'We're Modern Slaves': How Meat Plant Workers Became the New Frontline
‘We’re Modern Slaves’: How Meat Plant Workers Became the New Frontline in COVID-19 War
Workers interviewed by the Guardian describe pattern of alleged negligence at plants run by some of America’s largest food manufacturers.
The Guardian
Oliver LaughlandAmanda Holpuch
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/we-re-modern-slaves-how-meat-plant-workers-became-the-new-frontline-in-covid-19-war
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The president invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to mandate meat processing plants stay open during the pandemic. The White House has been reluctant to use the wartime act, which allows the president to order companies to fulfill work it deems necessary to national security. The DPA was used to push General Motors to make ventilators but few other companies have received such orders.
The move, which essentially labels meat production an essential service, also offers further measures to protect the industry from legal liability should more workers contract the virus. The order came within hours of Tyson, a $22bn company and the world’s second-largest meat processor, taking out paid adverts in major US newspapers, including the New York Times, to warn that recent closures of a handful of plants due to the virus could lead to “limited supply of our products”.
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“I was devastated and I was hurt. Because now, to be truthful – and excuse my language – Tyson really aren’t going to give a fuck about us at all,” she said. “For us employees that work in production, we are treated like modern-day slaves.”
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“For the last two months people have been dying from the coronavirus and we’ve been asking the White House to put something in effect to protect workers. Now, all of a sudden, with employees getting sicker and sicker, and fed up of going to work, Trump found it necessary to support big business,” Fields said.
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