As if anyone would think otherwise!!!
Children Were Working On Kill Floors at a Slaughterhouse. The U.S. Department of Labor Must Investigate!
Kill floors at slaughterhouses are traumatic places for all involved. Animals suffer tremendously as they approach their deadly fate, and workers must witness and facilitate this horrendous death.
So why did government officials discover that Packer Sanitation Services (PSSI) was employing children in these dangerous and traumatic conditions — at multiple processing facilities?
To be clear: it is illegal in the U.S. for children to work under these conditions and in these environments. PSSI broke the law. And it broke the law repeatedly.
A recent Department of Labor investigation found that PSSI didn’t just employ children — it put them directly in harm’s way. At a plant in Nebraska, one 13-year-old child sustained caustic chemical burns on the kill floor. Thirty other children were put to work cleaning large, dangerous industrial equipment.
On top of that, managers often forced these young kids to work overnight before school!
To make matters worse, PSSI allegedly interfered with the investigation by intimidating minor workers, trying to bully them into not cooperating with investigators.
According to the Department of Labor, PSSI allegedly deleted and manipulated employment files to hide the fact that they were not only hiring and employing minors, but forcing them to work in horrific working conditions.
The government investigation into a few specific facilities is a good start, but PSSI operates in 700 processing facilities.
The Department of Labor must ensure that every single one of this company’s 17,000 workers are safe, and that no more children are employed in these dangerous working conditions. Sign the petition now if you agree!