Smithfield Foods Inc is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to ...
CHICAGO/WASHINGTON: Smithfield Foods Inc is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers' union.
Daily pork production was down by as much as 45per cent in late April as some 20 plants closed because of outbreaks. Production has rebounded since plants reopened last month in response to Trump's order, but remains down from before the pandemic. The UFCW union, which represents about 80per cent of U.S. pork and beef production, told Reuters that major pork plants are running at about 75per cent capacity.
The world's biggest meat companies have spent tens of millions of dollars to protect workers by erecting physical barriers, taking workers' temperatures, providing protective gear and staggering break times. They have not been able to eliminate infections, however. In Kansas, 2,896 meat workers have tested positive, accounting for nearly one third of all cases in the state, according to the state health department.At the Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, about 1,200 employees - about a third of the workforce - were absent as of June 1, including some who quit, said BJ Motley, president of the UFCW local. The plant closed from about April 15 to May 7 as more than 850 workers tested positive for the virus.
Sandra Sibert - a 47-year old who works on the plant's ham bone table and caught the virus - said it is not easy to stay six feet apart in the locker room and cafeteria. Sibert said she grew worried after the plant reopened when a female employee with an infected husband was allowed to work while awaiting her test results.Tyson's Columbus Junction, Iowa plant closed on April 6, when surrounding Louisa County had just six known cases and no deaths.
The company said that 591 workers, or 26per cent of its workforce, had tested positive. Surrounding Buena Vista county, where many workers live, has one of the nation's highest infection rates, with 1,257 cases, a fivefold increase over the past two weeks.
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