GAO urges scrutiny for poultry workers
The U.S. Government Accountability Office urged the Department of Labor last month to dig deeper into poultry industry work conditions.
But while the Occupational Safety and Health Administration did increase its annual inspections of poultry plants from 177 in 2005 to 244 in 2016, the agency faced challenges identifying and addressing worker safety concerns because the workers were either reluctant to talk or afraid of employer retaliation, according to a Government Accountability Office study released Thursday.
"If workers are afraid to share concerns, OSHA may not be able to identify or address conditions that endanger them. In particular ... the scope of problems workers could face gaining timely access to bathrooms," it reads.
The accountability office interviewed Department of Labor officials and worker safety experts, visited poultry plants in high production areas and interviewed poultry workers in five states -- including Arkansas.
The Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center released a study in 2016 detailing the kind of trouble nearby plant workers get into for leaving the line temporarily. To avoid this, some wear diapers.
--Nathan Owens
Walmart.com ties up with Tasty app
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has partnered with BuzzFeed's Tasty in an agreement that will allow the social food network's users to purchase kitchen tools and appliances directly from Walmart.com and Jet.com.
Tasty, a division of the New York-based media company, produces step-by-step recipe videos. Its recipe pages now include links to items like cooking pans, spatulas, oven mitts and slow cookers sold by Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart officials said links to purchase recipe ingredients will also be added to Tasty's videos next year.
The partnership gives Walmart.com and Jet.com a chance to attract additional customers as they continue to compete with retailers like Amazon.com and Target Corp. for online sales. Tasty has more than 90 million Facebook followers, and its cooking videos have attracted more than 65 billion views.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
Index edges up 0.30 with 10 stocks rising
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 0.30 to 402.36 Friday.
Ten stocks advanced, seven declined, and one was unchanged.
Windstream was up 3.2 percent in light trading.
America's Car-Mart lost 3 percent on low volume.
For the week, 12 stocks declined and six advanced.
Murphy USA had the best week, rising 4.2 percent.
Windstream was the worst performer, losing 26.3 percent for the week. Total volume on Friday for the index was 18.6 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 12/09/2017