Senate panel looks into allegations raised by newspaper series on poultry-worker injuries

The Charlotte Observer's six-part series on injured poultry processing plant workers, "The Cruelest Cuts," made headlines in other newspapers, with its allegations that processor House of Raeford underreported injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The report prompted Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, to hold a hearing on the matter yesterday, reports Alicia Karapetian of Meatingplace.com.

"Tuesday's Senate hearing included testimony from a representative from union group Change to Win, a former OSHA chief, a representative from an injury-prevention consulting firm and a worker from a Tyson Foods Inc. facility in Robards, Ky., who was representing her local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union," Karapetian writes. "There were not, however, any processing companies represented."

House of Raeford has said many of the cases highlighted by the Observer report were "factually incomplete or inaccurate." Kennedy said he plans to hold another hearing in the spring. (Read more, subscription required)