The
outbreak has hit over 10% of the workforce at the
Smithfield-owned Farmer John plant, said John Grant, president
of the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers
union.
"It's dangerous and the problem with this is that it's
invisible, insidious and deadly," Grant said. "And so what you
do is when a shark is in the water, you pull everyone out of the
water and you make an assessment of what is going on. That's
what has to happen right now, a sharp honest assessment of what
is going on."
The animal rights group PETA joined the protest, bringing its
"Pandemic Pig" in a convertible for a drive-by protest.
Smithfield, owned by China's WH Group Ltd, said in a statement
it has "implemented aggressive measures" to protect workers'
health and safety, including temperature scanning, free
voluntary COVID-19 tests, more personal protective equipment and
plexiglass barriers on the production floor.
Meatpacking plants have proved devastatingly effective vectors
of the coronavirus across the United States. About 30 plants
temporarily closed in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and several
other Midwestern states last month, according to the UFCW.
Pork and beef slaughter capacity have dropped by 30% to 40%,
according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To avoid a
further decline in a major food supply, President Donald Trump
at the end of April ordered meat plants stay open during the
pandemic.
Los Angeles County Commissioner Hilda Solis said in a statement
the county has asked the Smithfield plant to provide a report by
next week detailing its COVID-19 mitigation plans and what it is
doing to provide support for the plant’s "workers, their
families, and the surrounding Southeast Los Angeles
communities."
Smithfield is the world’s biggest pork processor.
(Reporting by Rollo Ross; writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by
Leslie Adler)
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