Meatpacking Plants’ Resistance To Disclosing Positive Cases Paints Murky Picture About Outbreak Status

The New York Times: As Meatpacking Plants Reopen, Data About Worker Illness Remains Elusive
The Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, N.C., is one of the world’s largest pork processing facilities, employing about 4,500 people and slaughtering roughly 30,000 pigs a day at its peak. And like more than 100 other meat plants across the United States, the facility has seen a substantial number of coronavirus cases. But the exact number of workers in Tar Heel who have tested positive is anyone’s guess. Smithfield would not provide any data when asked about the number of illnesses at the plant. Neither would state or local health officials. (Corkery, Yaffe-Bellany and Kravitz, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Meat Industry Trying To Get Back To Normal, But Coronavirus Persists 
Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the United States, has transformed its facilities across the country since legions of its workers started getting sick from the novel coronavirus. It has set up on-site medical clinics, screened employees for fevers at the beginning of their shifts, required the use of face coverings, installed plastic dividers between stations and taken a host of other steps to slow the spread. Despite those efforts, the number of Tyson employees with the coronavirus has exploded from less than 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports and public records. (Telford, 5/25)

The Associated Press: Worker Shortage Concerns Loom In Immigrant-Heavy Meatpacking
When Martha Kebede’s adult sons immigrated from Ethiopia and reunited with her in South Dakota this year, they had few work opportunities. Lacking English skills, the brothers took jobs at Smithfield Foods’ Sioux Falls pork plant, grueling and increasingly risky work as the coronavirus sickened thousands of meatpacking workers nationwide. One day half the workers on a slicing line vanished; later the brothers tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. (Groves and Tareen, 5/26)

ABC News: California City Sees COVID-19 Outbreaks At 9 Facilities, Including Food Processing Plants 
One California city is grappling with COVID-19 outbreaks at nine of its industrial facilities, including one food processing plant that reported having at least 153 positive cases, according to health officials. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said the largest outbreak occurred at the Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon, California, which is owned by Smithfield Foods and produces Dodger Dogs, among other products. (Effron, 5/25)

Politico: ‘Something Isn’t Right’: U.S. Probes Soaring Beef Prices
Supermarket customers are paying more for beef than they have in decades during the coronavirus pandemic. But at the same time, the companies that process the meat for sale are paying farmers and ranchers staggeringly low prices for cattle. Now, the Agriculture Department and prosecutors are investigating whether the meatpacking industry is fixing or manipulating prices. (Nylen and Crampton, 5/25)

In other worker safety news —

The New York Times: What Role Should Employers Play In Testing Workers?
As the country reopens, employers are looking into how to safely bring back their workers. One recurring question: Should they be tested for the new coronavirus? Some businesses are moving ahead. In Indianapolis, the family-owned Shapiro’s Delicatessen tested about 25 employees in its parking lot this month. Amazon plans to spend as much as $1 billion this year to regularly test its work force, while laying the groundwork to build its own lab near the Cincinnati airport. (Eder, Gabler, Kliff and Murphy, 5/22)

ProPublica/MLK50: Nike Turned Away A Public Health Official From Its Warehouse Days After A Worker With COVID-19 Died
The security guard said no. It didn’t matter that the visitor was from the Shelby County Health Department. It didn’t matter that she was there to investigate health conditions at a Nike distribution center where, five days earlier, company officials learned a temporary worker had died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. The security guard staffing the gate at the sprawling site said that without an appointment, no one could come in. (Thomas, 5/23)

The Washington Post: Grocery Workers Are In The Dark About Coronavirus Risks 
By the end of April, employees at a Walmart in Quincy, Mass., were panicking: Sick colleagues kept showing up at work. Other employees disappeared without explanation. The store’s longtime greeter was in the hospital and on a ventilator, dying of covid-19. Local health officials grew alarmed as employees and their relatives reported sick co-workers. Shoppers called to complain about crowded conditions. “We have had consistent problems with Walmart,” wrote Ruth Jones, Quincy’s health commissioner, in an April 28 email to the Massachusetts attorney general’s office. “They have a cluster of Covid cases among employees and have not been cooperative in giving us contact information or in following proper quarantine and isolation guidelines.” (Dungca, Abelson, Bhattarai and Kornfield, 5/24)

WBUR: Know Your Rights: What Your Employer Is Required To Do To Keep You Safe As You Return To Work 
As Massachusetts begins to slowly reopen its economy, people who are not able to do their jobs remotely may be asked to return to work. This brings up a lot of questions around safety for businesses and workers alike, as not everyone may feel safe coming to the workplace. ...For whenever you may return to work, here's what workers should know about what employers are required to do to keep them safe on the job, as well as what to do if they’re sick and how to report violations of state and federal rules. (Ruckstuhl, 5/26)