Posts Categorized: Health & Safety

Last week, the UFCW responded to President Trump’s executive order to keep meatpacking plants open and called on the president and state governors to take actions to protect the safety and health of meatpacking and food processing workers by strengthening testing and other safety measures.

New internal UFCW estimates have confirmed 20 worker deaths in meatpacking and food processing plants. In addition, at least 5,000 meatpacking workers and 1,500 food processing workers have been directly impacted by the virus. Those directly impacted include individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19, missed work due to self-quarantine, are awaiting test results, or have been hospitalized and/or are symptomatic.

The UFCW’s estimates also show 22 meatpacking plants have closed – including union and nonunion plants – at some point in the past two months. These closures have impacted over 35,000 workers and resulted in a 25 percent reduction in pork slaughter capacity, as well as a 10 percent reduction in beef slaughter capacity.

“While we share the concern over the food supply, today’s executive order to force meatpacking plants to stay open must put the safety of our country’s meatpacking workers first,” said UFCW International President Marc Perrone in a statement. “Simply put, we cannot have a secure food supply without the safety of these workers. We urge the Administration to immediately enact clear and enforceable safety standards that compel all meatpacking companies to provide the highest level of protective equipment through access to the federal stockpile of PPE, ensure daily testing is available for workers and their communities, enforce physical distancing at all plants, and provide full paid sick leave for any workers who are infected. Additionally, to protect the food supply and ensure these safety standards for workers are enforced, these plants must be constantly monitored by federal inspectors and workers must have access to representation to ensure their rights are not violated.”

The  UFCW also sent a letter to the National Governors Association and to every governor in the country last week, calling on governors to protect meatpacking and poultry workers by enforcing guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The letter was sent in response to President Trump’s executive action to mandate that meatpacking and poultry plants remain open.

The CDC and OSHA issued guidelines on April 26 for meatpacking and poultry workers and employees. In the letter to National Governors Association, the UFCW calls the guidelines a step in the right direction but asks governors to both enforce those guidelines and issue additional protective measures that include the following:

• Enforcing Physical Distancing: Plants must reconfigure the workplace to achieve physical distancing of at least six feet between workers, both on the production floor and off.  Barriers, such as plexiglass barriers, should be used only to reinforce the six feet distancing, not as a substitute for six feet distancing.  The CDC and OSHA do not make this statement, but this type of distancing may require the speed of the line to be reduced in order to achieve a reduction or minimization in the spread of the virus.

• Providing Respirators: All workers on the production floor should be provided with N-95 respirators, which will provide the level of protection needed to protect workers from inhaling virus particles.  Employers must additionally do the following to maintain the integrity of the respirators;

1. 1. 1. Provide a new respirator at the beginning of every shift.
      2. Provide fit-testing.  Replace respirators if damaged or contaminated.
      3. Follow the current CDC guidelines for disinfecting and storing respirators, if respirators are reused.
      4. Provide training on proper donning and doffing procedures in languages workers understand.
      5. Provide additional time for hand hygiene and for proper donning and doffing of respirators.

• Providing Testing: All workers, including management, who are currently working in the plant, should be tested for COVID-19.  Ideally, rapid testing of workers as they enter the workplace would ensure that workers carrying the virus are not entering the workplace.

• Providing Mandatory Paid Quarantine: Should a positive case of COVID-19 be identified in the workplace, those in close contact with the infected individual should be identified as well and paid to stay home for the full two weeks.  This would ensure more workers are not infected or exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace.
• Protecting Workers From Retaliation: The UFCW believes that strong, anti-retaliation protections must be in place in order to ensure that workers who feel ill or who are suffering from COVID-19 can remain at home, in quarantine for the full period of time recommended by the CDC, until it is safe to return to work.  Workers must be encouraged to report any symptoms of illness, or of COVID-19, while at work, as well as any other safety and health hazards, and not suffer any negative consequences for doing so.  

“Meatpacking and poultry workers have been working tirelessly through this health crisis so that millions of Americans continue to have access to the food they need,” said Perrone in a statement. “President Trump’s executive order now mandates that they continue to do so, without any language that ensures their safety. Let me be clear, the best way to protect America’s food supply, to keep these plants open, is to protect America’s meatpacking workers.  

“Every governor has the ability to take key steps and additional safety actions to protect these workers and it is imperative that they do so immediately,” Perrone added. “To protect our food supply and workers, strong, enforceable safety standards must be implemented in every meatpacking plant. These safety standards must ensure all workers have access to testing and personal protective equipment, social distancing is enforced, and paid sick leave is provided to all workers so that no one comes to work sick.  In order to protect our nation’s food supply as President Trump is calling for us to do, we must work together to keep the hard-working men and women in these plants safe. Now, more than ever, this must be a priority for all of our state and national leaders” 

You can read the UFCW’s letter to the National Governors Association here.

Last week, the UFCW sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) urging Secretary Sonny Perdue to take a series of immediate actions to protect meatpacking and food processing workers and our nation’s food supply during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, including testing and access to personal protective equipment (PPE). The UFCW also sent a letter to Vice President Pence, who leads the White House Coronavirus Task Force, urging him to prioritize the same safety actions for these workers. The UFCW represents more than 250,000 meatpacking and food processing workers across the country.

In the letters to USDA Secretary Perdue and Vice President Pence, the UFCW outlined five immediate steps to protect meatpacking and food processing workers as follows:

• Prioritize Essential Workers for Testing: In order to ensure the health and safety of workers and protect the food supply, essential workers, such as those in meatpacking and food processing, must be prioritized for testing.
• Immediate Access to PPE: Though social and physical distancing are essential to preventing the spread of COVID-19, workers still need access to PPE, such as masks and gloves. The reality is that many of our members lack the critical personal protection equipment necessary to do their job and reduce the risk of exposure. It is essential that the USDA, in conjunction with the White House Task force, prioritize all meatpacking and food workers for PPE to ensure the health and safety of these workers and to protect our food supply.
• Immediate Halt On Line Speed Waivers: In the first two weeks of this month, the USDA’s Food and Safety Inspection Service approved 11 regulatory waivers for poultry plants to increase their maximum line speed. Rather than protect our food supply and workers, these waivers guarantee that workers are more crowded along a meatpacking line and more workers are put at risk of either catching or spreading the virus. It is critical that the USDA immediately cease granting any new waivers and suspend all existing waivers that allow plants to operate at faster speeds.
• Mandate Social Distancing Where Possible: In order to responsibly protect workers and prevent spread of the disease, companies must enforce and practice six-foot social and physical distancing to the greatest extent possible, even if this means production slows down. Where distancing is not possible, companies should use plexiglass barriers to separate and protect workers, and/or ensure that all workers are provided with masks that can safely be used under these extreme conditions.
• Isolate Workers Who Show Symptoms or Test Positive for COVID-19: In light of the largest outbreak to date at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, it is critical to identify and isolate workers who have tested positive or who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19. These workers should be allowed to quarantine at home, with pay, per the recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a press conference call last week, the UFCW released updates on the serious and deadly impact of the COVID-19 virus. Based on the most recent UFCW internal estimates, 20 meatpacking and food processing workers have died. In addition, at least 5,000 meatpacking workers and 1,500 food processing workers have been directly impacted by the virus. The estimates of those meatpacking and processing workers directly impacted includes individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19, missed work due to self-quarantine, are awaiting test results, or have been hospitalized and/or are symptomatic.

New estimates also show that 22 plants, both union and nonunion, have closed at some point in the past two months. These closures have impacted over 35,000 workers and reduced pork slaughter capacity by 25 percent and beef slaughter capacity by 10 percent.

During the conference call, the threat to America’s meatpacking workforce was highlighted in very personal terms by five workers who discussed the significant risks they and their coworkers are facing every day in some of the nation’s largest meatpacking facilities. Among the specific risks highlighted by these workers was the challenge posed by a lack of PPE, as well as increased line speeds which make social distancing all but impossible.

“America’s food processing and meatpacking workers are in extreme danger, and our nation’s food supply faces a direct threat from the coronavirus outbreak. If workers in these plants are as essential as our elected leaders say, then it’s about time that our elected leaders provide them with the essential protections they need. Make no mistake, without national safety standards to protect these workers from the coronavirus– more lives will be lost, more workers will be exposed, and our food supply will face jeopardy,” said UFCW International President Marc Perrone.

“Across this country, we are seeing the impact when the government fails to take steps to protect these essential workers. It needs to both provide testing and protective equipment and issue clear and direct safety guidelines that companies can and must enforce. This is not just about whether we will have enough beef, chicken, and pork to feed our families. It is – for these workers – a matter of life and death,” Perrone added.

You can read the USDA letter here and the letter to Vice President Pence here.