‘Time Of Fear, Panic’: As Orders To Remain Open Surfaced, Misinformation Spread Among Meat Packers
The New York Times reports on elbow-to-elbow work conditions inside a Tysons Foods pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa, its resistance to close and new precautions workers say came too late. Other news on worker safety reports on an uptick in pork exports to China and General Motors reopening three plants.
The New York Times:
Pork Chops Vs. People: Battling Coronavirus In An Iowa Meat Plant
On April 10, Tony Thompson, the sheriff for Black Hawk County in Iowa, visited the giant Tyson Foods pork plant in Waterloo. What he saw, he said, “shook me to the core.” Workers, many of them immigrants, were crowded elbow to elbow as they broke down hog carcasses zipping by on a conveyor belt. The few who had face coverings wore a motley assortment of bandannas, painters’ masks or even sleep masks stretched around their mouths. Some had masks hanging around their necks. (Swanson, Yaffe-Bellany and Corkery, 5/10)
Reuters:
As U.S. Meat Workers Fall Sick And Supplies Dwindle, Exports To China Soar
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered meat processing plants to stay open to protect the nation’s food supply even as workers got sick and died. Yet the plants have increasingly been exporting to China while U.S. consumers face shortages, a Reuters analysis of government data showed. (Polansek, 5/11)
Detroit Free Press:
GM Restarts Its Parts Plants And Recalls Some Workforce At All Plants
General Motors is starting production at three of its North American parts plants on Monday. GM is also recalling its skilled trades workers and some production workers to most of its assembly and engine plants on Monday too to prep the equipment and the plants for restarting that production the week of May 18, a person familiar with GM's plans who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak on the topic. (LaReau, 5/9)
