tr?id=&ev=PageView&noscript=

Midwest’s Meat Packing Plant Situation Worsening

Midwest’s Meat Packing Plant Situation Worsening

Photo: the Tyson plant in Columbus Junction

By Nikoel Hytrek

April 16, 2020

The growing number of coronavirus outbreaks in the Midwest’s meat packing plants is getting worse.

Various governors in the region continue to ignore or downplay outbreaks, and many plants continue to operate despite employees testing positive for COVID-19, the highly contagious, unpredictable respiratory disease.

Starting Line found many meat packing plant employees deeply concerned about the lack of safety measures taken at plants. Multiple employees at the Tyson plant in Columbus Junction described extremely dirty bathrooms, lack of protective gear and a lack of social distancing implemented in their break room. Workers at other large plants spoke of similar conditions.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported that workers at Tyson Fresh Meats in Waterloo is allowing people with respiratory symptoms to continue working and the plant is potentially covering up the presence of the virus in its plants.

Someone who teaches English for some of the Tyson workers said employees from closed plants are also being moved to the Waterloo plant. The Courier also reported that workers are not being provided protective equipment at work.

Tyson Fresh Meats responded to worker accounts of employees being moved and the company not following safety precautions, and called them inaccurate on Thursday.

At a Black Hawk County press conference, the county sheriff sharply criticized the plant, saying he personally visited and saw a lack of social distancing and protective equipment.

Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the state is sending 1,500 tests to the county as they suspect there’s a significant outbreak at the plant.

A few days ago, National Beef closed its Tama operations at Iowa Premium after employees tested positive for the virus.

Last night, the Sioux City Journal reported one employee at Sioux City’s Seaboard Triumph Foods tested positive for COVID-19.

[inline-ad id=”0″]

This follows Tyson Foods closing the Columbus Junction meatpacking plant last week after more than two dozen workers tested positive. The outbreak in Columbus Junction is the worst in the state.

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Smithfield pork plant is considered the biggest hotspot in the country. The plant is the city’s biggest employer and it closed on Sunday amid a surge of over 500 employees testing positive for COVID-19, comprising almost half of the state’s total cases.

Smithfield closed two other plants — one in Wisconsin and one in Missouri.

But cases continue to climb. South Dakota is now reporting 1,311 cases with 1,065 in Minnehaha County, where Sioux Falls and the Smithfield plant are.

South Dakota’s Gov. Kristi Noem rejected the Sioux Falls mayor’s request for a county-wide stay-at-home order yesterday, so Mayor Paul TenHaken and the city council issued a city-wide shelter-in-place ordinance instead.

Today the CDC conducted an inspection at the Sioux Falls plant.

[inline-ad id=”1″]

Nebraska has also seen a severe spike in cases because of a meatpacking plant in Central Nebraska.

In Grand Island, the JBS USA beef plant is the city’s largest employer, and the site of a major outbreak of coronavirus.

The city’s hospital is full of COVID-19 patients, and the director of the Central District Health Department said some new cases will eventually need to be transferred to other hospitals.

On Wednesday, the Grand Island Independent reported Hall County had the highest reported number of cases in Nebraska.

Hall County — where Grand Island is located — has been second to Omaha’s Douglas County in number of cases. The peak in state infections, officials warned, is probably a month or two away. As of yesterday evening, Nebraska has reported 952 cases and 21 deaths.

All of these businesses have been deemed essential to nation’s food supply chain, so they’ve been allowed to continue operating.

 

by Nikoel Hytrek
Posted 4/16/20

  • Nikoel Hytrek

    Nikoel Hytrek is Iowa Starting Line’s longest-serving reporter. She covers LGBTQ issues, abortion rights and all topics of interest to Iowans. Her biggest goal is to help connect the dots between policy and people’s real lives. If you have story ideas or tips, send them over to [email protected].

CATEGORIES: Uncategorized

Support Our Cause

Thank you for taking the time to read our work. Before you go, we hope you'll consider supporting our values-driven journalism, which has always strived to make clear what's really at stake for Iowans and our future.

Since day one, our goal here at Iowa Starting Line has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of Iowan families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.

Amie Rivers
Amie Rivers, Community Editor
Your support keeps us going
Help us continue delivering fact-based news to Iowans
Related Stories
Kalbach: Immediate action needed on corporate ag pollution

Kalbach: Immediate action needed on corporate ag pollution

Iowa agriculture has undergone substantial changes over the past 40 years. We see it all around us. Rather than crops and livestock being raised on tens of thousands of diversified family farms, Iowa has become ground-zero for concentrated industrial factory farms...

Iowa slated to ban all future basic income programs

Iowa slated to ban all future basic income programs

Sen. Bill Dotzler, 75, called the last two legislative sessions the “worst attack” on low-income and working-class Iowans he has ever seen. The Democrat from Waterloo—who has served in the legislature for over three decades—made those remarks Tuesday as the Iowa...

Share This