The Guardian: Trump officials and meat industry blocked life-saving Covid controls, investigation finds. “Trump officials ‘collaborated’ with the meatpacking industry to downplay the threat of Covid to plant workers and block public health measures which could have saved lives, a damning new investigation has found.”
Bloomberg: U.S. beef prices rise as Covid sickens slaughterhouse workers again. “U.S. beef prices jumped to the highest levels since November, threatening to worsen already raging food inflation. Production has slowed as the omicron virus variant sickens workers. Beef output last week fell 5.3% from a year ago, and wholesale prices on Monday climbed by 1.3%, the most since August, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
Argus Leader: COVID-19 cases rising again at Smithfield plant as standards relax, union leader says. “United Food & Commercial Workers Union leader B.J. Motley told the Argus Leader that many workers at Smithfield have COVID-19 once again. The company has been doing daily testing as the Omicron variant rises, but monitor duties were cut, he said.”
European Supermarket Magazine: US Meat Plants Relaxed Some COVID-19 Safety Protocols After Outbreaks: Unions . “Across the country, US meat and chicken plants that reported some of the country’s largest coronavirus outbreaks last year have eased or adjusted protective measures implemented near the start of the pandemic, according to interviews with ten plant employees, union officials and advocates for workers.”
New from ProPublica: Chicken Checker. “Find the P-number on a package of raw chicken or turkey. We’ll show you how often the USDA found salmonella at the plant that processed it.”
Washington Post: Covid cases and deaths grossly underestimated among meatpackers, House investigation finds. “More workers at the country’s top five meatpacking companies were sickened and died of the coronavirus than had been previously estimated, an investigation by the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis has found. At least 59,000 workers at Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, JBS, Cargill and National Beef — companies that control the lion’s share of the U.S. meat market — were infected with the coronavirus during the pandemic’s first year, according to a report the subcommittee released Wednesday on its findings. At least 269 workers across these companies died of covid-19 between March 1, 2020, and Feb. 1.”
GoBankingRates: Stimulus Update: Farm Workers and Meat Packers To Receive $600 Checks. “Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced yesterday a new plan to distribute one-time $600 pandemic relief payments to the U.S. meat packers and farmworkers. The aid comes as part of a new $700 million aid program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge: COVID-19 Shines New Light on Working Conditions in Supply Chains. “Tightly packed workers and other weak protections allowed COVID-19 to sweep through American slaughterhouses during the past year, infecting at least 45,000 employees and killing an estimated 240 people. To Harvard Business School Professor Michael Toffel, who has studied working conditions for more than 20 years, the devastation in meatpacking is just one example of how lax regulation can make a grave situation deadly.”
Route Fifty: After Hundreds of Meatpacking Workers Died From Covid-19, Congress Wants Answers. “A key House subcommittee cited reports by ProPublica and other news outlets in launching an investigation into how the country’s meatpacking companies handled the pandemic, which has killed hundreds of workers to date.”
Washington Post: The Trump administration approved faster line speeds at chicken plants. Those facilities are more likely to have covid-19 cases.. “Since 2018, the Trump administration has issued — or reissued — temporary waivers that grant permission to 54 poultry plants to increase line speeds. These plants are allowed to speed up lines from 140 to 175 birds per minute, a 25 percent increase. They are also 10 times as likely to have coronavirus cases than poultry plants without the line-speed waivers, according a Washington Post analysis of data collected by the nonprofit Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN). The Post analysis mirrors academic research that shows more coronavirus cases in counties with plants that have waivers to raise line speeds.”
Des Moines Register: In new allegation, lawsuit says Tyson officials lied to interpreters about COVID-19 dangers in Waterloo plant. “The amended suit, filed on behalf of the families of three Tyson workers who died from COVID-19, says plant manager Tom Hart and human resources director James Hook told interpreters during an April meeting that the building had ‘no confirmed cases’ and that Black Hawk County Health Department employees had ‘cleared’ the plant for operation. In fact, employees had tested positive for the virus, according to the amended suit, filed in U.S. District Court on Nov. 24.”
Daily Beast: Meat-Plant Workers Slam Rogue Colorado Officials Over Refusal to Enforce COVID Rules. “Meat-plant workers in Colorado condemned local leaders on Wednesday for refusing to enforce new state-directed COVID-19 safety restrictions, even after hitting a ‘level red’ designation over the region’s spiraling increase in coronavirus cases and dire hospital situation.”
The Hill: Coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants linked to 8 percent of early cases: study. “Up to 8 percent of U.S. coronavirus cases could have their origins in outbreaks among workers at meatpacking plants, according to a new study. Researchers from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business analyzed coronavirus cases through the end of July and found between as many as 310,000 cases of the virus connected with proximity to meatpacking plants.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Lawsuit: Tyson managers bet money on how many workers would contract COVID-19. “A wrongful death lawsuit tied to COVID-19 infections in a Waterloo pork processing plant alleges that during the initial stages the pandemic, Tyson Foods ordered employees to report for work while supervisors privately wagered money on the number of workers who would be sickened by the deadly virus.”
Bloomberg: Push on to speed up poultry production. “Coronavirus cases are rising, but the Trump administration is making its last push to allow chicken slaughterhouses to speed up production lines, something seen as a potential threat to social distancing for production workers. Three days after the election, the U.S. Department of Agriculture submitted a proposal to raise the maximum line speed by 25% to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. That’s typically the last step before a proposed regulation is published.”
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