Workers at major meat processing plants across the US said they were told to keep working in crowded situations, sometimes while sick, whi...
Workers at major meat processing plants across the US said they were told to keep working in crowded situations, sometimes while sick, while their companies failed to provide adequate protective gear, turning the plants into coronavirus infection hot spots, a new investigation reveals.
Since the coronavirus outbreak in the US, government officials have praised the meat industry for its efforts to ensure there aren't interruptions in the national food supply.
The claims come in the wake of 15 closures of processing plants owned by Tyson Foods, JBS USA and Smithfield - three of the country's biggest major meat producers - following reports of hundreds of confirmed coronavirus cases amongst workers over the last few weeks.
Workers at meat processing plants in the US say they were told to keep working despite being ill, while companies did not provide them with face masks or adequate social distancing measures until recently (file image)
At least 31 processing plants owned by the three companies have had coronavirus outbreaks, the Washington Post reported.
Workers at the plants have blamed the high number of infections on the companies' corporate policies.
They claimed that they were not given personal protective equipment or required to wear them for weeks after coronavirus infection rates starts skyrocketing in the US.
JBS USA told the newspaper that it didn't receive masks for workers until April 2, but didn't make their use mandatory until April 13.
Tyson, meanwhile, said that they didn't require all workers to wear masks until April 15.
Smithfield did not reveal when they began providing masks to workers, but said that they were made available to them. Workers at some Smithfield plants said that this only occurred one or two weeks ago.
All three companies said that they have been working to protect their workers from catching and spreading coronavirus. They said they had increased sanitation and social distancing measures, as well as checking temperatures of the workers before their shifts started.
They also said that they now required quarantine for workers with positive coronavirus results and those who had been in close contact with them.
Colorado JBS worker Sergio Rodriguez, 58 (center), is shown leaving the hospital on April 18 after catching coronavirus. He claimed he was told to finish his shift on March 20, despite feeling ill, exposing hundreds to coronavirus as he gave them their work gear
TThe Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which was closed after becoming a hotspot with 891 coronavirus cases and one death to date
Local officials visiting the Tyson processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, in early April saw workers using bandannas and sleep masks as protective gear, if any at all
The JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, where there have been more than 100 coronavirus cases and at least four deaths so far
Smithfield and Tyson told the newspaper that they had started their preventative measures - including educating workers about coronavirus - in February, while JBS said that it had done so starting in mid-March.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said on March 9 that employers should offer potentially infected workers surgical masks or respirators, particularly if they work within six feet of each other, but said that it wouldn't enforce the regulation.
A spokesperson for the Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, said that coronavirus protection guidance developed specifically for meat processing and packaging industry workers will be released soon.
At meat processing plants, it's common for up to 1,000 workers to work during the two or three shifts a day at plants. Those processing the meat - carving it up on the line - often stand between two and four feet apart from each other, the Washington Post reported.
To request bathroom breaks, workers often have to speak directly into the ears of supervisors due to the noise in the plants.
At least 3,300 workers at more than 30 processing plants operated by the three companies, as well as other major meat producers, have fallen ill due to coronavirus and at least 17 have died, the Washington Post reported.
'This all could have been prevented. Workers are paying with their lives and their health because their industry decided not to implement basic safety precautions and OSHA decided to bury its head in the sand and tell workers "You’re on your own,"' Debbie Berkowitz, former senior OSHA official and expert on meat processing plants told the newspaper.
The JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado - which slaughters 5,400 head of cattle per day - has seen more than 100 workers infected with coronavirus, leading to four deaths.
Sergio Rodriguez, 58, a 40-year plant veteran, said that he began feeling sick during his shift on March 20. He said that he had a headache and his muscles ached, but that he kept handing out smocks and gloves to hundreds of workers until his lunch break.
Rodriguez said he then asked his supervisor if he could go home sick, but the supervisor said they needed him on the shift, so Rodriguez kept going.
The night, he said he went to urgent care, was diagnosed with a 104 degree temperature and told to isolate himself. Within days, he had to be hospitalized and was put on a ventilator. He wasn't released from the hospital until April 18.
Rodriguez's daughter, Crystal, who also works at the JBS plant, said that her father 'kept working even though he was sick, because that's what you do at JBS if you want to keep your job.'
She said that because he continued to work that day, he exposed hundreds of workers to coronavirus because he had touched their gear and their hands while passing out their work gear.
JBS said in a statement obtained by the Washington Post that they paid Rodriguez during his sick leave, beginning March 21. The company did not comment on his statement about continuing to work the prior day because he was asked to, but a company spokesperson said that 'No one is forced to come to work and no one is punished for being absent for health reasons.'
Despite this, local health officials wrote a letter to JBS, revealing their alarm at the company's 'work while sick' culture and noting that an analysis showed that 64 per cent of workers who were diagnosed with coronavirus had 'worked while symptomatic and therefore were contagious to others.'
County officials ordered the plant be closed on April 10 and gave them five days to implement the shutdown. They also ordered JBS to to develop an isolation housing plan for workers who tested positive, implement social distancing measures inside the plant and perform strict screening procedures for incoming workers.
Failure to do so, county officials said, could lead to fines and up to one year in county jail for company executives.
The plant reopened on Friday and handed out face shields to workers. The company said that it had ordered masks for workers on March 19, but didn't receive them until April 2 and made the wearing of masks mandatory on April 13. It has also added a $4 per hour pay increase for workers at all plants as a hazard bonus.
Tyson's pork plant in Waternoo, Iowa, was also reported to be a potential coronavirus hotspot, based on what was seen inside the plant, where more than 2,700 people work and 19,500 hogs are processed per day.
While touring the plant on April 10, Sheriff Tony Thompson, chair of the Emergency Management Commission in Black Hawk County, Iowa, told the newspaper that he saw workers using bandannas and sleep masks to cover their faces - if they were even bothering to cover their faces at all. He also said social distancing was lacking.
The plant told Thompson that they had at least three workers with positive coronavirus test results.
Following Thompson's tour of the plant, Tyson has started requiring and giving out surgical-style masks for workers.
But, between April 9 and 18, Black Hawk County's coronavirus case count jumped from 20 to 192 cases - an increase of nearly 900 per cent.
Thompson said that local health-care providers have been flooded with cases from the Tyson plant, with local officials attributing 90 per cent of the cases to outbreaks at Tyson.
On Monday, the Iowa National Guard had to be sent to the area to provide testing and contact tracing.
The Tyson plant was shuttered indefinitely on Wednesday.
Iowe state senator Bill Dotzler told the Washington Post that he is worried that Tyson might be reassigning workers from closed plants to those that are still operating.
He said that clinics in Waterloo had been visited by Tyson workers who lived in Columbus Junction, Iowa, nearly 130 miles away.
The Tyson plant in Columbus Junction had been closed on April 15, after more than 150 workers tested positive for coronavirus.
Tyson told the newspaper that it was not reassigning workers from its closed plants. It also said that it had started addressing coronavirus concerns back in January and that it had started temperature-testing workers in March.
It also required visitors to the plants to take a questionnaire about potential coronavirus exposure before being allowed inside.
A Tyson spokesperson told the newspaper that in addition to taking temperatures and providing face masks and deep cleaning the plants, it had started implementing social distancing measures in March.
Among the measures were 'installing workstation dividers and providing more breakroom space.'
'We have also relaxed our attendance policy to encourage workers to stay at home when they’re sick,' the spokesperson said.
A Smithfield distribution center worker in Greenfield, Indiana, Sonja Johnson, said that she had been fired hours after refusing to touch packages of hot dogs that had originated from a Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which had at least 891 coronavirus cases and one death.
Johnson said she told her supervisor that it was too risky to touch the hot dog boxes and was fired later that day.
The Greenfield center itself had already had several confirmed coronavirus cases.
A Smithfield spokesperson told the newspaper that Johnson's account was 'not at all accurate' and said that they would never fire an employee for 'expressing concern about possible transmission of covid-19.'
However, two other employees at the same distribution center said that they were disciplined by the company after having said they were worried about their safety.
Johnson and the two workers said that the Smithfield location didn't provide personal protective equipment until the recent week and claimed that managers let workers with fevers finish their shifts after 'cooling off' in front of air conditioners or standing outside.
They also claimed that managers told workers that they were 'lucky' that they worked in cold conditions inside the plant because coronavirus didn't survive in the cold.
The Smithfield spokesperson said that the company was 'disincentivized' to have sick workers on shifts and that they company tells workers in a variety of methods and languages not to report in for work if sick or exhibiting coronavirus symptoms and that they would be paid.
Among the coronavirus prevention measures the company said it had started was to add hand-sanitizing stations, provided more personal protective equipment, install physical barriers on production floors and institute thermal scanning for worker temperatures.
The spokesperson said the company was also restricting nonessential visitors, mandating 14-day, paid quarantines for workers with positive coronavirus diagnoses and relaxing its attendance policies for missed work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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