plant and 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.080 walking right through the line, and I found it fascinating. Boy, 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.480 I'll try. You know, the pay is low and poultry, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.800 but this is really just the beginning. The plants. First 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.720 of all, they're fortified by walls with um barbed wire 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.240 at the top. They very much have a feeling of 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:42.840 you know, what's in is supposed to be kept in, 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:45.160 and what's out as supposed to be out. One of 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.720 the times that I had the opportunity to tour a plant, 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.400 a worker was standing by the door that I walked in, 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.080 and he announced to me as I walked in, welcome 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.080 to the penitentiary. And that was just, you know, hit 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.640 me that that that sort of comparison between being inside 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.600 the walls of a chicken plant and being inside the 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.680 walls of a you know, state prison. But they are 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.880 you know, they're they're concrete wall rooms. It's very very cold. 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.760 The plant cannot go above forty degrees in the in 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.920 the areas where the the de boning is happening, where 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.400 the chicken is being cut. When I was working in 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.320 with the Mississippi Poultry Workers Center. It was very normal 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.360 to hear workers saying they weren't permitted to wear jackets 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.240 to stay warm. Some said that they had to. So 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.520 they're standing on a line with a conveyor belt of 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:39.560 chickens whizzing by them. Currently, the limit, the federal limit 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.160 for line speed is a hundred forty birds per minute. 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.880 They're at the steel table. It's very noisy. You have 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.200 to sort of shout if you want to communicate with someone, 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.040 even who's next to you, and the chickens are whirling 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:56.000 past you at this tremendous rate. Workers are standing in 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.840 one place and they're making the same motion up to 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:03.480 sixty times per shift. So your your job might be 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:08.080 to cut off one wing or to lower a shoulder, 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.760 or your job might be to put the whole chicken 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:12.680 on the cone that's going to take the chicken down 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:17.320 the conveyor belt. Workers also regularly complain that their equipment 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.320 is dull, that their knives and scissors are dull. This 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:24.920 creates conditions ripe for repetitive strain injuries as all as 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:29.280 well as acute lacerations. We saw lots of amputations come 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.879 through the Workers Center carpal tunnel in tendonitis or some 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:37.320 of the major repetitive motion injuries. All Right, when when 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.920 there's a laceration, I mean, do they stop the line 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.640 or they just keep working through it. I have other 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.280 accounts that I've read of workplace injuries. Workers have been 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.480 surprised that, you know, maybe someone has a heart attack 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:50.919 and is lying on the ground next to them and 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:55.000 the line just keeps running. Um. So when it comes 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.560 to lacerations, I would suspect that the answer to that 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.240 question has less to do with the condition of the 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.960 worker as it does to do with the possible contamination 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:08.000 of the food source. Because food safety laws, I think 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.919 are are taken very seriously and are UM police heavily, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.880 and the chicken plants um labor protections not so much. 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:20.000 UM Again, diapers and here read reports of workers who 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.320 actually wear diapers because there's there's there's just no bathroom breaks. Right, 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.040 So one of the biggest complaints that poultry workers have 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.239 is the um that they're not given breaks, particularly when 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.840 they need to use the bathroom. They're supposed to be 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.040 a rotation system of floater system where if you need 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.359 a break, you know someone can come replace you. On 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.560 the line while you go to the bathroom. But that 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.399 clearly isn't happening in a lot of plants and a 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.399 lot of cases. And again it was the it was 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.800 probably the most common complaints that we heard at the 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.600 workers center from from workers. You know, yes, the line 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.600 speed is is you know, inhumane, and yes there are 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.240 lots of injuries and it's cold, and we're being mistreated, 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.560 and the supervie there's yelled at us, but they won't 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.640 even let us use the bathroom. Right. We heard that 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.160 over and over to the point where we actually took 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:11.159 the complaint to the director of OSHA. Mississippi doesn't have 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.200 a state Occupational Safety and Health office, but there was 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:20.000 a federal OSHA representative to the state, and along with 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.600 some poultry workers and their unions, we took this complaint 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:29.199 um too to the OSHA office and they basically said, like, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.119 we hear you, but this is a question of resources 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.880 and we just don't have enough. They said, we've got 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.160 twelve I think it was twelve workers at the time 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.120 these the data is a little bit dated, but at 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:46.080 the time it was twelve workers to investigate OSHA issues 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.160 across the entire state, and they said, you know, first 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.840 we're going to go somewhere where UM, there's a death 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.480 on the job. Second, we're going to investigate UM cases 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.160 where there were multiple injuries, and sort of going down 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.439 the line, he said, you know, we're just never going 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.800 to get to the point where we can and force 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.320 a worker's right to use the bathroom. So on top 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.800 of the sort of physicality of the difficult um nature 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:15.719 and the cold nature and the fast nature of of 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.040 poultry work. UM, the other thing that that I heard 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:23.280 so much from workers was the sense that they were 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:27.000 treated like they weren't humans, UM, that they were treated 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.040 like they were machines, that they were sort of see, 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:33.600 they felt as if they were disposable. UM. Many people 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:40.200 reported degradation by supervisors UM, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, extortion, 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:45.159 and exchange for favorable treatment. And actually this was UM 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.040 in the in one case in Mississippi at cook Foods, 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:52.600 one of the plants that that was rated this past year. UM. 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.920 This became a class action lawsuit that was eventually, after 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:00.359 many many years settled. But that that I think is 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.760 worth mentioning, right, the sort of in humanity of working 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.360 in chicken plants. And there was one worker leader who 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.800 who had been there many, many years, who said, you know, 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:10.800 the chicken plants just use you up and reach back 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.640 for your kids, and that it's sort of a generational 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:18.639 wasting of bodies. Yeah. You refer to to this is 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:23.520 plantation capitalism. Yeah. Yeah. And and there's a criminalization of 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:28.119 actual work, this idea of plantation capitalism, um in in 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:33.600 chicken processing. Yeah. I think I use the term plantation 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.800 capitalism to think about, um, sort of the continuities over 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:44.359 time in the Deep South, where you know, our food 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:50.680 has always been produced by exploitable labors right by by 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.719 people who were disenfranchised, who didn't have full rights. And 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:56.960 this takes us, you know, takes us back to the 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:02.080 time of plantation, um slavery. Really when we when we 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.840 look at how how food has been produced in our country, um. 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.359 And you know, I think some people here plantation capitalism. 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.520 I think, oh, this is sort of some figurative way 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.879 of talking about racial exploitation and the plants, And in 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:17.520 some ways it is, but I think it's a much 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:25.760 more direct line. I worked with poultry worker leaders who 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:30.240 had grown up as sharecroppers on the land that their 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:35.359 grandparents have been enslaved on and for them being able 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.800 to move off that land into a wage earning job 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:44.919 was significant, while at the same time sort of the 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:49.160 continuities of exploitation and inability to get ahead, and sort 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:54.120 of the generational expectations that that you know, your kids 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:55.520 were going to be in the same position that you 0:22:55.560 --> 0:23:02.240 were in. UM, I think very real after the break, 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:15.360 what should the immigrant bill of rights look like? In America? 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:20.480 We're back and you're listening to Citizen Chef. America's immigrant 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.240 population is under attack. Who's gonna plant, pick, and process 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:27.239 our food if we don't allow guest workers into our 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:30.760 country to do it? I want to look at the 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.120 role that immigrant workers have long played in our food 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.360 system and ask the question, what should the immigrant bill 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:40.320 of rights look like? In America? I'm talking to investigative journalists, 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:45.280 at least as you of the Mississippi Claring Ledger. What 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:47.440 struck me is is reading the reports of the raids 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:51.639 is the response from the chicken processors. It was almost 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.600 as if well, this is all okay, we'll just move 0:23:54.640 --> 0:24:00.119 on and and and um. You know, most business as 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:02.119 if they lost two thirds of their workforce would be 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:05.320 freaking out, And their reaction was just like well, okay, 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:09.440 we'll find out the workers. UM. Did this have any 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:13.520 additional economic ripple effect through the community. Obviously the workers 0:24:13.560 --> 0:24:16.200 were impacted, their families were impacted, but did have any 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:20.919 additional effects. I stopped by some small Hispanic businesses in Morton, 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:25.159 UM and they were just totally empty. One used to 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:29.000 be a combination sort of restaurant and grocery store, but 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:33.280 the restaurant had been closed basically since the raids. They 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:37.280 didn't have their customers anymore. UM. There was one employee 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:40.439 who didn't want to talk on the record, but it 0:24:40.520 --> 0:24:44.399 was clear that they've been really struggling since the raids 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:49.640 and UH. As far as the cost of the raids, 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:53.600 the salaries paid to the about six hundred federal agents 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:56.040 on the day of the raids amounted to nearly five 0:24:56.520 --> 0:25:02.080 thousand dollars overall, including the cost the investigation that extended 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:06.000 to eighteen months prior. UH it's cost tax payers about 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:08.159