Meatpacking workers still at risk
Many facilities harbor coronavirus a year later
One year after COVID-19 infiltrated the meatpacking industry and sparked nationwide plant closures, meat shortage fears and an executive order to keep production lines going, front-line workers continue to face risk.
Since last April, more than 50,000 cases have been tied to the meatpacking industry, and at least 248 workers have died, according to tracking by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
The industry is especially vulnerable to the coronavirus because the plants provide the perfect breeding ground for airborne diseases: a cramped workplace, a culture of underreporting illnesses, and a cadre of rural, immigrant and undocumented workers who often live and work together because few other jobs are available.
Coronavirus case counts related to meatpacking have fallen since last year amid an industrywide effort to protect workers and the more recent national vaccine rollout. But many facilities still harbor the disease. More than 200 cases have been reported in North Carolina in the past couple of months alone, according to state data. And at least one worker died as recently as March.
The Biden administration has promised tougher standards than those implemented under former President Donald Trump, but they haven’t yet been implemented.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents many meatpacking workers, has worked to expand vaccine access,” union President Marc Perone said in a statement.
Minorities, meanwhile, have largely shouldered the burden. About 90% of infected meatpacking plant workers were people of color, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These are the same groups struggling to get vaccinated. Minorities and people who speak limited English – a population that staffs meatpacking plants – were less likely to have received vaccines in the first three months of 2021, according to a CDC study released in late March.
President Joe Biden gave the Occupational Health and Safety Administration a mid-March deadline to decide if it should implement an “emergency temporary standard” to combat coronavirus in the workplace, including meatpacking plants.
But the deadline passed with no word from the agency on its decision.
“OSHA has been working diligently to consider what standards may be necessary,” a Department of
Labor spokesperson told USA TODAY and the Midwest Center, “and is taking the time to get this right.”
Meatpacking plants seemed to be a driver of COVID-19 cases early in the pandemic.
In April and early May, counties with large populations of meatpacking workers had about 10 times as many cases as other counties, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture analysis.
By summertime, though, counties with and without large meatpacking worker populations began to report similar numbers, according to the USDA.
Lately, far fewer cases have been reported in meatpacking plants than at the peak of the outbreak. Companies including Tyson, Smithfield and JBS have all said they’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on worker protections since last year.
But the virus is still a daily reality for many workers. In North Carolina, where nearly 4,800 workers have tested positive since the pandemic began, more than 200 cases related to the meatpacking industry have been reported in the past couple of months, according to state data. At least one meatpacking worker died as recently as March.
The JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, was one of the first facilities to close a year ago this month, bringing national attention to the plight of workers. At least six workers died.
After nearly 300 workers tested positive, the state considered the outbreak resolved on Oct. 20. But about three weeks later, new cases prompted the state to declare a new outbreak at the plant.
More than 100 workers have tested positive so far, and Colorado considered the outbreak ongoing as of March 31.
Cameron Bruett, a JBS spokesman, said about 75% of workers at the Greeley plant had been vaccinated as of early April.
Despite industry efforts, many meatpacking plant workers remain unvaccinated.
About a third of all Tyson plant workers have received the shot. In financial documents, Tyson said it paid pandemic bonuses to about 106,000 workers, and about 30,000 employees have been vaccinated, company spokesman Derek Burleson said.
As supplies become available, the company is offering free, on-site vaccinations, and employees will be compensated up to four hours if they get vaccinated outside work hours, he said.
At JBS, 58% of all its plant workers have been vaccinated, spokesman Bruett said, and “active cases represent less than one-third of 1% of our workforce.”
Smithfield did not say how many of its employees have been vaccinated, but spokeswoman Keira Lombardo said plants across the country were facilitating the shot’s distribution.
Worker safety took a back seat during the Trump administration.
Last year, OSHA received 15% more complaints than in 2019, but the agency conducted half as many inspections as in 2019, according to a February report from the Labor Department’s inspector general.
Many inspections were conducted virtually, a practice the inspector general said probably led to dangerous work environments.
Deaths tied to meatpacking plants often went uninvestigated. By January, OSHA had not inspected 26 of the 65 plants where at least one worker had died, USA TODAY and the Midwest Center found.
The Biden administration has taken some steps to rectify the situation.
OSHA announced March 12 it would prioritize inspections at sites with the greatest risks for contracting the virus. A Labor Department spokesperson said this includes places where workers are spaced less than 6 feet apart, which includes meatpacking plants.