Coronavirus has pulled back the curtain on many of the worst contradictions in our food system. Since March, headlines have been non-stop about food waste, inefficient supply chains, and empty grocery shelves. Food workers face daily exposure to COVID-19 and are risking their lives for their jobs. The epicenter of both these food system woes and skyrocketing infection rates is our highly consolidated meat industry, particularly the Tyson, JBS, Smithfield and Cargill monopolies in beef, pork and poultry. Meatpacking workers are getting sick by the thousands.  It is time for the regulators tasked with protecting their health to issue clear, mandatory guidance for workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The meat and poultry industry has experienced massive consolidation in the last 40 years, while relocating production facilities in rural areas out of the public eye. These processing facilities are massive, employing thousands of people on a daily basis and processing millions of animal per year. Working conditions are abysmal and safety enforcement is lax, according to Human Rights Watch, with chronic illness and serious injury the norm among workers. Processing lines run at breakneck speeds to turn dead carcasses into consumer-friendly portions, resulting in repetitive motion injuries for many workers. Restrictive personnel policies don’t allow adequate bathroom breaks, and cavalier approaches to CDC and OSHA guidelines do little to protect worker health and safety. Nearly two-thirds of meat and poultry plant workers are immigrants and people of color, with many refugees and formerly incarcerated individuals as well. After decades of corporate consolidation and relocation to rural areas, meat industry wages have plummeted, with current wages averaging $14 per hour, a drop of 50% since the 1970’s. Workers rarely have paid sick leave and benefits are minimal, and many of them can only afford to live in substandard housing with many roommates and family members. Upton Sinclair, who wrote “The Jungle” over one hundred years ago would recognize this new normal in the meat industry: find the most vulnerable people in society, give them the most dangerous jobs at the lowest pay, and rake in the profits off of their misery. Meatpacking was already a dangerous job. Then Coronavirus hit.

The pandemic has had a horrifying and tragic impact on meat plant workers. According to data collected by FERN, over 204 meatpacking and processed food plants have confirmed cases of COVID-19, as of May 12th. Over 14,600 workers have become ill, and close to 60 have died. The rural communities that host meatpacking plants are now nationally significant coronavirus hotspots, outpacing densely-packed cities for infection rates.

Against this backdrop, the chairman of Tyson Foods, John Tyson, took out a full page ad in the New York Times in late April to warn the public that “the food supply is breaking.” Tyson warned of food shortages in grocery stores and huge food waste on farms, with millions of animals being euthanized and composted. Tyson Foods is no stranger to the halls of power and their self-serving attempt at a public service announcement found the right audience. Within 24 hours, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order invoking the Defense Production Act to compel meat plants to remain open, while avoiding liability for the deaths and illnesses to come, as long as they follow weakly enforced guidelines from CDC and OSHA. Since this announcement, confirmed COVID-19 cases jumped 40% in counties with beef and pork packing plants, compared to a 19% rise nationally during that time period.

The uproar that followed Trump’s Order has brought the plight of meat plant workers into the light of day. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka blasted the decision, pointing out that, while the President has been slow to act to ensure the production of life-saving protective equipment, he has stepped up quickly, “favoring executives over working people, and the stock market over human lives. He is forcing workers to choose between a paycheck and their health.”

Stuart Applebaum, head of RWDSU (Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union), which represents thousands of meat plant workers in the Southeast, summed up the situation, saying “It’s the wrong decision because the best way to protect the food chain is to protect the safety of the workers.”

Organizers from Venceremos, an Arkansas-based group organizing poultry workers, have launched an online campaign to support the 30,000 Tyson workers in Arkansas. They are demanding that Tyson provide paid sick leave for workers who need to be quarantined, as well as hazard pay for working on the processing line during a pandemic. Rural Community Workers Alliance (RWCA) has filed a lawsuit against Smithfield in order to force the company to protect worker health and safety. And LULAC, a Latino civil rights group, called for a Meatless May, a boycott of chicken, beef and pork, calling on communities to stand with meat plant workers for safer conditions.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the union for over one hundred thousand meatpacking workers nationwide, has issued five demands for meat conglomerates to protect their employees from sickness: prioritize testing for essential workers, ensure access to personal protective equipment (PPE), reduce line speeds, mandate social distancing in plants, and allow infected workers to quarantine at home with pay.

The HEAL Food Alliance (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) and Food Chain Workers Alliance have penned an open letter to the Department of Labor and Congress. This letter echoes the themes raised by the frontline food workers who make up much of their membership and calls for urgent, mandatory regulatory action to protect them.  Specifically, they call for:

1. OSHA to issue and enforce an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect food workers and all essential workers from COVID-19.
2. Congress to immediately pass legislation to:
   • Compel OSHA to issue an enforceable Emergency Temporary Standard—as is laid out inR. 6559—and provide OSHA with commensurate funds to implement this mandate.
   • Mandate employers to provide premium pay at a minimum of time and half to all workers given the increasingly hazardous, deadly conditions.

As the organizers from HEAL note, “food workers are not disposable.” It is clear that the meat industry is not going to police themselves, and voluntary standards leave workers vulnerable. Take action now to support frontline workers’ calls for clear rules to protect them in the workplace—and keep more communities from getting sick.

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Photo Credits: United States government work
Senator Chris Coons – Tour of Mountaire Poultry Processing Plant – March 2011
National Chicken Council – Poultry workers cut and trim chickens before they are packaged. US Government Accountability Office / Flickr (CC0)

The post Health & Safety First: Protect Food Workers from COVID-19 appeared first on Fair World Project.

This year, we see a new growth of worker organizing. On May 1st, “an unprecedented coalition of workers from some of America’s largest companies will strike.” Workers from Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, and FedEx are slated to walk out. Organizers cite these companies’ focus on profits at the expense of workers’ health and safety as the reason for the massive collective action. This moment is historic—most of these workers do not have formal union representation, and many of these companies have successfully squelched union organizing before. But, following a series of successful walkouts over the past few months, workers are building power.  Against the backdrop of this historic movement, long-time food industry analyst Errol Schweizer reflects on Amazon and offers a call to action.

Welcome to the new Gilded Age. In the last couple of months, tech billionaires with names like Gates and Musk have seen their net worth increase by over $305 Billion, while over 26 million people in the U.S. have lost their jobs. At the top of the silicon heap is Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon, who’s seen his 11% stake balloon by over $25 billion between mid-March and mid-April, while Amazon’s stock value rose by over $140 billion to $1.4 trillion dollars. How is this even possible?

Well, Jeff Bezos, makes his money the old fashioned way, by exploiting his workers, avoiding taxes, bullying his suppliers and creating monopoly conditions to dominate his competitors. For many online shoppers, Amazon is irresistible due to their “consumer welfare” policy: serving their customers faster and cheaper than anyone else. But that pace and price has resulted in working conditions that are not far removed from what 19^th Century Gilded Age exploitation looked like.

Amazon warehouse staff are expected to pick and load hundreds of packages per shift, running back and forth in facilities larger than several football fields. As they dodge forklifts, automated pallet jacks, robots, and each other, they are electronically monitored for how fast and accurately they pick and pack your orders. Breaks are minimal and barely give workers time to walk the massive warehouses for a bathroom break or to stay hydrated. These conditions are exhausting and backbreaking on any normal day. When you compound this with thousands of workers on the floor per shift, lacking essential benefits like paid sick leave and childcare, it is no wonder that Amazon facilities have become hotbeds of COVID-19 infections. Amazon workers in dozens of their facilities have gotten sick and at least one has died from coronavirus related symptoms.

Amazon has had outbreaks in many U.S. facilities, including in warehouses serving New York City, Chicago, Minnesota, and Michigan. They have been slow to respond for calls to deep clean affected facilities and have been vague and circumspect when informing warehouse staff when co-workers have been infected. With viral residue able to survive on packages for over 24 hours, plus working conditions that prevent social distancing, and warehouses not always having adequate stock of gloves, masks and hand sanitizer, many Amazon workers across the country have taken matters into their own hands. Many Amazon workers are recent immigrants and Black and Latino people—the same demographics who are disproportionately represented in Coronavirus death counts. That is not a coincidence. Instead, it is a call to action. Instead of watching the death toll climb among frontline workers, and the communities of color that they disproportionately come from, Amazon needs to put the safety and wellbeing of their workforce first. It’s not like they don’t have enough money to do it.

In New York and Minnesota, Amazon workers have organized protests and walk-outs to call attention to these conditions. They have demanded paid sick leave and a shutdown of facilities with infections, as well as enforcement of social distancing rules.  Some of their leaders have been fired for speaking out and organizing, with one of them, Chris Smalls, even being slandered as “not smart or articulate” by company executives. It’s a tactic that goes way back in history—instead of listening to workers’ demands, Amazon management focused on building a smear campaign to discredit the messenger. Another fired protest leader, a Somali immigrant named Bashir Mohamed, had publicly criticized Amazon’s safety protocols and had gathered petitions from his co-workers. Amazon’s willingness to identify and punish outspoken employees speaks volumes about its true business philosophy and practices

These grassroots actions have gotten the attention of New York State’s Attorney General, Letitia James, whose office is investigating Amazon because the company’s “health and safety measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are so inadequate that they may violate several provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.” Her office also stated that the firings “raise serious concern that Amazon may have discharged [Smalls] in order to silence his complaints and send a threatening message to other employees that they should also keep quiet about any health and safety concerns.” The letter also called on Amazon to temporarily close such warehouses for “adequate sanitization and disinfection,” citing guidance and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Amazon has used this pandemic to profit off of the many of us who are required to stay at home and minimize our shopping trips. It is time that Amazon does better, instead of driving workers into the ground. A coalition of community groups called Athena, that grew out of the Queens, NYC Amazon HQ2 struggle, has articulated a list of demands, including:

• Close Amazon facilities at the first question of contamination to protect public health.
• Make plans public in advance so everyone – workers, neighbors, sellers, customers, public officials – can know what to expect.
• Provide fully paid leave for all people whose work is disrupted by closures and for people who miss work because of school closures for their children, exposed sick or hospitalized family members.
• Cover costs of testing and health care for all workers who have possibly been exposed.
• Ensure everyone working directly or indirectly for Amazon has unlimited “time off task” to take care of their bodies (including hydrate sufficiently, and go to the bathroom) and to wash their hands, as often as needed.
• Extend these benefits to ALL people who work— directly and indirectly— for every Amazon property, subsidiary, contractor and subcontractor, including Whole Foods, delivery service partners, Ring, campus food services and facility cleaners.
• End contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Palantir immediately. These ties make workers and family members fear getting testing and care because of immigration status.

And on May 1^st, act in solidarity with Amazon employees who will be walking off their jobs to protest their employers’ failure to provide basic protections. Christian Smalls, who was fired from the Amazon NY facility, is among the courageous organizers of this action, believes “we all have one common goal which is to save the lives of workers and communities. Right now isn’t the time to open up the economy. Amazon is a breeding ground [for this virus].” Don’t order from Amazon on May 1—or its Whole Foods subsidiary.

Even as thousands of small businesses are shutting down or going bankrupt due to the quarantine, Amazon is hiring hundreds of thousands more workers, and is poised to take over vast new swathes of an economy devastated by the pandemic. You can bet that once the economy is “open” again, Jeff Bezos’ relentless opportunism will push Amazon to new extremes of online retail domination. Whether or not you’re a customer or a critic, now is the time to push Amazon to do right by its workers, contractors and their communities.

Take Action: Tell States’ Attorneys General to Investigate Conditions in Amazon Warehouses

Photo Credit:“Amazon Warehouse” by Scott Lewis is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

The post May Day 2020 Call to Action appeared first on Fair World Project.