Nineteen cases of COVID-19 have been validated at the JBS pork plant in Worthington, the union representing employees there said Friday, dealing another blow to hog farmers and the meat supply chain and highlighting an extensive connection in between meatpacking plants and coronavirus hotspots.
The JBS plant– which uses around 2,000 employees and produces more than 4%of the nation’s pork supply– had actually been a success story compared to other meatpacking plants, with absolutely no validated cases through early this week.
But the close quarters and big events required at meat factories appear to have repeatedly foiled efforts at sanitization and social distancing.
Officials with the UFCW Resident 663, the union that represents 1,850 employees at the plant, required the company slow its production line to allow staff members to work farther apart.
” Workers are scared and frustrated,” stated Lisa Thoma, a union steward at the plant. “JBS needs to slow assembly line now for the safety of all us workers.”
UFCW Resident 663 President Matt Utecht has applauded JBS’ handling of the pandemic in Worthington, stating Monday that “gloves, surgical masks, face guards, topcoats– these things came out quicker than in some other centers.”
But Utecht said in a statement Friday that failure by the plant to offer employees more space “will put our community and our nation’s food supply at devastating threat. … It defies logic to keep the people who make the food we all consume standing shoulder to shoulder while they work.”
A JBS spokesman declined Friday to comment specifically on the Worthington plant, but stated “JBS U.S.A. has had employee test favorable for COVID-19 in some of our U.S. centers” and is “providing support to those team members and their families.”
” We hope they all make a complete and rapid healing. Out of regard for the families, we are not releasing more info,” the representative stated.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Friday there were 30 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Worthington amongst the 2,071 statewide, and a few of the JBS employees have relatives who operate at the Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls, which is closed indefinitely. More than 700 workers at the Sioux Falls Smithfield plant have evaluated positive for COVID-19
The number of meatpacking plants closing or reporting cases of COVID-19 across the U.S. is climbing up every day.
The Smithfield plant is the most striking example, however four employees at a JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colo., have actually now died which plant is closed through at least April27 A worker at a Cargill beef plant in Fort Morgan, Colo., also has actually passed away, and the business has actually scaled back operations there.
In Iowa, a beef plant in Tama has been closed as has a pork plant in Columbus Junction, where a minimum of 148 workers were infected and two died. Numerous employees at a Tyson plant in Waterloo have actually refused to work in recent days, grumbling they are not being safeguarded from the spread of the virus, the Waterloo Carrier reported.
More than 70%of the nation’s pork is butchered at the top 20 pork processing plants in the nation, and the majority of those are within 250 miles of Des Moines, including the plants in Worthington and Sioux Falls.
News of infections among plant workers in Worthington was another blow to hog farmers, who are reeling in the pandemic.
Some producers say at current rates they are losing $50 per pig, and decreased slaughterhouse capability is threatening to trigger backlogs of market-ready hogs at the farm.
” We do not offer pigs to that specific plant, however for us [closing] it would be a huge deal, due to the fact that as quickly as you take some capacity out that just puts that many more pigs in a restricted location,” said Greg Boerboom, a major hog farmer near Marshall.
Boerboom normally offers pigs to the Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls, which is closed for at least 2 weeks.
He’s had the ability to find other meatpacking plants for his hogs so far, he stated, even if the procedure has been deeply unprofitable.
” We’re losing more cash than we’ve ever lost in our profession,” Boerboom said.
On a call Tuesday, Howard A.V. Roth, a Wisconsin hog farmer and president of the National Pork Producers Council, stated great deals of pigs will need to be euthanized if hog farmers don’t get immediate government support in the form of billions in pork purchases and more access to emergency situation loans.
” If we do not get federal government support right away, if individuals are euthanizing, that’s going to soar drastically,” Roth said.
Twitter: @adambelz
