Bouncing back Getting injured workers back on the job By Ronald Woo meat&poultry@sosland.com E ach year, one in five workers in the meatpacking industry suffers a work-related injury or illness. More than half of these cases involve days away from work, which puts meatpacking at the top of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' industry ranking for number of disabling occupational injuries and illnesses. Even more discouraging, the industry's lost workday incident rate - 11 per 100 full-time workers - is four times the national average for private industry. 38 MEAT&POULTRY www.MEATPOULTRY.com OCTOBER 2004http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com