Franc Ordo'6nez, Kerry Hall and You love Alexander
The Charlotte Observer

Enrique Pays was well-known as one of the hardest supervisors of the plant bird-raising processor of House of Raeford in Greenville, Carolina of the South. He said that he had to press the workers to be able to conserve his work. Her wife, Lydia Towers also worked in the plant, but she retired due to his ailments by the syndrome of carpiano tunnel. His Bryant son appears to the front of the photography. Photo/John D. Simmons - jsimmons@charlotteobserver.com

The lines of production rarely pause.
An infinite current of crude chickens - thousands per hour - must be sliced and be cut in pieces for familiar dinner.
The work of Enrique the deshuesado Pays was to maintain working their part of line of.
It marked the time and often it shouted to Mexican and Guatemalan that they cut chicken thighs. It demanded to them that they moved more express and regañaba when they left too much meat in the bone.
They pay said that the majority of their 90 workers in the 2002 suffered pains in the hands and the wrists. But it had industrial targets that to fulfill. And he knew that the workers would not complain because many were in the country illegally.
“To much people he did not fall”, says he to him well.
They pay was contracted in 1999 and promoted supervisor like a year later when the labor force of House of Raeford Farms was in transition. At the beginning of years 2000, the Latins had replaced to the majority of the Afro-American ones in the lines of production. The company needed supervisors who could direct and speak Spanish. Enrique could make both things.
He described myself to itself like a loyal employee, but he would get to question the tactics of the company. He would face so much the pressure to make gains of the billonaria bird-raising industry, and the suffering that he gave like result.
He says that their heads never said to him that she intimidated the Latin workers. But they reprimanded never it to do it. He says that he did not have another option, his work was in game.

First impression
They pay remembers the day that got to work. It had never seen nothing as the plant of chicken of Greenville, locally well-known like Columbia Farms. A soccer field was almost as large as. Within the plant, hundreds of Latin were standing up, shoulder to shoulder, few inches one of the other, brandishing knives, cutting thousands of chickens in each turn.
He was cold, dunked and noisy. The workers took corks in the ears to protect their hearing of the noise produced by the transporting strips.
They pay, who then had 47 years and Lydia Towers of 34, left Puerto Rico, where they had American citizenship, for “throwing ahead”. The pair was changed to Buffalo, New York, but after to work there by years, were changed to Greenville, where a Honduran friend said to them that the climate was warm and the abundant works.
They were within the increasing number of Latin who found a job in the bird-raising plants by all the south-east, usually in the most dangerous works by the lowest pay.
They pay he drived a bus in Puerto Rico and he won between $100 and $250 to the week. Now he could gain $300 to the week in the plant processor, cutting wings and thighs.
He was fast with the knife and the scissors in the line of I bone. In little more of a year, he was promoted supervisor. That meant $100 extra to the week, said. It used a helmet, which demonstrated its new roll like head.

Pressure to produce
To the department of They pay required to maintain a level to him of production between 150 and 160 birds per minute, around 70,000 to the day, remembers. Without excuses.
If their workers were delayed, were their work to make sure that they rendered. If they could not do the work in eight hours, hours remained extra until finishing it, said.
The managers warned the workers who the plant lost money by every second that the line was delayed or it paused.
The management superior with its white helmets, pressed the managers of production of red helmets, that pressed supervisors in orange helmets, as They pay. The workers received the worse part.
The Latin workers were customary to that their American heads shouted to them. But what really he hurt to them, several workers said, was the contemptuous treatment of the Latin supervisors, who shared their experiences and understood the difficulties of being immigrant in the United States.
Miguel, a Guatemalan worker of line, said that many supervisors treated own the Latins as if they were disposable.
“They try to You as if you were not human”, Miguel said, who asked that its last name was not published from fear of losing its work.
Barry Cronic, manager of the complex of House of Raeford in Greenville, said in a written answer that “to our supervisors never it has been asked for to them to use fear and intimidation against our employees”.
They pay acquired the reputation of being one of the hardest supervisors of line, particularly with Guatemalan workers, who often spoke Mayan dialects and knew little Spanish. One got angry very easily and it spoke fast when he was annoying, remember the workers.
An ex- worker of line, Alberto Soda, called abusive to Pay he once faced and it in a storage area, after which They pay reprimanded a Guatemalan to work very slowly. “You do not have because to deal with the workers that way”, she remembers to have this Soda to him.
They pay said that the incident did not remember, but it did not deny it.
He said that the workers did not understand that not to fulfill the industrial targets the use could cost to him.

The warning of its wife
Towers never wanted that They pay supervisor outside. With the knife in hand all the day, Towers realized hundreds of you cut per hour. After approximately six months, their hands began to him to hurt. She said that a supervisor even shouted to him that more express worked, when she had complained to have pain.
In the house she had problems cooking and cleaning. She could not abrir bottles.
The hands of Towers got worse. She awoke with the entumecidas hands. She sent it to the company to a doctor, who diagnosed syndrome to him of the carpiano tunnel, said. She had a surgery. She returned to the work, but she later left several months it due to the pain, said.
To Towers she worried to him that They pay became like his supervisor, who often regañaba. But They pay misestimated its preoccupations. It said to him that it had had a bad head. Never it would be thus.

Affected by the pain
Veronica Zapot worked in the line of Pay. It was one shut up and slight woman, who maintained her head bent. But in 2001 she began to complain about his hands. They pay it accepted that the work was difficult, but wanted the use had to continue, said.
Later one found out that Zapot, that was 30 years old, lived to a few pictures of its apartment. She said to him that she had arrived at the Carolinas from Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. She spoke to him of his life like unmarried mother, and the challenges to raise children in the United States.
Soon she asked to Zapot that left its baby with Towers, who was taking care of to the children of several workers by extra money.
They pay noticed as Zapot passed difficulties. She deshuesaba between 200 and 300 thighs of chicken per hour. Possibly, it said, the fingers of its hands were entumecieron as a claw - equal as it had Towers. It said that when not being able to extend them, it had to incline the hand to leave the knife slipped.
“When she came, it came taking hold her wrists”, said Pay. “She could see in his eyes that pain had”.
He sent with the assistant of first aid, who gave to Zapot tablets him for the pain of which they buy without prescription and a bandage, suggesting the pain in his hands came to cook in house.
“She said, `You Mexican them you make many tortillas'”, said Zapot.
When Zapot visited a doctor by its own account, it said that it discovered that it had tendinitis. Later she had surgery and she reached a financial agreement with the company by his case of labor compensation, according to his lawyers.
“The sinews in my fingers were in knots” said.
House of Raeford declined to comment on specific pleas of many employees, when indicating that, without signed authorizations, it could not discuss to details of his health or use. Generally, the company said that it found “many vaguenesses” in the information that the workers gave the Observer, but refused to give more details.
“The pleas done by these ex- employees do not represent of right way or needs the policies the management of House of Raeford Farms”, says a written official notice of the company. “We evaluated our employees and we strived to all along deal with them a right and respectful way.
“Dígales that hopes”
They pay said that one worried about its workers, but when giving them recesos they left, it with less hands in the line. Certain time a head admonished to Pay to send workers to the position of first aid, according to said. Other three ex--supervisors and ex--using of human resources of similar way described a culture, where the supervisors did not pay attention to the complaints to the employees.
Caitlyn Davis, who worked in the department of human resources, until she left in July, said that a supervisor talked about to his Latin assistants like “Thing 1” and “Thing 2”.
Another old supervisor said to the Observer: “Say They you that you do not leave to people outside the line. `Esperar. To hope. Deals that hope until receso. Deals that wait for until it can replace somebody them. Deals that hope until the end of the turn'. They must always hope. The pain does not hope”.
The supervisor said that he was dismissed, after receiving three or four reprimands, the last one by a security violation. He asked that its name does not appear, because still has relatives who work in the company.
Cronic, manager of the complex of Greenville, said in a written answer, “If a supervisor discourages to an employee to report his injuries, that supervisor is violating a policy of the company”.

New pressure
In 2004, four years after becoming supervisor, Pay awoke sweating. They were approximately the 2 of the dawn. It was shaking.
Towers asked to him that which was the problem. He responded that a head was increasing the pressure in the supervisors.
My stomach was made a knot, said. I Do not know how long can have left.
Towers said that often it arrived at the angry house. He became distant. It lost his sense of humor. This affected its sexual life.
“It did not have will to do nothing”, said Pay.
At the beginning of the 2005, the good news arrived. A social worker said to the pair that a family had offered to a baby in adoption.
They pay had four children of a previous marriage. Towers did not have any and it did not want to happen through the infertility treatments that needed to be pregnant.
Three days later, the 14 of February, brought to Bryant to house. It was four of been born and it weighed 9 pounds less than.
“Era a so pequeñita thing”, said Towers.
The pair knew that the social workers would visit the family with regularity, to verify the progress of Bryant. They would want to know if the boy were well being taken care of and if the family had the financial resources to maintain it. They could spend two years before Bryant was officially of them.
They pay needed his work more than ever.

The final conflict
They pay supervised more than 100 workers.
Quiet it began to warn to some on its hands. It allowed more recesos to go to the position of first aid.
After the work, the mothers could come to the house from Pay, to gather their children who were with Towers. They often complained their hands. Many, like Carolina Cross, did not have force in the hand to maintain to their children. Cross counted on its forearms to raise and to embrace to its small son Jose.
They pay said that one felt bad by the workers, but angry with them to hold the pain. It never advised that they left, because knew that their families needed the money. It animated but to look for them other uses.
“They would not have to do this work”, remembers to have said to them. “they will ruin its hands”.
“They watch Veronica. They watch Lydia. Not even the hair can be cepillar”. They pay says that it was reaching its industrial targets at the beginning of the 2006, but they were blaming it more by errors of the workers.
It hauled it to a head towards an office, it says, it reprimanded and to leave it too much meat in the floor.
They pay comments that they said to him that signed a disciplinary note for its personal file. It was being punished, according to thought, to give too many recesos to the workers.
It refused to sign it and one went away.
“I will never return”
Towers gave their table him from dining room to a niece. They pay sold his vehicle to a friend. They most of lowered the pictures of the wall, but they left the flags American and Puerto Rican hanging in the room. Empacaron their properties in 40 boxes sent and them to Puerto Rico.
They pay it said that it planned to buy a used bus and hoped to secure a public route again.
Before going away, it made a last visit to the plant. It walked throughout one of the wooded ways aligned with rejected gloves and redecillas for the hair. It was stopped near a table of picnic and spoke on his old work.
It had waited for more when it came to Greenville. And the Towers made sufficient money to buy a house of four quarters in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, and adopted their son, Bryant.
But it said that never it will forget how the Latins were treated in the bird-raising plant, and how he felt forced to treat them. It had option? No, it says, if it did not want to maintain his work.
“I will never return”, says.
Moments later, a man with a red helmet left by one the doors of the plant. They pay gave a long glance. He was one of its old heads.
“We would have to go to us before he says something”, he said.
They pay it gave the back to the bird-raising plant and walked of return through way.

Epilog
In August, They pay and Towers returned to Puerto Rico.
Towers it remains in house with Bryant. They pay drives a bus again.
“I feel well here”, comments. “I have a family. The unique thing is that one not long ago money like saving”.

For commentaries on this series one communicates with the News,
or with the reporters of The Charlotte Observer.
Also it can leave his commentaries about this series in Entérese Charlotte, blog of the Observer in Spanish, to http://enteresecharlotte.blogspot.com:
You love Alexander - 704-358-5060; aalexander@charlotteobserver.com
Kerry Hall - 704-358-5085; khall@charlotteobserver.com
Ordo'6nez franc - 704-358-6180; fordonez@charlotteobserver.com
(it speaks Spanish)
Peter St. Onge - 704-358-5029; pstonge@charlotteobserver.com

The News feels very proud of to have comprised of this excellent series
“The cruelest cuts”, written by reporters of The Charlotte Observer, when having the opportunity to translate some of articles to the Spanish and to as much present/display them to our readers in www.newsonlinefind.com as in the printed edition of the News. The translation was made by the reporters Rosary Machicao and Aníbal Calderón, the publisher Diego Barahona and director Hilda Gurdián. The graphical design was in charge of the art director Maria Elena Benton.