America's Slaughterhouses Speed Up: Who Really Benefits?

Imagine processing 175 chickens in a single minute. That's the reality the US Department of Agriculture wants to impose on America's slaughterhouse workers with its latest policy proposal—a 25% increase from the current 140 birds per minute.

For pig slaughterhouses, the news is even starker: no speed limits at all. This affects 94% of chickens, 79% of turkeys, and 64% of pigs slaughtered in America, making an already dangerous job exponentially more perilous.

Industry Applause vs. Worker Alarm

The meat industry is celebrating. "Thank you, Secretary Rollins and the Food Safety and Inspection Service, for taking steps to unleash the potential to process pork more efficiently," declared Duane Stateler, president of the National Pork Producers Council.

Workers and advocates tell a different story. Venceremos, a poultry worker advocacy group, warns that "many workers explain that they simply cannot check for contamination, defects, or improperly processed meat when items pass by them in a blur."

The stakes couldn't be higher. America's nearly 500,000 meat processing workers—one-third of them immigrants—already face some of the nation's highest injury rates. They wield sharp knives over long shifts, cutting up animal carcasses at breakneck speed, leading to cuts, lacerations, amputations, and carpal tunnel syndrome. The psychological toll is equally severe: anxiety, depression, and PTSD that many didn't experience before taking these jobs.

A Bipartisan Rush to Speed

This isn't just a Trump administration initiative—it's the culmination of a 30-year bipartisan project. The push began in 1997 under President Bill Clinton, when USDA first allowed select slaughterhouses to operate faster.

In 2012, Obama's USDA proposed the same chicken speed increase—from 140 to 175 birds per minute—but backed down after fierce opposition. The first Trump administration succeeded where Obama failed, expanding faster line speeds across the industry.

Even the Biden administration contributed to this trajectory by commissioning third-party research on line speed safety. The results were revealing: 81% of poultry workers and 46% of pork workers face high risk for musculoskeletal disorders like tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.

The Missing Safety Net

The Biden-era study uncovered a crucial insight: injury risk correlated not with line speed itself, but with individual worker "piece rates"—how many animals each worker must process. Some chicken plants that increased speeds also added staff, preventing additional injuries. Those that didn't saw injury rates climb.

Researchers were explicit: "Any establishment anticipating an increase in evisceration line speed should proactively mitigate musculoskeletal disorder risk by increasing job-specific staffing levels."

But the USDA's new proposal ignores this recommendation entirely. When questioned, an agency spokesperson said USDA doesn't "have the power to regulate piece rates or how private companies manage their staff."

Debbie Berkowitz, who served as chief of staff at OSHA under Obama, isn't buying it. "They refuse because the industry runs the agency and they don't want to spend money where they don't have to," she told me.

Safety Regulations in Retreat

The speed increases are just one part of a broader deregulatory push. The Trump administration has also:

• Withdrawn Biden-era rules to reduce salmonella in poultry
• Reduced the number of slaughterhouse inspectors
• Proposed ending mandatory annual worker safety reports

Berkowitz calls this a "very telling sign of this administration and how they view blue-collar workers—they have decided that they no longer have to care about workers at all."

The timing is particularly concerning. A federal judge previously ruled that USDA must consider worker safety when changing line speeds, yet this round of rulemaking conspicuously avoids public input on worker welfare.