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Injuries at meatpacking-related company are too high, even as private equities profit, advocates say
From 2022
Injuries at meatpacking-related company are too high, even as private equities profit, advocates say
Worker safety advocates say that any fatality or amputation in the workplace is unacceptable, but particularly so when a business is bringing millions of dollars to investors.
April 6, 2022, 4:46 AM EDT / Updated April 6, 2022, 9:45 AM EDT
By Amy Martyn
When meatpackers stop production for the day, they depend on sanitation crews to clean their factories before the next shift, and Packers Sanitation Services, known as PSSI, often describes itself as the leading company to do that type of work. ... Although it is relatively unknown compared to its publicly traded clients, like Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride, PSSI, which is privately held, has been watched by investors since 2007, when it was first sold to a private equity fund called Blue Point Capital Partners. PSSI has been owned by a series of different private equity funds ever since — it was subsequently sold to Harvest Partners, then to Leonard Green & Partners for $1 billion, and, most recently, in 2018, it was sold for an undisclosed sum to Blackstone, the largest private equity fund in the world.
Under its private equity owners, PSSI has merged with competitors and nearly doubled its selling price: It was sold for $540 million to Harvest Partners before it sold again just three years later for $1 billion. But even as PSSI has found success in finance, its worker safety record remains troubling. Three PSSI workers have died on the job since Blackstone took over in 2018, including one who was decapitated cleaning a chicken chiller, and four others had accidents that resulted in amputations, according to Occupational Health and Safety Administration records highlighted in a new report by a watchdog group.
Worker safety advocates say that any fatality or amputation in the workplace is unacceptable, but particularly so when a business is bringing millions of dollars to investors, as private equity-owned companies are meant to do. They also say that the hefty profits from private equity ownership should ensure that its workplaces are much safer than average.
Instead, a new report points to PSSI, one of three companies cited in connection with last year’s fatal nitrogen leak at a Georgia poultry plant, as evidence that private equity isn’t making workplaces safer. ... “This is just the latest in a long line of health and safety violations at [PSSI], which is currently owned by the Blackstone Group, and serves as an example of the destructive impact that can come from the private equity industry,” according to the report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2017 to research the impact of the private equity industry.
{snip}
Worker safety advocates say that any fatality or amputation in the workplace is unacceptable, but particularly so when a business is bringing millions of dollars to investors.
April 6, 2022, 4:46 AM EDT / Updated April 6, 2022, 9:45 AM EDT
By Amy Martyn
When meatpackers stop production for the day, they depend on sanitation crews to clean their factories before the next shift, and Packers Sanitation Services, known as PSSI, often describes itself as the leading company to do that type of work. ... Although it is relatively unknown compared to its publicly traded clients, like Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride, PSSI, which is privately held, has been watched by investors since 2007, when it was first sold to a private equity fund called Blue Point Capital Partners. PSSI has been owned by a series of different private equity funds ever since — it was subsequently sold to Harvest Partners, then to Leonard Green & Partners for $1 billion, and, most recently, in 2018, it was sold for an undisclosed sum to Blackstone, the largest private equity fund in the world.
Under its private equity owners, PSSI has merged with competitors and nearly doubled its selling price: It was sold for $540 million to Harvest Partners before it sold again just three years later for $1 billion. But even as PSSI has found success in finance, its worker safety record remains troubling. Three PSSI workers have died on the job since Blackstone took over in 2018, including one who was decapitated cleaning a chicken chiller, and four others had accidents that resulted in amputations, according to Occupational Health and Safety Administration records highlighted in a new report by a watchdog group.
Worker safety advocates say that any fatality or amputation in the workplace is unacceptable, but particularly so when a business is bringing millions of dollars to investors, as private equity-owned companies are meant to do. They also say that the hefty profits from private equity ownership should ensure that its workplaces are much safer than average.
Instead, a new report points to PSSI, one of three companies cited in connection with last year’s fatal nitrogen leak at a Georgia poultry plant, as evidence that private equity isn’t making workplaces safer. ... “This is just the latest in a long line of health and safety violations at [PSSI], which is currently owned by the Blackstone Group, and serves as an example of the destructive impact that can come from the private equity industry,” according to the report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2017 to research the impact of the private equity industry.
{snip}