Trump officials have “cooperated” with the meat packaging industry to downplay Covid’s threat to plant workers and block public health measures that could save lives, a horrific new investigation has found.
Internal documents reviewed by an elected congressional subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis reveal how industry lobbied government officials to stifle “annoying” health departments by imposing evidence-based safety measures to curb the spread of the virus – and tried to cover up the deaths of workers from these authorities.
At least 59,000 workers at five of the largest meat packaging companies – Tyson Foods, JBS USA Holdings, Smithfield Foods, Cargill and the National Beef Packing Company, which are under investigation by Congress – became infected with Covid in the first year of the pandemic, of which at least 269 died.
According to internal communications, the companies were warned that their workers and families became ill within weeks after the virus struck the United States. However, company officials have attracted industry-friendly Trump appointees to the USDA to fight Covid’s regulations and oversight.
Tyson Foods employee adds second Covid protection bandana outside the company’s meat processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, April 22, 2020. Photo: USA Today Sports / Reuters
In addition, the company’s executives deliberately fueled fears of a shortage of meat to justify continuing to operate the plants in hazardous conditions.
Concerns were unfounded – there was no shortage of meat in the United States, while exports to China reached record levels.
However, in April 2020, Trump issued an executive order invoking the Defense Proceedings Act to keep meat businesses open after a wave of communication between White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, vice president’s office, USDA allies and company executives.
The order, proposed by Smithfield and Tyson (whose legal department also wrote the draft), found an attempt to abolish health departments and force meat workers – mostly immigrants, refugees and people of color – to continue working without adequate resources. protection while protecting the industry from litigation.
James Clayburn, chairman of the subcommittee, condemned the behavior of industry leaders and their government allies as “shameful.”
“Trump’s politicians in the USDA have worked with major meat packaging companies to lead efforts across the administration to force workers to stay in work during the coronavirus crisis despite dangerous conditions and even prevent measures from being imposed. mitigation of common sense. This coordinated campaign gave priority to industrial production over the health of workers and communities, and contributed to tens of thousands of workers getting sick, hundreds of workers dying and the virus spreading to the surrounding areas.
Workers at the JBS meat plant in Hyrum, Utah, protest on June 9, 2020. Photo: Eli Lucero / AP
The meat packaging industry, which includes slaughterhouses and processing plants, is one of the most profitable and dangerous in the United States. It’s a monopoly business, with only a handful of powerful multinationals dominating the supply chain, which even before Covid was bad news for farmers, workers, consumers and animal welfare.
With the proliferation of Covid, the industry was warned of the high risk of transmission in their plants. For example, a doctor near the JBS facility in Cactus, Texas, wrote to a company executive in April 2020, saying, “100% of all Covid-19 patients we have in the hospital are either direct employees or family members.[s] to your employees ”, warning that“ your employees will get sick and may die if this factory continues to operate ”.
In late May 2020 – long after the importance of preventive measures such as testing, social distancing and personal protective equipment was widely recognized – a CEO told an industry lobbyist that temperature screening was “all we need to do”. The lobbyist agreed, responding: “Now let’s get rid of these annoying health departments!”
The report “Now Let’s Get Rid of These Annoyingly Healthy Departments!” Reveals how USDA-appointed Trump has seized the industry’s bidding to continue as usual. The report is based on more than 151,000 pages of documents collected from meat packaging companies and interest groups, as well as interviews with meat workers, former USDA and CDC employees, and state and local health authorities, among others.
The documents show that:
-
In March 2020, the industry aggressively lobbied USDA officials, who in turn escalated their wishes to Vice President Mike Pence’s office to ensure that the United States was advised to designate meat packaging workers as “critical infrastructure” employees. they can be exempted from social distancing and remain in home orders. This behavior was “particularly impressive, given that the nation’s meat supplies were not actually threatened,” the subcommittee said.
-
Mindy Brashers, deputy secretary of food safety, was considered the best fixer that could stop health departments from imposing Covid safety measures in local factories. Brashears “has not lost a battle for us,” said one lobbyist.
-
Career USDA officials told the congressional subcommittee how they were removed while Brushers and her deputies spoke to industry officials on their personal phones to avoid a trace of paper.
-
Meat packaging companies have also successfully lobbied USDA employees to advocate for Department of Labor policies that deprive employees of benefits if they miss or leave, while seeking isolation from legal liability if workers subsequently become ill or die. .
A billboard stands opposite the JBS meat-packing plant near Greeley, Colorado, on October 12, 2020. Photo: David Zalubowski / AP
As reports of Covid clusters at meat plants increased, industry and the USDA worked together to lobby the White House to dissuade frightened workers from staying home or leaving. For example, in April 2020, the CEOs of JBS, Smithfield and Tyson, among others, asked the Minister of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, during a conversation to “increase the need for communication on the importance of our workforce to stay until POTUS or VP level ”.
Work. At a press briefing shortly afterwards, Mike Pence told the butchers that “we need you to keep … showing up and doing your job”, warning of recent “absences”.
The report concludes: “Meat packaging companies were aware of the risk that the coronavirus posed to their workers, and they knew that this was not a risk that the country had to take. However, they lobbied aggressively – successfully recruiting the USDA as a close associate in their efforts – to keep workers in hazardous conditions to ensure that state and local health authorities are powerless to impose otherwise and to be protected from legal liability for damages. which would lead. “
The Trade Association for Packaging and Meat and Poultry Processors rejected the report’s findings and accused the subcommittee of “cherry picking data”.
“The report ignores the rigorous and comprehensive measures taken by companies to protect employees and support their workers from critical infrastructure,” said Julie Anna Potts, president and CEO of the North American Meat Institute.
In addition, a JBS spokesman said the company “did everything possible to ensure the safety of our people who maintained our critical food supply chain”. In a statement, Cargill said: “We have worked hard to maintain safe and consistent operations to feed families during the pandemic, but we have not hesitated to temporarily stop working or reduce the capacity of processing plants for the benefit of our employees.
A Smithfield spokesman said: “The concerns we expressed were very real and we are grateful that the food crisis has been averted and that we are starting to return to normal … Have we made every effort to share with government officials our views on the pandemic and how affect the food production system? Absolutely. ”
Tyson said working with the government is critical to the supply chain and worker safety. The Trump and Biden administrations – as we navigate the challenges of the pandemic.
The subcommittee’s investigation into the pandemic meat industry’s response began in February 2021 after reports that meat companies had refused to take adequate safety measures to protect workers in the first year of the pandemic. Last year, the subcommittee found that the number of illnesses and deaths in factories owned by the five major meat producers was greatly underestimated and that companies put profits ahead of workers’ safety.
The Guardian contacted the USDA and former Trump administration officials for comment.
Add Comment