Walking the walk, on the assembly line

[Amelia]

Walking the walk, on the assembly line

With over a hundred chaplains, poultry giant plunges into ministry.

By Alex Johnson

MSNBC Reporter

March 24, 2005

MONETT, Mo. - “¡Madre! ¡Madre!”

The greetings ring out the moment Francis Rivers steps into the lunchroom at Tyson Foods’ chicken processing plant in the Missouri Ozarks. She circulates among the workers, chatting easily in unaccented Spanish. Some she asks about their families. With others, she shares in the gossip. At one table, she places her hand on a woman’s forehead and inquires about her health.

Much of the workforce here is made up of recent Hispanic immigrants to the United States. In Francis Rivers, many are welcoming their only spiritual counselor in their new country.

Francis Rivers is a nun. She is a vital link in the chain of support for many of the people who work in bone-chilling temperatures on the fast-moving lines of refrigerated machinery on which Tyson Foods guts, cleans, sorts and packages hundreds of thousands of chickens a week. She hears their triumphs and counsels them on their problems. She mediates their disputes with one another, with their spouses and sometimes with the company. She intercedes on their behalf with doctors and cops and teachers.

And she works for the boss.

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