WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) led colleagues to demand meatpacking companies take immediate steps to put an end to the use of child labor at their facilities and pressed Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on their response to the use of child labor in meatpacking facilities.

“According to court documents, the Department of  (DOL) found children between 13 and 17 years old working overnight shifts at your facilities and leaving their shifts to attend school in the morning, despite sleep deprivation,” wrote Senator Booker in a letter to meatpacking companies. “The Wage and Hour Division of the DOL (WHD) conducted surveillance, subpoenaed school records, and interviewed confidential sources about minors working overnight shifts to clean the meat processing facility. WHD found that minor children were illegally recruited and employed – including a 13-year-old who suffered a serious chemical burn from chemical cleaners while employed by PSSI. DOL also found that many of the children who were illegally employed fell asleep in class and missed class as a result of suffering injuries from chemical burns at the facility, while employed by PSSI, a contractor each of your facilities utilizes.

“Taking advantage of children and placing them in dangerous workplace settings overnight must end. Your companies have outsourced dangerous jobs in your plants, but that does not mean you do not have a responsibility to assure that workers in your plants are 18 or older and provided safe conditions,” continued Senator Booker.

Senator Booker requested meatpacking facilities answer the following questions:

  1. What practices does your company have in place to ensure compliance with child labor laws which prohibit minors under the age of 18 from working in your plants? How will you monitor the employment and safety practices of any contractors you hire in the plant to sanitize your facilities during the third shift?
  2. Following the recent investigation by DOL, what steps has your company taken to address concerns regarding widespread noncompliance with federal labor law?
  3. When did you begin to contract with PSSI? Why did you shift this work from full- time staff to contracted workers? What steps are you taking to ensure your contractors comply with federal labor laws?
  4. We have learned that the JBS plant in Worthington, Minnesota terminated its contract with PSSI on December 14. Do you have plans to terminate your contract with PSSI? Will you bring the work of cleaning and sanitizing plants in-house? If not, how will you ensure future contractors are not committing similar labor violations?
  5. How will you assure that all workers in your plant are provided safe conditions and how will your company improve and enhance workplace safety measures to prevent chemical burns and other serious and deadly injuries?

In a letter to OSHA, Senator Booker wrote, “OSHA must hold both the host company and PSSI responsible for these unsafe conditions as it has done in past investigations of unsafe work conditions among sanitation workers in meat and poultry plants. As your agency knows, federal labor laws prohibit any company from hiring anyone under 18 to work in almost any job, including sanitation, in a meat and poultry plant. Meatpacking is considered one of the most hazardous jobs and for decades WHD has prohibited any worker under 18 from working in almost every job in the plant…These findings highlight why your agency must prioritize rigorous enforcement in meat and poultry plants and their contractors.”

Senator Booker requested OSHA answer the following questions:

  1. Has OSHA reviewed the over seven years of data on amputations and severe injuries reported to the agency and determined how many meat and poultry companies, as well as their contactors, are in the top 75 companies reporting these horrible injuries?
  2. When does OSHA plan to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the safety and health practices of PSSI and their host employers? When will the agency announced a special emphasis investigation into meat and poultry plants, including the third sanitation shift?
  3. What steps is DOL taking to ensure that local and regional area offices are taking referrals from WHD investigators that discover injured children in the industry?
  4. Are there any active training programs for DOL investigators across various departments to investigators in the hazards and violations of all laws enforced under DOL, with the goal referrals can be made effectively across the agency?
  5. Given the findings of WHD and the dangers in these plants, will OSHA adopt a policy of opening inspections following reports of amputations and severe injuries in meat and poultry plants, whether by the host company or by a contactor?
  6. Does OSHA plan to review how consolidation in the meatpacking industry contributed to decreased worker protections, as we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic and this ongoing child labor crisis?

Both letters are cosigned by: Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

The letter to OSHA can be found here.

The letter to the meatpacking companies can be found here.