More than a year and a half after opening its latest chicken processing plant in Kinston, Sanderson Farms is being touted as a great corporate neighbor who has brought needed jobs and capital investment to the area.
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Comments
Jobs
Supporters of Sanderson Farms often mention jobs. But I doubt the project will be the solution to the long term unemployment problem in this area. Jobs with high turnover paying 8 or 9 dollars and hour are not going to move people forward and get people off of government dependence over the long run. The long term unemployed in this area who can not find work in Rocky Mount, Wilson, Tarboro, Raleigh, etc. generally are not going to be working at Sanderson Farms for very long if at all. Eventually, Sanderson will start using foreign workers to staff their plant. It is likely that our social services, schools, and police resources will be stretched if this plant is built.
Moultrie
Well, 56 days after Sanderson Farms grand opening....asking the citizens for a special tax...huh? Well be prepared it is going to cost a lot more in Nash County too!
Current Labor South article - SF "Workers Protest Conditions"
Poultry Giant Reports Gains as Workers Protest Conditions
"Sanderson Farms Inc., the same poultry giant where workers at its Hazelhurst, Miss., plant are protesting horrible working conditions, has just posted a 22 percent jump in revenue with $28.7 million in net income for the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
The Laurel, Miss.-based poultry company also recently announced plans to build a new plant in Nash County, North Carolina, that will employ 1,100 workers.
Area residents and officials had filed a lawsuit to try to prevent Sanderson from building the plant, but the North Carolina Court of Appeals tossed out the lawsuit last month. Residents are concerned about environmental hazards posed by the plant.
At the Hazelhurst, Miss., plant, officials with the Laborers International Union of North America Local 693 held a recent press conference to highlight the poor working conditions there.
The 700 workers at the plant have to do their jobs in 100-degree-plus temperatures with minimal breaks, poor air-conditioning, and unsanitary bathrooms, Local 693 representatives said. They showed large photographs showing worker injuries as a result of the high production demands at the plant.
Union representatives said the plant processes 200,000 chickens every day, and worker injuries are common."
By Joe Atkins 09/10/2012
Tighter rules for Sanderson against hiring immigrants
On his visit to Sanderson's Moultrie, GA, plant, Commissioner Wayne Outlaw was told that Sanderson will not rehire a worker. When the willing local workers have been expended, in order to keep the plant operating, Sanderson will have to resort to hiring immigrants.
Commissioners, I want stricter wording so that Sanderson won't be hiring immigrants. The incentives package guidelines, as written, read like a giant loophole: "The company would 'make commercially reasonable efforts' to ensure that a majority of employees are people who can certify they have lived in Nash, Edgecombe or Wilson counties for at least two years."
What does "commercially reasonable efforts" mean other than Nash Co. has made a small gesture but really will no power in this matter?
The county did away with the Intensive Livestock Ordinance (ILO) safety guidelines at the demand of Sanderson, nixed the requirement for a Special Use Permit further eroding county oversight, and now you are proposing to hand Sanderson this pearl of a loophole.
County commissioners are public servants with day jobs, and this is complicated. It might be time to call in experts who have dealt with chicken plant recruitment and incentives packages. (Does anybody ever actively recruit the likes of a chicken slaughterhouse?) Which of you Commissioners - other than Wayne Outlaw and Billy Morgan - are safeguarding the interests of Nash Co.?
Sanderson's tactics
Sanderson regularly offers community leaders donations,support,gifts, etc. to gain approval. Those who talk about what a good neighbor Sanderson is often base that opinion on what Sanderson has donated to them or their cause. In other words, no one stops to investigate the content of the water being released from the plant and the arsenic and antibiotics still remaining in the chicken litter spread out on the farms in the county. The arsenic is known to cause both lung cancer and bladder cancer, but the CAFO's are still allowed to apply it to the land because chicken houses are not regulated by the state.
Next-to-newest SF plant in Moultrie GA making news
This is a link to read about the class action suit against Sanderson for knowingly hiring illegals. Read the comments to the side, one saying that Moultrie is "decimated with illegals now."
Where will the majority of the "foreign workers" live, Rocky Mt., Nashville, Wilson? Some poultry companies set up trailer parks to house workers who are hired through workforce contractors, one major contractor operating out of Florida. The contractors recruit workers from Mexico, Haiti, Somalia, etc., where people are desperate for a way to America and the promise of a better life, even if that means working in a chicken slaughterhouse. The contractors secure workers green cards on the basis of guaranteed employment in the plant. The workers come to the community - then they quit their line jobs, are injured, or otherwise eventually disappear into the community - which now has an influx of immigrants to support via added costs to local taxpayers.
Commissioners, interview local school superintendents and ask if they are prepared to school the numbers of immigrants, the director of social services, the local sheriff/police chiefs. If these people could speak "on the record" without fearing for their own jobs, they would tell you they have grave reservations about Sanderson locating in Nash Co. I recommend you at least talk to these people "off the record" before you make more promises to Sanderson Farms Monday night.
http://valdostadailytimes.com/todays-top-stories/x2118805597/Class-actio...
Here's your future, eastern North Carolina...
Simple cause and effect. There can be little doubt the cycle will repeat here. Give it time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/aug99/chicken1.htm
Sanderson Farms
Remember the positive reports on Sanderson Farms refer to a new plant with enthusiastic managers. Problems develop over a period of time when low levels of contaminants accumulate in the air, soil, and then seep into the water. It’s nice that many have benefitted from this operation in Kinston. It’s nice that Sanderson Farms gives to the community –but, have they offered a “pre-facility” market price to all home owners living within 3 miles of the plant and hatchery?
The goal is job creation without destruction. People living near the plant and chicken houses lose tens of thousands of dollars in home values and their health is at high risk, especially those with respiratory and allergy problems. Industrial fans are used to improve the air quality for the chickens thus polluting the air with animal dander and other contaminants endangering the environment for those living around the hatchery and chicken houses. The slaughterhouse also creates waste that hangs around the facility and thus endangers those living near it.
These operations belong far, far from residential areas. The Commissioners in favor of the operations should offer land next to their homes and if Sanderson Farms doesn’t want it, then no deal. This is a one-way deal that primarily benefits SF while dragging those living near the facilities down, down the economic scale.
And just because an operation meets a standard, doesn’t mean it is safe. -Lois Ridgway
Why?
Why should Nash County give up prime I-95 property that was paid for by the taxpayers and never put on the market. It's already sit there 2 years off the market and it may be 5 more years before Sanderson has a plant located there. Why should an area be destroyed that has the potential to be a profitable area in the future. Why place a slaughterhouse beside our reservoir and drinking water? Why stink up our own county, plus cause our neighboring counties problems. Sanderson Farms cut production the same day they made the announcement that Nash was their selected site. The Chicken business is not doing all that great. Go ask the folks in Siler City.
The I-95 property needs to be put on the market and Carolina Gateways should give that property top priority to bring in a business that Nash County can be proud of and will not destroy the region. Other companies can donate to United Way! We might could even get an Amazon distribution center. It would be a great place for many other businesses that don't destroy the environment. As far as Kinston, the pollution problems do not happen overnight. It takes a few years and continued spreading of Chicken litter. We need a better comparison. Texas is a good example of what happens in a few years.
Read about Sanderson - just Google it
Bravesfan1956 asked for a link.
There are so many articles online. Google "Sanderson Farms violations" or "...immigration" or "...pollution." Go to the EPA site and see environmental violators ranked by state.
Sanderson Farms recently was named the #1 water polluter in Texas:
http://www.tmdailypost.com/article/agriculture/texas-s-love-affair-big-c...
Your comments were about Kinston NC
I want links about Kinston NC. Not Texas!! You opened the can of worms with your previous post. Now post some links to back your comments when it comes to Kinston NC.
Kinston is too new, no record yet, but -
Don't be so quick to dismiss that negative info on Sanderson in Texas. That could be Nash Co. down the road. No, t'was not I who commented on what is going on in Kinston, per se, now. That plant is too new to have a record.
Whenever I meet anyone from there, I've asked questions. Two residents I have spoken with have seemed rather unsophisticated and puzzled at the thought there would be any controversy. However, deeper in the conversations, more comes out. The one man said Kinston was far worse off than Rocky Mount economy-wise, in fact, Kinston was dying, and Sanderson has saved it. He said, so far, Sanderson seems to have done no harm.
The woman I spoke with lives outside of Kinston. She said her well water is cloudy, and upon testing, she was told not to drink it. The water is so discolored she can't even wash clothes in it. She would not go so far as to attribute her well water problems to the chicken plant. She went on ... apparently there was some political shadiness involved in getting the plant zoned and/or located on the site, something involving a councilman who owned property and he would benefit directly or indirectly from the transaction. She was deliberately vague with me as she knew she was gossiping now, and I sensed she wanted no reprisals implicating her.
Locally I've heard from two "high" sources (no, I'm not naming names, but neither was a politician) that there is talk coming out of Kinston 1) about taxes having to be raised to pay for the on-going Sanderson incentives, and 2) a stream has been found polluted, and that pollution source is being investigated. More should be forthcoming.
Come back to Kinston in 5+ years and hear different story
Interview the people of Kinston 5+ years from now when they can't safely drink their water, taxes have gone up to pay for Sanderson incentives, and Sanderson's immigrant workforce makes Kinston look like a 3rd world country.
How disappointing that now the the Telegram, like Commissioner Davis, is trying to gloss over the negatives presented at Dr. Wing's talk Friday before the Commissioners. I was present Friday and listened to Dr. Wing list the health hazards of poultry processing plants and chicken houses, the harm to the workers, and I literally wanted to throw up.
All I read in this article is a string of "if's" - if the plant and chicken houses are managed and regulated as they should be, if inspections happen .... Stop. The research on this industry does not lie! Sanderson is no different from other poultry companies. It is what it is - a chicken slaughterhouse, hatchery and 500+ more chicken houses spread over a 3 county area. Once Sanderson is here, the harm is done.
I've never been so disillusioned with local government - and the Telegram now. With a little more research, this article would read more like a warning than a welcome mat.
This is not what I'm hearing from Kinston
I've heard from Kinston residents that say they have a lot of trouble at the plant and the police have to go out to the plant often. The unemployment office is full of ex-Sanderson employees that didn't like working for Sanderson. The traffic is bad and it's the worst thing Kinston has ever done.
Another was a farmer talking about how Sanderson even controls the thermostats in the Chicken houses, but you're buying the gas. He said they control everything.
We have heard from a guy who is having terrible odor from a farm with 8 chicken houses 1/2 mile away from his home. He's not been able to get any help from Sanderson and it's been over a year. He's also found out that NC doesn't have any regulations on Chicken houses. Folks, do your own research. I'm sure all of you have family or friends in Kinston.
link needed
Where is the link to backup your comments?
Link please!!!!!!!!
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