Ethnographic Evaluation of a Promotora Program to Reduce Occupational Injuries among Latino Poultry Processing Workers

Poultry processing is one of the most dangerous industries in the US. Many of the 250,000 poultry processing workers are immigrants and lack unions to support their rights for safe workplaces. Workplace safety training for these workers is limited, and employers are reluctant to allow outsiders into the plants to conduct safety training. Based on data collected during the research phases of a community-based participatory research and social justice project, a lay health advisor program (promotoras de salud) was developed with Latino poultry processing workers in western North Carolina. This paper describes the program and presents an evaluation based on ethnographic data, including participant observation, key informant interviews, and quantitative and qualitative records kept by promotoras. Promotoras were recruited and trained in a curriculum that included (1) prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, (2) worker solidarity in avoiding injuries, and (3) workers' rights. Lessons were delivered to workers in community settings using a story-telling approach, supported with low-literacy flipcharts. The ethnographic analysis showed changes in workers' attitudes about their rights and a number of instances of workers supporting each other in taking steps to avoid injuries. Although a larger and longer term intervention is necessary to show changes in injury rates, the findings from the ethnographic analysis suggest that the program has promise for changing underlying attitudes that prevent workers from protecting their health and working safely in poultry plants. (NIOSH grant OH008335)