Tyson Foods workers offered paid sick leave

NEW YORK — Tyson Foods is offering its front-line workers paid sick leave for the first time, part of an agreement that secured union support for its mandate that all U.S. employees get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The meatpacking giant said 90,000 — or 75% — of its 120,000 U.S. workers have now been vaccinated, up from 50% when it announced the mandate Aug. 3. Workers have until Nov. 1 to get vaccinated, but the agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers provides for medical and religious exemptions.

Tyson Foods, which owns the Jimmy

Dean and Hillshire Farm brands, is among the few companies with a large front-line workforce to impose a vaccine mandate so far. Many companies have taken aggressive steps to encourage workers to get the vaccines while avoiding mandates that could worsen a labor shortage.

Under the agreement with UFCW, Tyson workers can earn up to 20 hours of paid sick leave. The UFCW represents 26,000 Tyson workers but the Springdale, Arkansas-based company said the benefit would extend to all employees. The UFCW said it was the union’s first time reaching a national agreement to provide paid sick leave for meatpacking workers.

“Paid sick leave is critical to ensuring workers can get vaccinated without losing a paycheck,” UFCW President Marc Perrone said.

Workplace advocates have cited inadequate paid sick leave as a key barrier preventing low-income workers from getting the vaccine. A Harvard survey of service and retail workers found that nearly 60% of workers with access to paid sick leave had been vaccinated by May, compared to less than 50% of workers without that benefit. The study, which surveyed 9,000 workers at large firms from March 2021 to May 2021, also found that more than 60% of workers who got time off to get the shots, or to recover from side effects, were vaccinated. That compared to 39% of workers who received no support from employers for getting the vaccine.