Washington, DC – The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights organization, announced today that it has reached an agreement with Tyson Foods, Inc. to jointly examine working conditions of Latino employees in a representative sample of Tyson Foods’ poultry facilities.

NCLR began a dialogue two years ago with Tyson Foods to discuss the company’s relationship with the Latinos who have become a substantial portion of its workforce in some locations. These discussions have been aimed at developing a mechanism to address concerns that have been raised in some Latino communities about conditions in the Tyson Foods workforce. Tyson maintains that it provides a safe workplace for all its workers, regardless of ethnicity.

The agreement establishes a joint committee made up of a neutral group of vocational experts who will examine health and safety conditions of workers in three Tyson poultry facilities in Georgia, Texas, and Kentucky, and who will also make any necessary recommendations that will help ensure equity, equal opportunity, and good working conditions for all Tyson Foods workers. Tyson Foods and NCLR will then discuss implementation of any recommendations that are made.

The committee members are Dr. Ray Marshall, former Secretary of Labor under President Jimmy Carter; Ms. Irasema Garza, Director of the Women’s Rights Department for AFSCME; Mr. Thomas Brown, former Area Director for the Atlanta West Area Office of OSHA; Mr. Pat Tyson, an Atlanta, Georgia attorney and former Director of Compliance and Deputy Assistant Secretary at OSHA; and Dr. Edward Bernacki, Associate Professor and Director of Occupational Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

The first two members were selected by NCLR and the second two by Tyson Foods. Dr. Bernacki was selected jointly with the assistance of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a physicians’ organization.

“We are very pleased to enter into this agreement and we have every reason to believe that we can take positive steps forward that not only benefit the company and its workforce, but will help Tyson set the standard for the entire industry,” stated Raul Yzaguirre, NCLR President.

“We work hard every day to provide a safe, ergonomically sound workplace for all our team members, and make no distinction in any of our policies or practices with regard to ethnic background,” said Archie Schaffer III, Tyson’s Senior Vice President for External Relations. “We look forward to working with NCLR in this process to assure them this is true.”