Charlotte Observer series on worker safety in poultry plants prompts Congressional hearings

U.S. Senate and House committees, "spurred by a Charlotte Observer report on North Carolina poultry giant House of Raeford Farms, are planning hearings on worker safety in the poultry industry," report Kerry Hall and Franco Ordonez of the Observer. (Observer photo: workers in processing plant.)

The six-part series, called "The Cruelest Cuts," began Feb. 10 with a story headlined "The human cost of bringing poultry to your table" by Hall, Ames Alexander and Ordonez. "The Observer series was based on examinations of government and company records and interviews with more than 120 current and former House of Raeford workers," write Hall and Ordonez. House of Raeford has seven processing plants in North and South Carolina.

"Employees say the company has ignored, intimidated or fired workers who were hurt on the job," Hall and Ordonez write. "Among the Observer's findings were that the company has broken the law by failing to record injuries on government safety logs, a top Occupational Safety and Health Administration official says, and that some seriously injured workers were brought back to the company's Greenville, S.C., plant hours after surgery."

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., called the series' findings "disturbing and heartbreaking," while Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said the series showed the need to overhaul OSHA. U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., said immigration reform is necessary, since the series showed House of Raeford's reliance on illegal immigrant labor. (Read more) The full series is available here.

The News & Observer in Raleigh allowed The Observer's series to reach more readers in North Carolina by running the series on its front pages. That's because the two are sister newspapers within the McClatchy Newspapers family, writes Ted Vaden of The News & Observer. "For this collaboration, The Observer did the excellent journalism of uncovering patterns of abuse and neglect of employees of House of Raeford Farms, and The N&O provided the space and eyeballs to spread the story more broadly," Vaden writes. (Read more)