Meat

A settlement has been approved by a US court awarding USD 32 million to more than 17,000 Tyson poultry workers in 41 plants in 12 states, the culmination of a long struggle for compensation for work already performed initiated by the IUF-affiliated UFCW 12 years ago.

Overdue payments to contract farmers, interruptions in feed supplies, delays in contractual bonus payments for factory workers, unpaid social contributions: these are but a few of the indications that something is terribly wrong at the Brazilian subsidiary of French poultry producer Doux. CONTAC, which organises meat workers in Brazil, has been sounding the alarm since early 2011.

New hires at Herning while workers at Hadsund fight pay cuts

The 4,500 FAWU members at the farms and processing plants of Rainbow Chicken, South Africa's largest processor and marketer of chicken, have been on a national strike since 26 May in pursuit of a wage increase, a reduction in working hours and an increase in the minimum wage on the farms.

Australia’s National Union of Workers (NUW) is stepping up its campaign in support of workers at Baiada, the country’s largest poultry producer, by calling on the company’s main bank and largest retailer to insist that Baida guarantee ethical employment standards

Eastern Kazakhstan has been a regional center of poultry production since Soviet times, and the Cheremshanskaya "Poultry Plant Plus" is one of the largest. Formerly emplying 650 people, fifteen years after its privatization the plant today provides jobs for only 360. The average wage is some USD 100-120 monthly - but today wages are paid only rarely, and rarely in full. Wage arrears currently amount to USD 245,000, with 375,000 owed to the pension fund.

Australia's National Union of Workers (NUW) has rallied behind an immigrant Sudanese poultry worker who was sacked for raising allegations of racisim at his workplace. In the process, the union has helped spotlight a brutally exploitative workplace regime at one of the country's leading 'ethically produced' poultry brands. The union's 'Free range chicken - caged workers' campaign has spurred a government investigation into conditions at the Lilydale factory in Adelaide.

Workers at the Belkozin plant in the northern Ukrainian town of Priluki have won wage increases totaling 54% following strike action in May, a long mobilization and tough bargaining by the plant organization of the IUF-affiliated Agro-Industrial Workers' Union of Ukraine.