Work and worry at the sausage plant
With the meat processing industry in crisis nationwide as thousands of workers are stricken with the coronavirus, local sausage-maker Uncle Charley’s has been fighting to lock the virus out of its small Westmoreland County plant.
So far, those efforts have paid off.
There have been no confirmed cases at the Vandergrift plant that employs about 60 people, including 30 production workers, CEO Len Caric said. The 32-year-old company supplies sweet, hot and flavored sausages to Giant Eagle, Shop ‘n Save, Aldi, Walmart and other grocery stores mainly in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
While acknowledging that “it is difficult” to keep workers the recommended six feet apart on the production line, Mr. Caric said he was “doing everything else we can to minimize exposure.”
The plant’s doors are locked to outsiders. Office staffers are working from home. Production workers wear masks, of course, and face shields are available to those who want them, Mr. Caric said. Employees are taking staggered lunches and breaks. Surfaces in break rooms, restrooms and other high-touch areas are being sanitized multiple times a day.
Each morning, employees have their temperatures taken and are asked how they are feeling.
“If anyone mentions being sick with anything at all, we send them home with pay,” he said.
Mr. Caric has good reason to be worried.
According to a May 1 report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 115 meat and poultry processing facilities nationwide have reported COVID-19 cases, for a total of 4,913 cases and 20 deaths.
Pennsylvania has reported the most cases of any state — 858 have been sickened at 22 plants, including 12 at the Smithfield Foods meat plant in Arnold, just 14 miles west of Uncle Charley’s Vangerdrift facility.
“My big concern right now is complacency,” Mr. Caric said. “When you go on this long ... I worry about people starting to relax [safety measures]. Every day I come in, I’m a nervous wreck.”
As for his company’s business, it’s been great, he said.
Demand is “very, very heavy,” said Mr. Caric, who has been CEO since 2014 when founder Charles S. Armitage sold the company to Tecum
Capital and a group of local investors, including Mr. Caric.
There also are no supply issues with Uncle Charley’s pork supplier in Bowling Green, Ohio. And prices remain stable, he said.
Demand for the company’s sausage — which includes link sausage, kielbasa and bratwurst — typically picks up around Memorial Day and throughout the summer cookout season. But this year, demand started to grow shortly after Gov. Tom Wolf’s lockdown order shuttered restaurants in mid-March and consumers rushed to grocery stores to stock up.
The plant has been producing between 18,000 and 20,000 pounds of sausage during the pandemic compared with normal production of around 15,000 to 17,000 pounds this time of year, Mr. Caric said.
He said he is following the industry closely and isn’t expecting any supply problems, but he added, “Who knows? It’s kind of crazy right now.”
Besides the extra protection measures being taken at the plant, Mr. Caric attributes workers’ good health so far to employees being vigilant about taking precautions while outside the plant.
“When this thing broke, we met with employees and said food is critical. If grocery shelves are empty, there will be panic,” he said. “But we have to be safe.”
“I give the employees an awful lot of credit — they really have rallied. They respect what we need to be doing, and also that the virus is floating around and that we have to keep everybody safe.”