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donsu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 11:47 AM
Original message
Tyson Foods is racist - being sued

http://steveaudio.blogspot.com/2005/09/sweet-home-alabama.html


Sweet home Alabama

Food conglomerate Tyson Foods has been sued by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of workers at Tyson Food's Ashland, Alabama chicken processing plant for maintaining a Whites Only break room and rest room.

From the press release:
A lawsuit filed today alleges that Tyson Foods, Inc. is responsible for maintaining a segregated bathroom and break room, reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, in its Ashland, Alabama chicken processing plant. Twelve African-American employees filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, alleging that a “Whites Only” sign and a padlock denied them access to a bathroom in the Ashland plant. The complaint states that numerous white employees had keys to the bathroom that were not provided to African-American workers.

The African-American employees’ complaint also alleges that, after they complained about the segregated bathroom, the plant manager told them that the bathroom had been locked because they were “dirty” and announced the closing of the break room. According to the complaint, the same white employees who had keys to the “Whites Only” bathroom formed their own, private break room, using Tyson materials to construct the furniture. Initially, a locked door segregated the private break room. To the present day, locked cabinets and a locked refrigerator maintain a private break room.
-snip-
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isn't america wonderful
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LiberalinNC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
1. Guess I'm not buying Tyson chicken any longer.
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truthseeker1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 11:56 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. They're full of antibiotics and hormones anyway
Haven't bought Tyson in years
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ET Awful Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 11:52 AM
Response to Original message
2. Well, those poor white employees were just confused, that's all . . .
They saw so many packages of chicken separated into white meat and dark meat that they thought it was okay for them to do it.

:evilgrin:

(The sad part is I can actually picture them using that as a defense).
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Akoto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 11:52 AM
Response to Original message
3. Glad I haven't eaten Tyson in years.
Edited on Thu Sep-15-05 11:52 AM by Akoto
I get the occasional roast chicken from BJ's, but they are procooked rotisseries made by the store itself.
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Rude Horner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
5. I haven't eaten Tyson foods in years.
Since they screwed over the workers in Jefferson, Wisconsin. I live in Wisconsin, and it made big news here a couple years ago. I refuse to buy anything from them since.
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AspenRose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 12:07 PM
Response to Original message
6. *sigh*
The Neocons have succeeded in turning this country back 50 years.

Does the SPLC know about this (curious)?
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newspeak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 12:17 PM
Response to Original message
7. yep
I already knew about Tyson, I refuse to buy their products. Of course, I also don't buy it because of health and food safety issues. I try to buy free range poultry and eggs as much as possible.
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melody Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 12:24 PM
Response to Original message
8. The same damned chicken co that locked the workers in to burn
One of Tyson's chicken processing plants in North Carolina padlocked their employees inside the building because they had been "sneaking out" for "cigarette breaks". Said processing plant burned to the ground, with most of the employees still trapped inside, many found huddled around the locked doors.

Not one government agency had inspected the plant in its 11 years of operation, even though the company had two plant fires at other locations the year before.

Lets see, who was President in 1991....hmmm, who could it have been now...oh, golly it was George Herbert Walker Bush, the current Fauxident's own Poppy. Isn't that sweet? It runs in the family.

A couple of years later when Clinton caught his own Agriculture man taking pay-offs from Tyson, Espy got "asked for his resignation" aka canned. Remember the good old days of integrity and personal responsibility?
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progressivebydesign Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 12:26 PM
Response to Original message
9. Um. Just because someone alleges and sues does not make it so.
I have no idea if it's true or not, that is for the legal system to decide once the real evidence is shown. Why are people so quick to jump on allegations here? It's a complaint. Not an indictment. They may be the most racist assholes on the Earth, but what you have is a lawsuit, not a verdict. Chill.
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melody Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-15-05 12:45 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. because they've done it before
See my posting above this one.

Allegations alone mean nothing, allegations in a serial offender mean everything.
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