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发帖数: 1 | 3 Confirmed coronavirus cases surge in reopened JBS Colorado beef plant;
worker dies: union
CHICAGO (Reuters) - COVID-19 cases at a JBS meatpacking plant in Colorado
have more than doubled “in a number of days” and a sixth employee died of
the virus, a union official said on Thursday, underscoring the risks of U.S.
meat plants reopening.
The beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, started operating last Friday after it
was closed for about two weeks following an outbreak among workers.
“The uptick in cases in a matter of days shows how serious this crisis is
and the dangers that workers are facing every day just trying to do their
jobs,” Kim Cordova, leader of the local United Food and Commercial Workers
International Union chapter, said in a news release.
Confirmed cases among workers at the plant rose from 120 on Sunday to 245 on
Wednesday evening, a union spokeswoman told Reuters, citing numbers from
the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
JBS USA said in a statement that it was saddened by the death of its
employee and that the person had not been to work since March 25.
The company reopened the plant after multiple site visits and approval from
health officials including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, according to the statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday invoked the Defense Production Act to
mandate meat plants continue to function during the pandemic after
companies warned of looming shortages. The order is designed in part to give
them legal cover with more liability protection in case employees catch the
virus as a result of having to go to work.
Cordova reiterated workers’ demands for protective equipment and testing,
as well as stronger whistleblower laws and better health care.
“Our members share a common goal with JBS, federal, state and local
authorities: to ensure that the plant continues to function to protect the
food supply chain and to protect jobs, but it must be done in a way that
protects the workers so no one else has to die,” she said.
Some 20 plants in North America have closed in recent weeks. U.S.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said they would open in “days not weeks,
” in an interview on Fox News on Thursday. He said the department, which is
overseeing Trump’s order, is working to ensure workers’ safety.
Brazilian-owned JBS SA (JBSS3.SA) said on Wednesday it was reopening a
Minnesota pork plant shuttered by the pandemic to euthanize up to 13,000
pigs rather than produce pork. |
