A Preliminary Analysis of Immigrant Cattle Feedyard Worker Perspectives on Job-Related Safety Training

Abstract

Immigrants comprise a large percentage of the agricultural labor force in the United States. They are a vulnerable worker population and often have fewer occupational and social protections. Latino immigrant cattle feedyard workers (N = 68; 59 men; mean age = 38.7 years) in the central Midwest reported on their perceptions and preferences for job-related safety training and practices. Preliminary findings indicate that approximately 40% of workers reported that they had not received any health or safety training from their current employer, and only about 13% had ever participated in any Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety training program. In-person training, videos, or shadowing another worker were the most frequent methods of safety training reported by those who had received training. More than 90% were interested in receiving more information about health and safety related to their job. Workers preferred that safety information be provided through in-person training at the job site, videos (particularly those accessible through media sources such as YouTube), and written materials. Specific topics that workers were interested in obtaining more information about included zoonoses, low-stress cattle handling, injury prevention, hazard and injury reporting, chemical and equipment safety, and teamwork. Furthermore, a majority of participants preferred to receive information in Spanish. Results may help guide the development of future materials and training strategies to better suit the needs of the growing immigrant workforce in production agriculture.