A DFL senator from South St. Paul has introduced a meat packing employee bill of rights -- legislation that officials at Swift and Co. are almost certainly watching closely.
The bill, according to a story in Thursday's Daily Globe, would require packing plants to provide employees restrooms and time to use them, adequate rooms for breaks and meals and locker facilities. Employers would also have to make available, in a worker's native language, an explanation of their rights.
While Sen. Jim Metzen must believe the bill of rights because he thinks "these are the right things to do for the tough packing industry," the bill may well be unnecessary and at the same time set a poor precedent.
Sen. Julie Rosen, a Republican from Fairmont, owns eight meat packing plants with her husband, and she offered emotional rebuttals to Metzen's proposal Thursday. Among the points she made is that federal rules and laws already cover the issues Metzen addresses in his bill of rights plan. A bill such as Metzen's, she added, gives the meat packing industry a black eye.
Considering the raids of meat packing plants across the country last December, there's already a black eye out there. Nevertheless, suggesting there be legislation to provide employees restrooms and time to use them, for instance, seems like unnecessary overlap of existing employment law.
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As far as precedent setting goes, many businesses are reportedly opposed to the bill of rights plan, and understandably so. Should such legislation go on the books for the meatpacking field, who's to say others won't push for such a bill in other industries? Enforce laws in place already -- don't make new ones that mostly create more red tape.
