Meat-packers name JBS in civil rights complaint
The parent company of a Green Bay meatpacking plant is the subject of a civil rights complaint lodged this week by a coalition of groups representing meat-processing workers.
The complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleges JBS, which has a meat-processing plant in Green Bay, and Tyson Foods violated the rights of their predominantly minority employees by requiring them work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Black, Latino and Asian workers make up almost 70% of frontline workers in meat-processing plants, so the operating procedures have a discriminatory impact on racial and ethnic minorities, the groups claimed in a press release.
The administrative complaint names Tyson Foods and JBS, the nation’s two largest meat-processing companies. It is unclear whether JBS’s 1,200 Green Bay workers are represented by any of the members of the coalition, which includes the Food Chain Workers Alliance, which represents 33 worker-based organizations; the Missouri-based Rural Community Workers Alliance; the HEAL Food Alliance, which represents 55 member organizations; Forward Latino, an advocacy group with members across 28 states; American Friends Service Committee-Iowa; and the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils.
Brown County was propelled into national headlines this spring when its COVID-19 cases climbed faster than any other county in the state, in part fueled by outbreaks at local meatpacking plants. According to the state Department of Health Services, 60% of Brown County residents who contracted COVID-19 through June 22 identified as Hispanic or Latino, even though Hispanics
make up only 8.7% of the county’s population.
The JBS plant was temporarily closed in April to control outbreak that affected about 300 workers, or about one-fourth of JBS’s Green Bay employees. The plant reopened May 5 on a limited basis, however Brown County health officials have stopped providing case numbers for specific facilities.
The administrative complaint details JBS cases in Greeley, Colo., but also cites COVID-19 outbreaks linked to the Green Bay plant, and JBS plants in Plainswell, Mich., Souderton, Penn., and Worthington, Minn.
According to a JBS spokesperson, the company is “providing free testing and face masks to workers” and has “removed the most vulnerable populations” from its plants, such as employees 60 years or older, with full pay and benefits, the complaint says.
“However, despite these measures, the number of cases and deaths at JBS plants continues to rise dramatically” and workers continue to work shoulder to shoulder, the complaint says.
A press release issued by the coalition quotes a report by Food & Environment Reporting Network as saying that COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in at least 292 meatpacking processing plants nationwide, with more than 40,000 workers testing positive and at least 138 deaths.
Both Tyson and JBS reject social distancing practices as called for the by Center for Disease Control, putting workers at risk as they are being pushed to meet pre-pandemic processing capacity, according to the complaint.
The complaint asks that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Civil Rights end all financial assistance to the two companies and to refer the complaint to the Department of Justice for action.