The Investigation into the Gainesville Chicken Plant Tragedy Continues
GAINESVILLE, GA - According to an online news story on 11alive.com, a fatal work accident at a poultry plant in Gainesville, Georgia, shed light on the dangers of one of Georgia's largest industries.* The investigation will examine the Foundation Food Group plant's work conditions to see if negligence contributed to a liquid nitrogen leak that killed several plant workers and injured dozens.
The poultry industry is one of Georgia's biggest industries, and safety activists believe poultry work is very dangerous, exhausting, and leaves employees vulnerable to workplace injuries and deaths. Georgia politicians often boast about how Georgia is the top producer of chicken in the country. However, news cameras are seldom permitted inside chicken processing plants.
A witness mentioned in the article says she has observed the terrible working conditions inside Georgia poultry plants. The witness also stated that she worked a year and a half at two north Georgia chicken processing plants. She added that she has seen women working inside these plants who have swollen limbs and are forced to keep working because they don't have any other options. According to her, liquid nitrogen is used to flash-freeze the processed chicken meat. The former chick plant worker stated that she was not surprised about the accident and also noted that there had been hundreds of deaths and these plants are unsafe because the plant operators pack the workers in "like sardines."
According to Mike Giles with the Georgia Poultry Federation, the State of Georgia has about 40 chicken processing plants in operation. The industry provided about 35,000 jobs. It is also important to note that the chicken processing industry does work hard to ensure their workers' safety.
Chicken plants were forced to change some of their safety protocols last year after the coronavirus outbreak, which took the lives of some plant workers around Gainesville and elsewhere in Georgia.
Accident News is a safety and education initiative from Montlick & Associates, designed to help people better understand and thereby avoid common accident causes. To learn more about our injury prevention programs, please visit iridesafe.com. We hope you are never in a pedestrian accident, but if you or a family member are injured, call Montlick & Associates 24/7 for your free consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333) or use our live chat at Montlick.com.
Source:
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/gainesville/plant-probe/85-63bd7d7e-b395-4ff1-b46a-64511557df55