Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 62
1 plant, quality control people or whoever?
2 A. Absolutely not. The inspectors on the plant are
3 untouchable. You cannot intimidate them. They have every
4 legal support there is. Their position, they work for the
5 government, they have nothing to do with the plant. They
6 have a responsibility to ensure food safety. I have never
7 seen or hear of anybody intimidate an inspector.
8
9 Q. What about the ones that are company inspectors, say they
10 were being intimidated by their supervisors?
11 A. No. What I have seen ----
12
13 Q. Have you heard of that?
14 A. --- is the QA department, I do not know about companies
15 who do not work this way -- the QA department do not report
16 directly to the supervisors. To avoid that conflict of
17 interest they report directly to management, to a high
18 level of management. That is the way it is set up in most
19 companies that I am aware of. Are there any discussions
20 between the QA departments or personnel and those of the
21 supervisors? Yes, there is. There are differences of
22 opinion. You also have to keep in mind that the Quality
23 Assurance Department, especially in this particular
24 location, have higher standards than those of the
25 inspector. If the QA staff reject a piece of meat or a
26 lot, it is because they have stringent specifications than
27 those required by the USDA.
28
29 Q. So there could be a conflict of interest between the QA
30 department and the supervisors?
31 A. There could be.
32
33 Q. Management?
34 A. No. It is set up to avoid that. Do they have
35 discussions about whether or not they should release a
36 particular beef? Yes, they do.
37
38 Q. So it would not always be up to the QA department; it could
39 be up to the managers and the supervisors?
40 A. It is usually in the plant where I have worked we say
41 the QA has the upper hand. That is their responsibility.
42 Those are the ones who make the definable decisions.
43
44 Q. You say "usually" but that is not always the case?
45 A. I do not know about the plants where I am not a part of
46 that. I do not know, so I cannot make a statement to say
47 that is always the case.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: When you say the QA report to management rather
50 than supervisors, it is recognised that there is a conflict
51 of interest between the supervisors who want to keep things
52 moving as quickly as possible and efficiently and the
53 person who wants to stop the meat if it is contaminated or
54 whatever?
55 A. It is not recognised that there is. What it is
56 recognised is to avoid that, to prevent that.
57
58 Q. Why should there be a conflict of interest then
59 between ----
60
