Faster lines, broken bodies: The global fight for safe meatpacking

Occupational safety and health in the meat and poultry industry is one of the most urgent labour rights issues of our time. The work is physically brutal, the workforce is largely migrant and economically vulnerable, and the pressure to speed up the line never relents. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that global meat production expanded by 1.4% in 2025, driven by higher slaughter rates and firm consumer demand, with global meat trade forecast to grow a further 1.7% to 43 million tons. Output is rising-but workers' safety is not keeping pace.

In February 2026, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed permanently raising line speeds in meatpacking and poultry plants-pushing chicken processing from 140 to 175 birds per minute and removing the cap on pork entirely. Workers and the public refused to accept it: 42,000 comments were submitted opposing the rules, and 36,000 letters were sent directly to members of Congress. The evidence backs them up. Eighty-one % of poultry workers and 46 % of pork workers already face elevated risk of musculoskeletal disorders. The researchers behind the government's own studies have publicly stated that the USDA distorts their findings. According to OSHA severe injury data, between 2015 and 2018 a meatpacking worker lost a body part or was admitted for in-patient treatment every other day. Faster lines mean more injuries. The evidence is not in dispute.

This is not an American problem alone. In 2022, the IUF and EFFAT took the fight to the European Parliament to defend Brazil's NR 36-the regulation protecting over 500,000 meatpacking workers against a corporate-backed attempt to strip them of their safety rights. When the Brazilian Ministry of Labour moved to gut the rule, EFFAT brought the campaign to the European Parliament's Trade Committee, applying the direct pressure of a major trading partner. The principle was clear: International trade must never be used to drive a race to the bottom on workers' rights and conditions. This success was possible with united global solidarity.

When COVID-19 tore through German slaughterhouses in 2020, IUF affiliate NGG turned the crisis into a mandate for change. By 2021, sustained union organizing had delivered a new law banning subcontracting in the German meat sector, bringing 35,000 workers into direct employment and placing the entire industry within reach of collective bargaining. NGG then took that leverage to the table, pushing for a three-tier wage structure-from EUR 12.50 at entry level to EUR 17 for skilled workers-and backed its demands with warning strikes at factory gates when employers tried to hold the line at EUR 10.

The last two success stories showed what solidarity and union strength can deliver. Only united can we bring change. The IUF stands with UFCW and meatpacking workers everywhere in demanding that line speeds be determined by worker health-not by profit margins. Workers must have the right to stop an unsafe line without fear of reprisal. No job is worth your body. No output target is worth a life.