From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was the impression that the meat packaging industry was vulnerable to coronavirus outbreaks. In May, the White House passed an ordinance to keep meat processing services open at a time when reports revealed that counties with meat packaging plants were among the worst hotspots in the United States, publishing new case rates twice the national average. As a result, meat costs have increased and some primary shops have imposed limits on the amount of beef, red meat and poultry that others can buy.
Now, new knowledge from the Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN), a nonprofit news organization, illustrates the scope of the challenge, as the USDA was sued through the U.S. Largest Meat Union. In unsafe situations and several members of Congress filed expenses for extra the situation.
According to FERN, as of July 30, 38,403 meat packing staff tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 171 of those staff died. Even more telling is the degree to which those figures come from one company: Tyson Foods. FERN estimates that Tyson had 10,104 instances, or more than a quarter of all instances in the industry. The entire United States of Tyson Foods has only 120,000 more people, meaning that about one in ten has contracted the virus.
Certainly, FERN figures are not a complete picture. The site explains that its knowledge “is basically collected from local press reports, with more data collected from the state government of physical fitness and sometimes from companies in the event of an epidemic.” Therefore, it is imaginable that Tyson’s instances would be revealed even more, either through the media and through the company itself. Just yesterday, Tyson announced his goal of launching a “new national surveillance strategy for COVID.” In the announcement, Tyson wrote that the company “was probably interested in conducting more tests than any other company in the country [that] assessed nearly a third of its workforce.” In addition, a corporate spokesman told me, “Tyson was also one of the few corporations that publicly revealed the effects of testing throughout the facility.”
Tyson also states, “Currently, less than 1%” of its U.S. workforce “has an active COVID-19.” “We, launching a new strategic technique for monitoring and incorporating the fitness care body to help you, will help us continue our efforts to transmit the offensive opposed to the virus,” said Donnie King, president and chief executive officer of Tyson Foods Group. Training
However, the timing of this announcement, Tyson’s first public press release on COVID-19 in about two months, may not be a coincidence. Just two days earlier on Tuesday, the United Food and Trade Workers Union (TUAC), the largest meat packaging union in the United States that represents more than a quarter of a million food employees, launched the offensive, suing the USDA for exemptions that allowed the construction of poultry plants until production Line Speeds. As explained through TUAC, maximum line speeds were established in 2014, possibly exemptions would be granted at those speeds. In addition, TUAC indicates that 15 exemptions were approved in April this year only at a time when COVID-19 was already beginning to be extended.
“While COVID-19 continues to infect thousands of meatpacking employees, it is unexpected that the USDA puts those personnel at greater threat by allowing poultry corporations to increase line speed to damaging new degrees that increase the threat of injury and make social estrangement almost impossible,” said TUAC International President Marc PerroneArray , when pronouncing the legal action. “This test will help even if everything avoids this harmful USDA corporate gift. More than ever, we want to put the protection of our country’s frontline staff and food source at the forefront.”
Nandan Joshi, a public citizen’s attorney acting as lead attorney, added: “The law is transparent: a company will have to abide by appropriate procedures when adopting a new program and will have to take into account and address all applicable factors, adding its own previous positions in the same Array factor. The FSIS did not adhere to these fundamental regulations when it allowed more poultry plants to exceed the company’s regulatory speed limits”.
Some members of Congress seem to agree. Also on Tuesday, Senator Cory Booker brought secure line speeds at COVID-19, with more laws introduced to the House through representatives Marcia L.Fudge of Ohio, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. Among other provisions, the new law aims to suspend all existing and long-haul line speed exemptions, which Booker’s workplace indexed to 20, the pandemic.
“Since mid-March, COVID-19 outbreaks have continued to accumulate in meat-packing plants across the country, infecting tens of thousands of employees and tragically killing more than 168. Most of those staff come from immigrant communities and communities of color,” Booker said in his announcement. “The USDA prioritizes the protection of staff and consumers over the profits of giant multinational meat packaging companies, not the other way around.”
But going back to TUAC, the union’s main meat turns out to belong more to the U.S. government than Tyson. In fact, regarding Tyson’s increase in medical testing and protocols, TUAC actually praised the company’s press release. “We welcome this milestone from Tyson Foods, which demonstrates the leadership needed for COVID oversight across the industry,” Perrone said. “UFCW urges all corporations in the industry to adhere to Tyson’s leadership and take immediate action to expand COVID surveillance as we paint to flatten the curve.”