N.C. Labor Department has sloughed worker law to the side.

By The Charlotte Observer
September 16, 2008

By David Ingram
dingram@charlotteobserver.com

Mary Fant Donnan, the Democratic nominee for N.C. labor commissioner, strongly criticized Republican incumbent Cherie Berry on Wednesday for Berry's recent decision not to increase safety inspections at poultry plants.

Donnan's disagreement, in an interview with the Observer, suggests the conditions of poultry workers could become a key issue as the candidates compete for votes this fall.

“We're at a point where the fox is guarding the hen house,” Donnan said.

“There are serious questions about whether we have an underreporting of workplace injuries,” she added.

Charlotte Observer Editorial
July 22, 2008

N.C. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry has given voters multiple reasons to change the leadership of that department in November. Now she's given them one more: She won't use additional money the state legislature provided to shore up the department's unsatisfactory oversight of a dangerous industry.

That means the state will do little this year to improve deplorable conditions for workers in poultry processing plants. That's unacceptable. North Carolina needs a labor commissioner who acts as a watchdog for worker safety, not one who makes nice to business and industry.