‘Scared’ US workers stay home as coronavirus-infected meat-packing plants reopen
- Workers fear that new measures firms have put in place aren’t enough to guarantee their safety as operations resume
- There were 20 deaths among employees, and as absenteeism persists, the US is at risk of continued meat shortages
At a JBS USA plant in Greeley, Colorado, absenteeism is running as high as 30 per cent. Before the pandemic, it was about 13 per cent. The company is paying about 10 per cent of the workforce – people deemed vulnerable – to stay home. Others aren’t coming in because they are sick.
But some workers are staying home because they are “scared,” according to Kim Cordova, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 7 union, which represents workers at the plant. She could not provide specific numbers but noted on a recent visit that production speeds at the plant were “really slow” because of the labour crunch.
Meat plants have been at the nexus of coronavirus hotspots across America’s rural heartland. The disease spread through plants in March and April as companies struggled to adapt their workplaces to new rules dictated by the pandemic.
JBS is following federal “guidance around safety and social distancing, and we’re doing everything possible to provide a safe working environment for our team members who have been eager to get back to work,” the company said.