Federal Inspectors Are Fearful, Angry About Trump's Order to Reopen Outbreak-Stricken Meat Plants [View all]

[James48]

Source: Govexec.com

USDA is still not providing masks and is doing "absolutely nothing" to protect workers, inspectors say.

By Eric Katz

(Snip)
USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, who has lobbied companies and local leaders to keep plants open even as hotspots developed, said the department would keep employees safe. He said USDA would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement guidelines for reopening plants.

“USDA will continue to work with its partners across the federal government to ensure employee safety to maintain this essential industry,” Perdue said.

Employees, however, said they have received no details on how the department will keep that promise. FSIS is still not providing personal protective equipment—including masks—to its inspectors, instead offering a one-time $50 stipend for employees to procure their own. On Wednesday, FSIS held telephonic town halls with employees, as it has done each week during the pandemic. For the first time, however, FSIS took no questions from employees, citing “inappropriate” leaks to the media and privacy concerns.

“We’re pretty angry about it,” one inspector said of the one-sided town hall he listened to. “They said they would answer the most frequently asked questions but they’re not doing that.”

Read more: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2020/04/federal-inspectors-are-fearful-angry-about-trumps-order-reopen-outbreak-stricken-meat-plants/165051/

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King “”Dump” ordering Federal Employee meat inspectors to work with NO PROTECTION, and it’s illegal for federal workers to refuse to work or strike.

The USDA Management is offering employees ONE TIME $50 to go try and buy some kind of face mask to keep their own snot out of the meat?

USDA MGT doesn’t have a clue what protection is required- it’s just like doctors- if you are elbow to elbow with other workers in a slaughterhouse, a bandanna isn’t the protection you need, and a ONE TIME $50 to try and buy masks, faceshields, and gowns sufficient to protect yourself as a meat inspector?

Seriously?

Let them eat cake.

Shut the meat plants down until Federal Government protects their own employees!