Alabama's chicken workers were exposed to dangerous chemicals, fall hazards, and on-the-job dangers that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal fines in the past five years.



Records show federal inspectors fined the state's chicken processing plants more than $359,000 for labor violations ranging from under-reporting accidents to improperly labeling chemical containers.



But the fees represent an almost insignificant portion of the revenue produced by Alabama poultry industry, which sells nearly $4 billion worth of broiler chickens annually.



To keep up the production rate, the state's poultry factories rely on a fresh pool of labor - including a substantial number of immigrant workers - to keep the factories running.



The jobs are physically demanding, as poultry plants had occupational illness rates in 2011 that were more than five times the national average for all U.S. industries.



"This is an industry that relies on low-paid workers in areas with very few economic opportunity," said Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Michelle Lapointe. "Any industry in a state that generates such massive profits on workers who are seen as disposable certainly has political power that these workers themselves lack, even workers in groups."



Poultry processing workers see an increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, and face repetition, force, awkward and static postures, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Cold temperatures needed to chill the chicken have also been known to increase injuries and musculoskeletal disorders.



One report by U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration showed that the rate in poultry plants of carpal tunnel syndrome was more than three times the national average in 2012 and seven times in 2011.



However, a report from the National Chicken Council, a Washington D.C. poultry advocate group, notes that occupational injuries and illnesses within the poultry sector's slaughter and processing workforce has fallen by 80 percent since 1994.



To reduce the injuries, the SPLC and 14 other civil rights organizations petitioned OSHA two years ago to reduce the poultry line speeds (which can go as fast as 170 birds per minute). OSHA denied the petition last month, stating that the agency's limited resources do not allow for analysis and new rules, while acknowledging the increased risks poultry workers face.



Here's a look at what some of the OSHA violations say about what has happened inside Alabama's chicken plants since 2010:

Wayne Farms and Pilgrim's Pride



The Wayne Farms and Pilgrim's Pride plants in Alabama were the biggest violators of federal labor laws.



OSHA fined the two chicken giants more than $327,000 for violations related to fatalities and unsafe working conditions in the past five years.



Most recently, the agency fined Wayne Farms $102,600 for a number of violations related to an April 2014 inspection that occurred at its deboning plant in Jack, where about 1,250 people work. Wayne Farms disputed the claims, calling them "vague" and "hard to address and investigate."



Prompted by a Southern Poverty Law Center report, the inspectors found that the plant's workers were told to do repetitive work that caused tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger thumb and shoulder sprain, according to OSHA.



Employees that lifted, carried and lowered 75-pound chicken totes to and from the weigh scales were exposed to similar injuries.



According to the agency, the company did not give goggles to their employees to protect their eyes from "chicken fat and fluids" that came from the chicken, and steel-toed shoes to their employees protect their feet from falling chicken totes.



Wayne Farms, which employs 9,800 people in factories in four states, was also fined for its role in two worker deaths in the past five years.



Records show that the firm was also fined $5,000 after it did not call an OSHA hotline within eight hours after box maker Beverly Brown died on the job. She fell from a set of stairs while she was walking down from an elevated platform at a plant in Decatur in December 2010, records show.



The company considered Brown's fall a "first aid event" so she was not taken to the hospital, according to records.



Instead, anti-biotics were applied to her lip. Hours later, she fell off a bench in the locker room and stopped breathing.



The company was fined $7,000 after a car hit and killed a female employee in the road between the employee parking lot and factory in October 2011 at 254 Ipsco St., Decatur. The road between the two buildings was "not designed to protect employees from being struck by vehicles," OSHA ruled.



OSHA has fined Pilgrim's Pride more than $158,000 since 2011.



The poultry producer, processes more than 7 billion birds annually, was fined for everything from using air compressors with the wrong pressure settings to blow chicken feathers off employees to blocking exit doors with heavy containers and pallets of boxes.



The company was fined more than $72,500 in September 2010 for a number of citations and repeat citations at a plant in Russellville.



The violations included not labeling a sprayer container that held oxidizing and corrosive chemicals with a hazard warning label. Two 14-foot tanks containing biocides and corrosive chemicals were also not labeled.



Spokesmen for Pilgrim's Pride and Wayne Farms spokesman did not return multiple messages.

Koch Foods and Perdue Farms



Elsewhere, chicken producers Koch Foods and Perdue Farms were fined after they did not adequately report workplace accidents.



Perdue Farms was fined $1,000 in June 2011 after it under reported 110 accidents at its former plant in Dothan because it "failed to describe what object caused the injury."



The company was also fined a total of $13,417 that month in part because the firm did not properly disinfect a scissor lift that was coated with another employee's blood before telling other employees to use it, according to the complaint. The affected employees were also not given access to Hepatitis B medication.



Perdue Farms issued a statement that said the plant was sold to Wayne Farms in December 2012 and that the cited issues were addressed.



"Perdue is committed to providing a safe workplace for our associates and we are proud of our safety record," the statement reads.



In September 2011, Koch Foods was fined $3,000 after the firm failed to develop and implement a plan to respond to ammonia releases.



A little more than three months earlier, 27 pounds of anhydrous ammonia were released in the air at the firm's Montgomery plant due to a valve malfunction. The chemical can cause burning of the eyes, nose and throat in small doses and coughing and even choking at higher doses.



At the time of the leak, cleaning crew employees complained about getting sick and went to the break room. The manager told them there "there was no smell" and kept "chasing them to the break room telling them go back to work." All of the company's employees were taken to the hospital for treatment.



According to the OSHA report, the firm purchased ammonia gas detectors in the wake of the incident.



Messages left for a Koch Foods spokesman was not returned.