Dispatch From a Meatpacking Factory: “If We Unite as Workers, We Have the Power”

Dina Velasquez Escalante is a poultry worker in southwest Minnesota. She spends her workdays inspecting the chicken millions of Americans eat every day. She looks for tumors, stray bones and organs, and removes bile. After six years of hard work and cultivating expertise on almost every position on the line, she’s now in the laboratory testing samples of poultry to ensure the highest quality.

As a union steward with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 663 at Butterfield Foods in Butterfield, Minnesota, Escalante is also tasked with ensuring her fellow workers receive fair treatment and safety on the line. While the treatment of workers has been an issue in the meatpacking industry for decades, alarming allegations across the Midwest in recent years have led to Department of Labor investigations into various plants.

In 2022, Tony Downs Food Group in Madelia, Minnesota, was alleged to have used child labor, with reports of minors as young as 13 working, specifically on sanitation crews — a job Escalante says is one of the most dangerous for repetitive stress injuries. Butterfield Foods, where Escalante works, supplies poultry to Downs Food Group, and shares the same ownership. Following the investigation, UFCW Local 663 demanded the establishment of a child well-being fund to prevent future instances of child labor violations.

As a part of a Department of Labor investigation into the use of child labor at select meatpacking facilities, the Department of Homeland Security has implemented a program, deferred action, that allows undocumented workers temporary relief from deportation if they meet specific qualifications.

Deferred action was implemented at various meatpacking sites across the Midwest due to recent reports of child labor, including at the poultry factory where Escalante works. She shared that some workers don’t apply because they fear deportation once temporary relief concludes. Other workers feel uneasy sharing their address and other information with government agencies.

The continuation of this relief, which is a Biden administration program, hinges on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

Over the last year, the UFCW has hosted clinics to support workers in submitting their deferred action applications. One of these clinics took place in late June at a church in St. James, Minnesota. With the Latin music radio station playing, the church was buzzing with meatpacking workers and their families. In attendance was UFCW Local 663 President Rena Wong.

In an interview conducted by Workday Magazine in collaboration with Truthout, Wong stresses the importance of the program, so workers can “live outside the shadows and to be able to report abuses.” Both Wong and Escalante shared that many meatpacking workers do not come forward with abuses due to their immigration status and fear of deportation.

Whether you are undocumented or not, we cannot suffer in silence. We cannot let people violate our rights. No matter where we’re from, we have rights.

Along with recent allegations of child labor in various facilities throughout the Midwest, Wong shared that meatpacking tends to have some of the highest rates of workplace injury of all manufacturing industries. The union president recalls a time she met with two longtime women meatpackers and union members: “They started pulling up their sleeves and showing me where they had had surgeries because of these repetitive stress injuries that they’ve suffered from the work.”

The meatpacking industry was also one of the deadliest industries for workers through the pandemic. Wong reflects on the sacrifice workers took during that time: “I know we live in a time when we’re so removed from the farms. We’re so removed from the actual slaughter. But the reality is that without these workers working day in and day out, throughout the pandemic, none of us could eat. We shouldn’t lose sight of that.”

Escalante is one of these workers. In the interview below, she discusses the industry, how she supports workers, and how she’d like to see workers speak out more. This interview has been translated from Spanish to English and edited for clarity and length.

Isabela Escalona: What do you do in the Butterfield Foods factory? What’s it like?

Dina Velasquez Escalante: I’ve worked in almost every station on the production line. I began in the area opening the chickens with scissors. When they go through the machine, the machine doesn’t open them completely. I then worked in the area where we removed the skin from the chickens.

Next, I worked with the government inspectors to inspect the chickens for infections and make sure they have no diseases. The assistant helps the inspector remove the chickens that the inspector identifies. The assistant documents how many chickens were removed, why the chickens were removed, what diseases they have or whether they have tumors. The assistant also helps by cutting the unwanted parts if the machine did not cut them well. The final process is where they check the inside for waste, bile, lungs or if it has a kidney.

I worked on the production line for about 10 months, then I was moved to quality control. I accepted the position because I like to learn. In that area, we grab 10 chickens every 20 minutes and take them to a designated table to check them one by one, making sure the chickens don’t have lungs, organs or this little bone that is left when you cut the legs off.

Quality control is the final check. Everything I find, I have to document. For example, if I find a lung and the lung is complete, it has a certain score. Each thing I find has a certain score. Then I add up the points. If there are too many points, I have to inform the supervisor who then talks to the workers on the line to see whether there’s a machinery problem or whether the workers are missing things.

I then go to the “rework” area, where there is a chicken with a bad part, but another part of it is salvageable. There are workers cutting what they can salvage, washing it and putting it in a tote. My job is to go and check the tote. I’ve worked in quality control for about three years.

Now I’m working in the office. My boss is retiring, and they are training me to learn her position. I’m currently learning about all the paperwork that is required.

What kind of work do you do in the office?

I’m in charge of the lab area where we take a certain amount of chicken, and we take a sample. We put it with a specific amount of water in a bag, and I leave it in an incubator for 24 hours and then we read the results.

It’s also my job to go down the line that the people who are taking out the organs are meeting the requirements. They are actually pulling it out, putting it in the right place, checking for any contamination and if they are hanging on the hooks. For example, if there is a lot of bile inside the chickens, it’s likely not the workers’ fault. It’s a problem with the machine and they have to fix it. If there is a lot of bile on the outside of the chicken, then I have to see why the workers are missing it.

Is the avian flu impacting you at all?

It is. It’s impacting our hours — we have very few hours lately. Sometimes we work five hours and that’s it. Because the chickens are contaminated, there are less coming into the factory.

As I understand it, on the farms they test for avian flu. Sometimes we have a delivery with a lot less chicken because those chickens were on a farm where there was contamination, and they didn’t pass the test. The good thing is that we have a union. Because of the union, there are some protections regarding our hours.

What do you like about the work you do there at the factory?

I like everything. I really like working. I like having a job. I want to earn my money with dignity. I don’t want somebody … telling me what to do or that my things aren’t mine because they paid for them. I want to earn my own money and buy my own things. And I’m motivated by supporting my family. I have the opportunity to support them and help them with what they need.

Where do you live? How do you like it?

I currently live in Windom, Minnesota. It’s good, I like it. I used to live in Butterfield, Minnesota. At first, I had no relatives here, I was the first of my family to live here. There were some people that I knew that I lived with. Long story short, they told me that I had to leave. I had nowhere to go.

I went to a church where I was attending. I asked them if there was anyone who had a place for me because I had no place to live. The pastors were very kind and supportive. So, I started living in St. James, Minnesota. It’s very nice. There are many places to walk and there are about three or four Hispanic stores.

After that, some brothers of mine came to Minnesota and there were a lot of us in that house. We found a place in Windom, Minnesota. It was a change because there were more Latino people and Latino stores in St. James — in Windom there’s almost none. But I like it. I live with my brothers, my brother’s wife, my younger sister and her husband, and now with their little 3-month-old baby.

What are the problems workers have on the job?

There are a lot of repetitive injuries. The slaughter workers are where we have the most workers, and that’s where we have the most complaints. It’s one of the most complicated jobs — as well as the unloading area. They are the ones who take the chickens off the trucks and put them on the hooks.

Another one of the most difficult areas is where the workers open the chickens with the scissors. Sometimes the scissors are not sharp and people struggle to open them. In the vacuuming area we also see a lot of issues because there is not enough pressure to get the lungs and kidneys out — people complain a lot about the pain in their arms.

This year we had a lot of complaints about a supervisor who came in and stood behind workers on the line. There are people who have been there for many years and felt that someone looking at their backs is a burden and that makes people nervous and they feel intimidated. We handled that problem and it got a lot better. The union was present in all of this.

Did you work here during the pandemic?

Yes, it was very difficult. Before COVID, my sister and I and others would get rides to work. It was really hard for us who didn’t know how to drive or didn’t have a car because people didn’t want to give rides anymore. They were afraid that if someone was in their car and was sick, then they were going to get sick and bring the virus home to their family.

So people stopped giving rides, but we had to be able to go to work. I came from a rural area in Guatemala and didn’t ever learn to drive. I felt limited in so many ways and felt like I had to wait for help all the time and depend on other people. The pandemic was also an opportunity for me because I learned to drive. Maybe I never would’ve learned. I felt like it was my responsibility to take care of my sister.

Along with transportation issues, we also had to wear masks, and we had to walk around with shields on our faces. In the slaughter area it is very hot. The workers’ goggles became fogged by the mask, and it was uncomfortable. Workers would then have to fix the goggles, and at that moment the product would pass them by on the line.

As a steward, how did you make sure workers had information and knew about their rights?

The union has a contract, and there are certain things the company must do. For example, I asked for a copy of the contract in Spanish, which the majority of workers speak. So as a steward, I said we need a contract in Spanish, and it needs to be here on the wall so that people can come and read it.

But someone told me no. They said, “If we put it on the wall, then everyone will have access and people will begin to talk and then there will be a lot of complaints.” They didn’t want people to know their rights. For them, the more information hidden, the better for them. When we put the contract on the wall, workers began asking more questions and had more grievances. Once people began to really understand their rights, they then began to talk with me more.

What is something you think all workers should know?

Whether you are undocumented or not, we cannot suffer in silence. We cannot let people violate our rights. No matter where we’re from, we have rights. Often, workers have a lot of fear. But if we speak up and they retaliate against us, that also violates our rights. Supervisors can’t tell you to do whatever they want.

I’ve seen that often some of the hardest work is given to Latino immigrant workers because they know they won’t ever say anything because of our status. We’re all human, we all have blood running through our veins. We deserve rights. I’ve also seen disrespect against Guatemalan workers. They discriminate because we’re of a smaller stature, and that’s not right.

Nothing will change if we continue to permit it. If we unite as workers, we have the power. They should be afraid of us, but we’re afraid of them. As the majority, we have the power. We have to speak up.

This article is a joint publication of Truthout and Workday Magazine. This story is also part of the Greater Minnesota Worker Listening Project series, a profile series on union and nonunion workers in Greater Minnesota and other rural communities.