Page 30 - Community Living Magazine 34-2

history
Payback time arrives at long last

Men with learning disabilities were exploited for decades while immediately declared uninhabitable by
working in an Iowa slaughterhouse. Only now are they starting the state fire marshal.
The men themselves were in physically
to get justice. Susanna Shapland tells their story poor health, with malformed hands from

their gruesome, repetitive work, dental
woes, uncut toenails that curved back into
n the early 1970s, Texas ranchers their feet and long fingernails stained with
TH Johnson and Kenneth Henry set up a turkey blood. They were taken to a nearby
Iwork programme. It took young men with motel, assigned social workers and
learning disabilities from Texas “institutions eventually put in the hands of Exceptional
for the developmentally disabled” and Persons Inc, a non-profit body that
trained them to process turkeys. supports people with disabilities, who
Groups of these men were then sent would help them start afresh.
around the country to work in various
turkey-processing plants on behalf of Profound injustice
Johnson’s and Henry’s company, Henry’s Robert Canino from the Dallas office of
Turkey Service (HTS). the Equal Employment Opportunity
In 1974, about a dozen of the men were Commission took on the case. The jury
taken by truck from Goldthwaite, Texas, to were so moved by the profound injustice
live in an old schoolhouse in Atalissa, Iowa. and the emotional harm they felt the men
They would be joined by around 20 others. had suffered that they awarded them
Every morning at 3am, the men rose to $7.5 million each, a total of $240 million.
be driven to the turkey-processing plant in The Des Moines Register said the story raised Although this was swiftly reduced to
nearby West Liberty. Here they would do ‘thorny questions’ over pay for ‘the handicapped’ $1.6 million due to a federal cap on
some of the most unpleasant and arduous penalties for small businesses, the case
jobs in the plant: extracting live turkeys Their regime of coercion and control had a far-reaching impact. It raised
from crates, hanging them by their feet to involved punishments such as being awareness at every level of government of
be slaughtered, then rehanging the denied television or trips to the local food the potential abuse of learning-disabled
carcasses and eviscerating them. market, or physical penalties such as people within employment institutions,
Overall, Atalissans welcomed the men being made to walk around carrying heavy and of the need to stay vigilant.
they referred to as the “boys”. They weights. One man was handcuffed to his Nevertheless, in 2016 the brother of one
regularly attended the local church, kept the bed overnight. of the “boys” was tracked to Newberry,
minimart going with their frequent custom After decades of slaving in the turkey South Carolina, working for ex-HTS
and participated in the annual Atalissa Day plant, many of the “boys” were in their employee Joseph Paul Byrd in an identical
parade. At the plant, they were generally 60s. A phased retirement began. Before operation. Byrd was found to be charging
respected for their skill and work ethic. leaving, they had to train up their non- his learning-disabled staff far more in rent
There were some early signs that all disabled replacements at the plant. than their non-disabled counterparts,
was not well: Albert Busby ran away from HTS had always been paid directly for cashing their pay cheques but passing on
the schoolhouse in heavy snow, his body the men’s services. Using a loophole in only a small weekly allowance, and
only discovered months later; and a 1979 the 1938 Fair Standards Act that enabled subjecting them to verbal abuse.
investigation by the Des Moines Register employers to pay below the minimum As for the men of Atalissa, Henry refused
accused HTS of exploiting the men. wage to staff with a disability, HTS siphoned to pay their compensation, claiming they
However, Atalissans observed that the off money from the men’s earnings and had “conned” people. At the time of his
“boys” always appeared clean and well social security benefits for room and death in 2016, Henry was facing
dressed and never once complained. board, and in kind services such as meals $5.9 millions worth of court judgments and
out or annual trips. This left the men with administrative penalties. It is only in very
Abusive new managers a wage of $65 a month, a figure that did recent years that money is finally being
No one employed to supervise the men not change in all the decades they worked redistributed to former employees. n
received any specialised training in working for HTS, despite the advances in disability
with people with learning disabilities. rights in the world outside Atalissa. Read and watch
This included local couple Randy and When Sherri Brown discovered that the The Men of Atalissa. Documentary. New York
Dru Neubauer, who were appointed in the life savings of her brother Keith totalled Times. 8 March 2014. https://tinyurl.com/
mid-1990s. Although Randy Neubauer $80 despite decades of intense physical yyu4pcu2
exhibited physically and verbally abusive work for HTS, she called various state Barry C. The “boys” in the bunkhouse: toil, abuse
and endurance in the heartland. New York Times.
behaviour towards the men – actions that departments and eventually a journalist 9 March 2014. https://tinyurl.com/yaw3e7fu
got him banned from the plant itself by at the Des Moines Register. Kauffman C. Echoes of Atalissa: federal agency
owner West Liberty Foods – HTS later In 2009, the schoolhouse was raided sues bunkhouse owner for exploiting mentally
made the Neubauers sole onsite and found to be awash with cockroaches, disabled workers. Des Moines Register. 12
managers at the schoolhouse. rodent faeces and mould. It was November 2017. https://tinyurl.com/yy6mosh6

30 Vol 34 No 2 | Winter 2021 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk