Report shows poultry industry had its best year for worker safety in 2006

According to new data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the rate at which injuries and illnesses occurred among the nation's poultry processing workers reached its lowest level ever in 2006, reports Meatingplace.com. The 2006 rate of injury and illness was 6.6 per 100 poultry workers, down from 7.4 in 2005 and 14.2 in 2000. Still, the rate trails the overall rate for manufacturing, which was 6.0. The rate for all of the nation's food manufacturing workers was 7.4.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has not commented on the new report, but on its Web site, it has a page dedicated to poultry processing workers. The UFCW calls the job "one of the most dangerous" in the country. It also says that worker productivity has risen to an all-time high, as have rates for repetitive stress injuries. (At right, workers on a processing line in a UFCW photo.) The full Labor Department statistics are available here.