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Meat plant workers. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Meat processing plants are high risk for spreading COVID-19, and many are shutting down. Animals due for processing have nowhere to go, and they are being culled.
Workers there aren't treated a great deal better.
I've interviewed one meatpacker who worked at a pork plant, years ago. He told me he was recruited with promises of good wages and benefits, but when he got there, those benefits were unattainable.
It seems like one of the Trump administration's primary responses to the pandemic is using it as an excuse to cut regulations, like environmental protections -- or in this case, the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
He described long hours doing repetitive work quickly, and everyone having debilitating repetitive stress injuries. He told me he has a bladder condition and he was not allowed to go to the bathroom, so he wet his pants. Twice. A grown man.
His supervisors then suspected he was drunk, and of course he wasn't.
His story squares with Eric Schlosser's depictions in Fast Food Nation. Meatpacking plants are dangerous, exploitative workplaces that often prey on vulnerable populations like immigrants and people of color. Schlosser shows how meatpacking plants moved to rural areas from the cities and attracted marginalized groups as labor.
Our supply chain relies on meatpacking plants and their workers, and right now working could risk peoples' lives. More than 4,400 workers have the coronavirus and 18 have died.
Yet Donald Trump now plans to order meatpacking plants to stay open and shield them from liability for workers becoming infected with COVID-19 on the job.
I care about the economy a lot -- I'm finishing a PhD and worried about job prospects. But this is essentially saying that meatpacking plants are so critical that it's okay if their workers die from a disease acquired on the job.
It seems like one of the Trump administration's primary responses to the pandemic is using it as an excuse to cut regulations, like environmental protections -- or in this case, the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
AP News reports "Citing Virus, EPA Has Stopped Enforcing Environmental Laws." CNN says "Trump Administration is Rushing to Gut Environmental Protections."
They're using the pandemic as a Trojan horse to usher in all kinds of environmental and labor deregulation.
The question is: How do we balance what the economy needs to function, the American people's need for food, farmers and ranchers' need for markets, and workers' need for jobs with everyone's -- especially the workers' -- need to slow the spread of the coronavirus to save lives?
Those are the questions a responsible government would be asking. Instead, ours is using it as a power grab to do what they've always wanted to do anyway.
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Meat processing plants are high risk for spreading COVID-19, and many are shutting down. Animals due for processing have nowhere to go, and they are being culled.
Workers there aren't treated a great deal better.
I've interviewed one meatpacker who worked at a pork plant, years ago. He told me he was recruited with promises of good wages and benefits, but when he got there, those benefits were unattainable.
It seems like one of the Trump administration's primary responses to the pandemic is using it as an excuse to cut regulations, like environmental protections -- or in this case, the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
He described long hours doing repetitive work quickly, and everyone having debilitating repetitive stress injuries. He told me he has a bladder condition and he was not allowed to go to the bathroom, so he wet his pants. Twice. A grown man.
His supervisors then suspected he was drunk, and of course he wasn't.
His story squares with Eric Schlosser's depictions in Fast Food Nation. Meatpacking plants are dangerous, exploitative workplaces that often prey on vulnerable populations like immigrants and people of color. Schlosser shows how meatpacking plants moved to rural areas from the cities and attracted marginalized groups as labor.
Our supply chain relies on meatpacking plants and their workers, and right now working could risk peoples' lives. More than 4,400 workers have the coronavirus and 18 have died.
Yet Donald Trump now plans to order meatpacking plants to stay open and shield them from liability for workers becoming infected with COVID-19 on the job.
I care about the economy a lot -- I'm finishing a PhD and worried about job prospects. But this is essentially saying that meatpacking plants are so critical that it's okay if their workers die from a disease acquired on the job.
It seems like one of the Trump administration's primary responses to the pandemic is using it as an excuse to cut regulations, like environmental protections -- or in this case, the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
AP News reports "Citing Virus, EPA Has Stopped Enforcing Environmental Laws." CNN says "Trump Administration is Rushing to Gut Environmental Protections."
They're using the pandemic as a Trojan horse to usher in all kinds of environmental and labor deregulation.
The question is: How do we balance what the economy needs to function, the American people's need for food, farmers and ranchers' need for markets, and workers' need for jobs with everyone's -- especially the workers' -- need to slow the spread of the coronavirus to save lives?
Those are the questions a responsible government would be asking. Instead, ours is using it as a power grab to do what they've always wanted to do anyway.
Meat processing plants are high risk for spreading COVID-19, and many are shutting down. Animals due for processing have nowhere to go, and they are being culled.
Workers there aren't treated a great deal better.
I've interviewed one meatpacker who worked at a pork plant, years ago. He told me he was recruited with promises of good wages and benefits, but when he got there, those benefits were unattainable.
It seems like one of the Trump administration's primary responses to the pandemic is using it as an excuse to cut regulations, like environmental protections -- or in this case, the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
He described long hours doing repetitive work quickly, and everyone having debilitating repetitive stress injuries. He told me he has a bladder condition and he was not allowed to go to the bathroom, so he wet his pants. Twice. A grown man.
His supervisors then suspected he was drunk, and of course he wasn't.
His story squares with Eric Schlosser's depictions in Fast Food Nation. Meatpacking plants are dangerous, exploitative workplaces that often prey on vulnerable populations like immigrants and people of color. Schlosser shows how meatpacking plants moved to rural areas from the cities and attracted marginalized groups as labor.
Our supply chain relies on meatpacking plants and their workers, and right now working could risk peoples' lives. More than 4,400 workers have the coronavirus and 18 have died.
Yet Donald Trump now plans to order meatpacking plants to stay open and shield them from liability for workers becoming infected with COVID-19 on the job.
I care about the economy a lot -- I'm finishing a PhD and worried about job prospects. But this is essentially saying that meatpacking plants are so critical that it's okay if their workers die from a disease acquired on the job.
It seems like one of the Trump administration's primary responses to the pandemic is using it as an excuse to cut regulations, like environmental protections -- or in this case, the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
AP News reports "Citing Virus, EPA Has Stopped Enforcing Environmental Laws." CNN says "Trump Administration is Rushing to Gut Environmental Protections."
They're using the pandemic as a Trojan horse to usher in all kinds of environmental and labor deregulation.
The question is: How do we balance what the economy needs to function, the American people's need for food, farmers and ranchers' need for markets, and workers' need for jobs with everyone's -- especially the workers' -- need to slow the spread of the coronavirus to save lives?
Those are the questions a responsible government would be asking. Instead, ours is using it as a power grab to do what they've always wanted to do anyway.