OMAHA, NE – Today, UFCW Local 293, which represents Nebraska workers in meat and poultry slaughter and processing and other essential industries, announced its support for the Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act and strongly urged Nebraska’s U.S. Senators to co-sponsor this bill and fight for the provisions of this worker safety bill to be included in the Farm Bill.
The bill would provide essential protections to meatpacking workers across the country by strengthening worker safety provisions, increasing transparency, and supporting workers in an industry that continues to feel strains resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Meat and poultry slaughter and processing workers have endured one of the most dangerous periods of our nation’s history and risked their health to ensure American families had food on the table,” said UFCW Local 293 President Eric Reeder. “While unionized plants were able to secure a number of important protections, more needs to be done on the federal level. For this reason, the UFCW strongly urges Senators Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts to co-sponsor the Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act and fight for the provisions to be included in the upcoming Farm Bill. This piece of legislation is critical for the safety of meatpacking and processing workers and would be a huge step forward in making our food system more resilient and fair. Now is the moment for our political leaders to show their support for all of Nebraska’s meat packing workers by ensuring they have the safety protections they need.”
“Our union has always put a huge focus on plant safety and helped ensure we were as protected as we could be as essential workers during the pandemic. However, we need this legislation too, so that everyone gets the benefit of strong safety protections, whether they’re a union member or not,” said Debra Spanjer, Local 293 member.
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UFCW Local 293 is part of UFCW International, the largest private sector union in the United States. UFCW International represents 1.3 million professionals and their families in healthcare, grocery stores, meatpacking, food processing, retail shops, and other industries. Our members serve our communities in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico. Learn more about the UFCW at ufcw.org.