Matt Bevin Thinks You Should Be Forced to Shit in Your Pants At Work

New nickname:  Governor Pants-Shitter.  Works for more than one issue!

From the Friday press release:

Gov. Matt Bevin today congratulated Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., a leading poultry producer, on announcing a $24 million project to increase production and create about 140 jobs for Kentuckians at its Graves County plant.

140 jobs for Kentuckians so desperate for work they will accept minimum wage to slave on a dead meat assembly line for 10 hours without a bathroom break.

Washington Post:

A new report by Oxfam America, an arm of the international anti- poverty and injustice group, alleges that poultry industry workers are "routinely denied breaks to use the bathroom" in order to optimize the speed of production. In some cases, according to the group, the reality is so oppressive that workers "urinate and defecate while standing on the line" and "wear diapers to work." In others, employees say they avoid drinking liquids for long periods and endure considerable pain in order to keep their jobs.

The findings are the result of hundreds of interviews with line workers from some of the largest poultry processing companies in the United States, including Tyson Foods, Pilgrim's, and Perdue. And they bring the current state of the poultry industry into serious question. Competitive forces, they suggest, are driving poultry processors to produce as much meat as possible, as fast as possible, leading companies to mistreat their workers, even if unknowingly.

Today, poultry processing plants are allowed to funnel chickens through their assembly lines at a rate of 140 birds per minute, a rate which the industry recently lobbied to increase by another 35 birds per minute. The speed has been great for business, but for those working on the line, it has made for extremely taxing shifts. Just ask Debbie Berkowitz, a senior fellow at the National Employment Law Project who used to work with the government agency that oversaw industry practices. On Wednesday, she published a piece in response to the new report. This is how she described the conditions:

In my work at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, I witnessed the dangers: poultry workers stand shoulder to shoulder on both sides of long conveyor belts, most using scissors or knives, in cold, damp, loud conditions, making the same forceful movements thousands upon thousands of times a day, as they skin, pull, cut, debone and pack the chickens. The typical plant processes 180,000 birds a day. A typical worker handles 40 birds a minute.

Tyson and Perdue responded to the report with denials.  Pilgrim just refused to comment.  Great Bluegrass values at Pilgrim, Governor Pants-Shitter!