|
 Now, that role no longer exists, the company confirmed.
The plant gradually moved employees who worked as safety monitors to
other positions, said BJ Motley, president of the United Food and
Commercial Workers (UFCW) union branch that represents Smithfield
workers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Smithfield, which is owned by Hong Kong-listed WH Group Ltd, said it
shifted the monitors' duties to other personnel starting in the
second quarter of this year because COVID-19 safety protocols became
"second nature" and vaccines were available. As for cleaning, the
company said facilities are "routinely sanitized for food safety
reasons."
Across the country, U.S. meat and chicken plants that reported some
of the country's largest coronavirus outbreaks last year have eased
or adjusted protective measures implemented near the start of the
pandemic, according to interviews with 10 plant employees, union
officials and advocates for workers.
Safety concerns in slaughterhouses, where employees are often in
close quarters, have made it harder for meat processors to hire and
retain workers at a time when labor is already scarce and demand is
booming.
Meat companies including Smithfield, Tyson Foods Inc and JBS USA say
employee health is a top priority and that they require masks in
plants, even though many states have relaxed COVID-19 mask and
social distancing rules.
Workers and advocates say the companies could do more as the
contagious Omicron variant rages and soaring meat prices boost
profits.
"We don't have anybody monitoring social distancing. We don't have
anybody wiping tables down. It's really back to normal," Motley
said.
About 59,000 meatpacking workers were infected with COVID-19 through
January at U.S. plants run by Smithfield, Tyson, JBS, Cargill Inc
and National Beef Packing Company, a U.S. House of Representatives
subcommittee report said in October in the most comprehensive data
to date.
Smithfield said it invested more than $800 million to protect
employees from COVID-19 and follows federal health and safety
guidelines.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited
Smithfield in 2020 for failing to protect Sioux Falls workers from
COVID-19 and said last month the company agreed to assess its
operating procedures as part of a settlement. Smithfield said the
citation was without merit last year.
Along with masks, Smithfield uses barriers between work stations and
social distancing "when feasible" to keep employees safe, spokesman
Jim Monroe said.
"We have in no way rolled back COVID-19 safety protocols," he said.
"We are confident that our protective measures are effective in
mitigating COVID-19 illness among our employees."
A Smithfield plant in Vernon, California, operating under the name
Farmer John, stopped having employees work as social distance
monitors roughly three months ago, said Darryl Blackwell, a UFCW
steward who slices fat from pork in the plant. He would like to see
them return.
"It's pretty much do whatever you want as far as the social
distancing," he said. "With this new variant, you just can't be too
cautious."
Smithfield confirmed it shifted monitors' duties to other workers.
The company did not provide data about vaccination rates. It said
Smithfield hosted about 200 on-site vaccine drives that include
boosters and that shots are widely available.
"Our vaccination and case rates are excellent," Monroe said.
Motley estimated the South Dakota plant is about 60% vaccinated,
compared with a rate of about 65% nationwide. He and Blackwell said
boosters had not been offered at their facilities.
[to top of second column] |
 'STILL ELBOW-TO-ELBOW'
Rival meat processor JBS USA, owned by Brazil's
JBS SA, started staggering employees' break
times at slaughterhouses last year as a way to
promote physical distancing. In July 2021, the
company stopped the practice at a massive beef
plant in Greeley, Colorado, the UFCW Local 7
union branch that represents plant workers said.
"Unless they do reconstruction of the plant or
they slow down the line speeds, they're still
elbow-to-elbow in the plant," said Kim Cordova,
president of UFCW Local 7.
Company spokeswoman Nikki Richardson said JBS
kept the vast majority of COVID-19 protocols in
place and adjusts procedures as it evaluates
cases among employees and in the community.
The Greeley plant has reported more than 400 cases of COVID-19 among
workers, including 19 since Oct. 25, 2021, state data shows.
JBS said the Greeley plant has an 80% vaccination rate and 35% have
received boosters, while 86% of all its workers are vaccinated. New
hires must be vaccinated.
Tyson Foods, the only major meatpacker that requires vaccinations
for all workers, has said its rate exceeds 96% and plants have
started offering boosters.
A worker at a Tyson chicken plant in Rogers, Arkansas, said
management told him the plant stopped having employees monitor
social distancing. The monitors' duties were shifted
to plant leadership and maintenance staff, Tyson spokesman Derek
Burleson said. Facilities also have signs encouraging social
distancing, he said.
Another chicken processor, Wayne Farms, has a vaccination rate of
only 31% at a plant in Decatur, Alabama, and 42% companywide,
spokesman Frank Singleton said. The Decatur plant has not reported
positive COVID-19 cases since Nov. 22, he said on Friday.
Wayne Farms formerly paid Mona Darby, who has worked at the Decatur
plant for 34 years, to come to work 20 to 30 minutes early to
enforce proper mask-wearing as other employees arrived, she said.
Darby estimated that half of the workers wore their masks correctly
over their noses and mouths. The company halted that
role and stopped staggering breaks for employees over the summer,
said Darby, also a local leader for the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union.
Singleton said Darby's assistance was not needed because almost all
workers comply with a requirement to wear masks.
 The Decatur plant operates two production lines, down from five
lines prior to the pandemic, because employees have quit, Darby
said.
The company confirmed it operates two lines and has been impacted by
a labor shortage, but said it still processes the same number of
chickens daily.
"They just can't get nobody to stay," Darby said.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer
and Matthew Lewis)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
