Posted on 03/05/2013 1:23:53 PM PST by Red Badger
(WASHINGTON) -- The sequester likely wont cause meat and poultry shortages for a while thanks, in part, to union negotiations and USDA inspectors lack of email access.
Furloughs to Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors at the U.S. Department of Agriculture could force meat and poultry plants to stop production with no inspectors to approve products, they cant be sold but Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee that those furloughs probably wont happen until later this year.
We are looking at a several-month period, if you will, before a furlough will be imposed, Vilsack said, depending on negotiations with the inspectors union.
A drawn-out notification process will prevent the furloughs from happening right away, Vilsack said.
This week we will send out notices to the union reps that a furlough is possible, and one of the challenges is that not every one of our workers in this particular area has email, so we actually have to hand-deliver a letter or written notification to those employees. That has to be followed up with oral conferences to take place with any employee who requests an oral confirmationthat will happen at the local level, Vilsack said. After all employees are notified, Vilsack said, USDA will negotiate with union representatives over how the furloughs will be implemented.
But if furloughs do happen, Vilsack warned their impact could be particularly severe.
Thats because furloughs will be concentrated over just a few months this year. Inspectors will miss 11-12 days each between now and Sept. 30 (end of the fiscal year), Vilsack predicted, and the longer USDA waits, meat and poultry producers could feel a more severe impact over a shorter time frame. USDA has already projected that food-safety will be particularly hard hit by furloughs, as 87 percent of that accounts budget goes to food inspectors and support for inspectors.
Republican members of the committee appeared perplexed that Vilsack hadnt begun the furlough process sooner, spreading them out over more time and lessening their effects. Vilsack replied that he couldnt start the process until President Obama issued his sequester order on Friday.
If you have six months left to implement this, you have in essence a 10 percent reduction in your remaining resources. If you have three months, you have a 15 percent reduction, Vilsack said. I think well have more than three months, but it wont be a lot more than three months, and thats one of the problems.
In other words, furloughs will begin sometime before July 1, though Vilsack wouldnt guess at how many days or months beforehand.
Cherry Picking what they can cut to frighten America.
pay tribute to Fedzilla, or starve.
But Kerry’s cash gifts to the Muslim Brotherhood are ESSENTIAL!
The Wookiee wants everyone off of meat ,so what’s the problem
Hardly anyone can afford meat anymore anyway, so what’s the problem?
We also had state inspectors there 24/7 who duplicated what the federal inspectors did. Dumb.
BS!
Who knew.. cows being furloughed.
Not frighten - HURT.
The seek to PUNISH people for not demanding that the cuts never happen.
And when I said assigned, they actually had their offices inside our plant. They also had a secretary. They were never there. The times I saw them was in summer, late at night during rain storms. They were inspecting for roof leaks or dripping of condensate in processing areas. While they appeared incredibly lazy and aloof, they did seem to know what to look for and where to look for it. They were not deft. Black drain flies must have been a big issue as well because the QA army inside the plant based their checks on what USDA looked for. Drips from ceilings and pipes, black drain flies, room temps kept below 38 dgrees, and sanitation records seemed to be the big ticket focus.
Can't let an opportunity go to waste just because you have no real crisis.
Who knew.. cows being furloughed
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Back when they ‘invented’ Daylight Savings Time, an old farmer was asked how he like the idea of being able to get another hours sleep in the morning.
He kind of shifted on a foot, spat and said ‘Ain’t no help for me, them cows giving milk and the chickens laying don’t know the difference in the Morning, just makes more time for me to have to work after supper’......
In other words, furloughs will begin sometime before July 1, though Vilsack wouldnt guess at how many days or months beforehand.
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Instead of ‘forced’ furloughs that disrupt EVERYONE, why not knock off paid Holidays and either pay straight time + COMP time for those that do work.
I am sure some of this new fangled ‘personal days’, ‘paternity leave’ etc could revert back to the old days.
Of course do that and ‘the workers’ wouldn’t be able to take a sick day and leave day as quick as they accumulate them, again, back to the old days.
OLD isn’t always bad, in this case it could be beneficial for all.
Of course, if you were to do that, you would cut down on the number of people you can inconvenience.
No meat products on the shelves for the WIC program—aka baby food—in the near future? Can’t give away anything there isn’t any of? New Zealander, Australian, and Argentine meat products anyone? That frozen Argentina beef is the toughest stuff to run through a grinder in my experience.
Aren’t the inspectors into all food not just chicken and meat? Is this going to be the start of food shortages for everything not just those mentioned?
Remember when our government worked for us and tried anything and everything to keep things going. I am sick of all these Cabinet secretaries politicizing their departments. Exactly right, Vilsack needs to make sure commerce continues with less money, instead of being a political prostitute for the President.
So, ah, everyone in the meat industry is just going to let the government shut them down, trash whatever is in the pipeline and destroy their business? I don’t think so.
Mark my words, by the Fourth of July beef prices will be high and the administration will blame them on the sequestration.
Reason: “US cattle herd numbers drop to 60-year low
Midwest drought driving ranching operations north, west”
With the high price of feed, we’ve sold all our cattle.
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