Meatpacking Workers With COVID-19 Symptoms Are Still Being Forced to Work
Throughout the pandemic, the meatpacking industry has treated its workers as disposable. And even now, as cases spike again, workers are being forced to show up even if they could be sick with COVID-19.
(Smithfield Foods)
In April, despite his fever, a meatpacking worker continued to carve neck bones out of pig carcasses at a JBS plant in Iowa.
Two weeks later, he would test positive for COVID-19. But in the meantime, he said, he kept clocking in because of a punitive attendance system widely used in meatpacking plants: the point system.
Under the policy, workers usually receive a point or points for missing a day. If they gain enough points, they’re fired.
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