The Poultry Industry: The Hamlet Exception

Question: When is an exception presented as a rule?

Answer: When an entire industry is indicted, tried and sentenced for the inexcusable misdeeds of a single company.

Lenore Miller is president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. In attacking the U.S. poultry industry, her real purpose is to convince thousands of poultry workers that they should become dues-paying members of her organization {"Revisiting the `Jungle,' " op-ed, Oct. 20}.

Miller's diatribe against the poultry industry is an unfair, unfounded and altogether unrealistic portrayal of a business that is dedicated to those workers and committed to providing Americans with quality, wholesome chicken products. Our industry offers good jobs and safe working conditions for thousands of U.S. workers.

The U.S. poultry industry won't defend the conditions at the Imperial Food Products plant in Hamlet, N.C., …