Poultry champion blocks change

Powerful senator argued against Easley's safety provisions, and the plan died. Critics say that's business as usual.

By Ames Alexander

RALEIGH - When Gov. Mike Easley pushed to better protect poultry workers this year, many lawmakers thought the General Assembly would approve his plan – until it ran up against Sen. Charlie Albertson.

Albertson, a longtime champion of the poultry industry, played a key role in derailing Easley's proposal.

Now, as Congress considers tougher enforcement for companies that repeatedly ignore workplace hazards, there's little indication North Carolina will follow its lead.

The collapse of Easley's plan provides a rare glimpse into how businesses with well-placed allies can win legislative battles against even the highest state officials.

Albertson, 76, grew up on a farm where hog killings were an annual ritual. Today, the Duplin County Democrat represents a sprawling district east of Fayetteville that has long been dominated by the meatpacking industry. It's one of the nation's largest hog-producing regions, and poultry is an even larger force there, employing more than 4,000 workers.

For years, Albertson has chaired powerful legislative committees, and for years poultry money has helped fuel his election campaigns. But he says political contributions have never influenced his decisions.

“They don't tell me what I can do and what I can't do,” said Albertson. “They never have.”

Representing a district with three poultry plants, Albertson says he resisted the governor's proposals because he hadn't heard any complaints about the industry from his constituents.

Albertson doesn't speak Spanish, the dominant language in many poultry plants. But he says he has contacts in the Latino community.

This year, an Observer investigation revealed how poultry managers have ignored and threatened injured workers as they created an illusion of safety inside plants. Many workers said they were reluctant to complain for fear of being fired or deported. Weak enforcement, minimal fines and dwindling inspections have allowed poultry companies to operate largely unchecked, records show.

In May, Easley asked lawmakers to increase scrutiny. Dissatisfied with the state Labor Department's enforcement of safety laws, Easley proposed that the state Division of Public Health get additional staffers to inspect poultry plants – and report their findings to top state officials.

Lobbyists for the poultry industry told Albertson and other key lawmakers that Easley's plan wasn't necessary. Companies already had personnel to look out for the health of workers – and the state Labor Department was keeping tabs on them, the lobbyists argued.

“That was going to be an extra burden to the industry we just didn't think we needed,” said Bob Ford, director of the N.C. Poultry Federation, the industry's lobbying group.

In the end, lawmakers gutted most of the governor's proposals, refusing to give the public health office extra positions. While legislators did give the Labor Department more money, they didn't specify that it be used to protect poultry workers. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry had opposed the governor's plan, and her department refused to devote the new positions to the poultry industry.

Albertson was chiefly responsible for blocking the legislation, several government officials say.

A legislative subcommittee had recommended that Easley's proposals be included in the state budget. But this summer, at a meeting of House and Senate appropriations leaders, Albertson argued forcefully against it. As co-chair of the powerful Senate appropriations committee, he said he saw no need for such a substantial change in the way the industry was monitored.

The plan went no further.

In North Carolina and elsewhere, chairs of legislative committees often have the power to block bills that might harm the interest groups that support them, critics say.

“It is unfortunately the typical pattern in Congress and state legislatures that committee chairs attract a lot of money from interests regulated by that commission,” said Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, a campaign finance watchdog group. “Members of the commission often defer to the chair, recognizing that the chair is in control to a certain extent.”

But in Washington, job safety has gotten far more attention. Congress recently held several hearings focused on whether regulators are doing enough to crack down on companies that ignore workplace hazards and hide on-the-job injuries. Key federal lawmakers are expected to push for changes next year.

Albertson said his opposition to Easley's plan was unrelated to the industry's political contributions or lobbying.

“It has no bearing at all on my decisions and what I do,” he told the Observer.

A friend in the State House

It wasn't the first time Albertson had gone to the industry's aid.

In 2007, as chairman of the Senate agriculture committee, he helped pass legislation requiring that some of the state's electricity be generated by burning poultry manure.

In 2005, Albertson pushed a bill that made it a felony to engage in cockfighting, arguing that the practice might spread diseases that could harm the commercial poultry industry. The National Chicken Council, the industry's main lobbying group, had previously endorsed federal legislation to curb cockfighting.

“It's bad enough to do cockfighting, but it's even worse to threaten this great industry,” Albertson told fellow lawmakers at the time.

And in 1995, he co-sponsored legislation to give poultry producers an income tax credit for composting chicken and turkey carcasses. The bill became law, and was projected to cost the state about $300,000 a year.

The poultry industry has helped Albertson, too.

Since 2002, he has received more than $25,000 in campaign contributions from N.C. poultry executives and from the political action committee that represents them. He got $3,750 of that money Feb. 26, about two weeks after the first Observer stories were published.

More than $6,000 came from the N.C. Poultry Federation, the industry's state PAC. That's more than the group gave to any other lawmaker. Much of Albertson's remaining poultry money came from executives with N.C.-based Prestage Farms and House of Raeford Farms.

Ford, the N.C. Poultry Federation director, said his group has contributed to Albertson largely because he has chaired key legislative committees, and because he understands and supports agriculture.

“We like Charlie,” Ford said. “So when he requests that we come to a fundraiser, we try to support him the best that we can.”

Albertson said he doesn't consider the industry to be a major donor. None of the contributions approached the maximum allowed under campaign finance law, he noted. “I've been a little disappointed at times they haven't given me more,” he said with a chuckle.

The poultry donations amount to about 3 percent of what Albertson's campaigns have raised since 2002. The state Democratic Party contributed almost half of his campaign money from 2002 through 2006. Large sums also came from political action committees, including the N.C. Pork Council and the N.C. Farm Bureau, and from farmers and small-business owners.

Albertson's district – which includes Duplin, Sampson and Lenoir counties – begins near Fayetteville and runs beyond Kinston to the east, covering 1.4 million acres.

While the landscape of District 10 is marked by fields, farms and forests, its economy is dominated by the poultry and hog industries. It's home to what's billed as the world's largest frying pan – a 15-foot-diameter contraption used to cook hundreds of chickens for poultry festivals.

‘A blind spot'

Agriculture has always been part of Albertson's life.

He grew up on a 25-acre farm in Duplin County and was just 13 when he began working long hours picking tobacco for his father. After graduating from high school, he went to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he inspected plants and animals to keep unwanted pests from entering the country.

Known as “the singing senator,” he has also worked as a professional country musician. He has performed at the Grand Ole Opry and has recently re-recorded his 1979 song, “Inflation Blues,” for YouTube.

But for the past 20 years, he has been best known for his work in the legislature. Even some N.C. government officials who criticized Albertson's role in blocking Easley's poultry legislation consider it out of character for a lawmaker who frequently takes principled stands.

In the legislature, he worked last year to improve housing for migrant farm workers, sponsoring legislation that requires farmers to provide migrant workers with mattresses.

In the mid-1990s, he was instrumental in passing laws to protect neighbors from the odor and pollution of hog farms. “The swine people did not want me to do that, believe me,” he said.

This year, however, he unsuccessfully pushed to ease rules designed to keep hog structures away from homes, schools and churches.

Said one fellow lawmaker, who asked not to be named for fear of damaging his working relationship with Albertson: “Charlie, on so many issues, is one of the most moral people in the legislature. But I just think it's a matter of hear no evil, see no evil. (Poultry) is a major employer in his district. It's sort of a blind spot.”