Catherwood LibraryILR School

The United States Labor Department is investigating alleged labor violations committed by Tyson and Perdue. Tyson and Perdue and major companies in the United States poultry industry, and produce over a third of America’s poultry products. The two companies allegedly employed child workers in slaughterhouses, and these children were responsible for cleaning various industrial meat machines. The working conditions in slaughterhouses are notoriously dangerous, and workers under the age of 18 are not allowed to work in slaughterhouses due to the extremely high risk of injury. The labor violation claim states that some workers were as young as 13 years old, and the claim details how an eighth-grade worker at Purdue had his arm angled in a meat processing machine. Tyson and Perdue stated that outside companies are contracted to do cleaning work at the meat processing plants, and company management was unaware that child workers were being employed by these cleaning companies.