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Life On The Chicken Processing Line

By Dick Gordon

Published October 2, 2013 at 5:37 PM EDT

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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.