They were definitely ready to run. It was the first time workers at a chicken plant in North Carolina had voted to unionize, despite numerous attempts. The only other poultry plant in the state with a union is a House of Raeford turkey plant in Hoke County. Only three states produce more chickens each year than North Carolina, which sent 570 million birds to market last year. Poultry processing is also one of the state's most hazardous occupations.
Wages are low, and the injury rate is high.
The state's worst workplace disaster occurred at a chicken plant - the Imperial Food Products factory in Hamlet, where 25 people died in a 1991 fire. Even so, unions have had little success organizing poultry workers in North Carolina, which has long been unfriendly territory for unions. The state's overall workforce is the second-least unionized in the nation. As a result, unions see the Case Farms labor conflict as a potential breakthrough, a reason to redouble efforts at other chicken plants in the state. Conditions in poultry plants across North Carolina are deplorable.