For meat plant workers, the coronavirus complicates a dangerous job. - Business Insider

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Meat processing plants have been ordered to stay open during the pandemic. For workers, the coronavirus complicates an already dangerous job.

New protective barriers between Tyson Foods workers at the company's Springdale, Arkansas plant on April 24, 2020.Workers at meat industry giants, including Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods, have tested positive for the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 28 demanding that meat processing plants stay open amid the pandemic to protect the nation's food supply chain.Kulule Amosa told the Associated Press that her husband earns $17.70 an hour at a South Dakota pork plant doing a job so physically demanding it can only be performed in 30-minute increments. After each shift in the second week of April, he left exhausted as usual — but he didn't want to go home.

New protective barriers between Tyson Foods workers at the company's Springdale, Arkansas plant on April 24, 2020.As many as half a dozen plants shut in mid-April because of outbreaks. Smithfield CEO Kenneth Sullivan said the closure of the plant, which produces roughly 5% of the U.S.

But amid the coronavirus pandemic, the couple found themselves — like many workers whose jobs cannot be done remotely — exposed on two fronts: Both their health and their livelihoods were at risk. The couple agreed to speak to The Associated Press on the condition that Amosa's husband not be named because he feared losing his job.

Union leaders and immigrant advocates cheered the decision to close the plant indefinitely but wish more had been done sooner.

 

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Sounds like a huge liability issue to me— lawsuits coming!

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