Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
The Story was produced at North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC and was heard on over 100 stations.Visit The Story web site to listen to this program and for more details, archives, show highlights and more podcasts. UPDATE 1.13.2020: The Story web site has been decommissioned and is in the process of being archived. It may return at a later date.

Life On The Chicken Processing Line

Photo: A woman working in chicken processing plant
Frontier Centre For Public Policy

http://www.thestory.org/sites/default/files/public/audio/story/2013_10_02_life_on_the_line.mp3

Emma Pender and Rita Perry spent more than 30 years combined working in a chicken processing plant in North Carolina. Over the years, both of them faced harsh working conditions, and physical injuries that still plague them. They say that the reason they stayed was because the money was too good to pass up in a town where the jobs were few and were mostly underpaid.  They share their stories from life on the line in this conversation with host Dick Gordon. Pender and Perry were a part of a study by Duke University. Read Perdue's response to the study.

Also in this show: When Jenny Brown was laid off from her job in Oregon, she was offered a job as a captain of a river ferry even though she had no experience in boats at all. And while she was happy she found the job, it wasn’t what she was looking for.

More Stories