Thread: AL:Decatur poultry plant awaits TB test results, says worker

Decatur poultry plant awaits TB test results, says workers legal

11/6/2007, 1:28 p.m. ET
The Associated Press


DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — After all 849 employees at Wayne Farm's poultry plant were tested for TB, state health officials are awaiting results of exams to see if more workers have active cases of the disease.

The employees at the Decatur plant were tested after a former employee was hospitalized with highly contagious active TB disease.

Since then, only one employee has been identified as having active TB, but doctors haven't evaluated the X-rays of 165 employees who tested positive for the infection to see if they have developed the more serious form.

The Decatur Daily reported Tuesday that both of the people who have active TB cases are Hispanic and were born outside of the United States. Scott Jones, interim director of the state's Tuberculosis Control Division, told the newspaper that a majority of the people being tested are foreign born.

Wayne Farms officials wouldn't say if the two employees with active tuberculosis were undocumented immigrants or working legally with visas, the newspaper said.

Montgomery immigration lawyer Boyd Campbell said he would expect most legal Wayne Farms employees to have H-2B visas, which are for nonagricultural temporary workers, rather than H-2A visas, which are for agricultural temporary workers.

But either way, he said, workers with H-2A and H-2B visas aren't given medical screens, which would include checking for TB, before they enter the United States.

To hire a worker with an H-2B visa, a company must apply for permission from the U.S. Department of Labor. But The Decatur Daily said that Department of Labor records show Wayne Farms did not apply for any H-2A or H-2B certifications between 2000 and 2006, the most recent year in which the records were published.

Wayne Farms sales and marketing director Stan Hayman said the company is doing everything it can to verify that its employees are in the country legally.

"It's an immigration issue," Hayman said. "We're a chicken company. At the end of the day, we can't solve that problem."

Information from: The Decatur Daily, http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/index.shtml


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http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/in ... labamanews

It's an immigration issue," Hayman said. "We're a chicken company. At the end of the day, we can't solve that problem."


That's a very lame statement.

This just burns me up. I have popped a nasty gram off to Mayor Kyl stating that this Christmas season I will not be doing any of my shopping in Decatur! And one more thing, it is the Alabama Health Dept that is paying for the testing and treatment.