Nebraska Meat Packers Threatened By COVID

Natalie Saenz Author

08/25/2021 Added

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Nebraska Broadcasters Association Pinnacle Awards Best Student Radio News Feature: “Nebraska Meat Packers Threatened By COVID,” Natalie Saenz, May 2021 graduate, broadcasting and journalism, from Scottsbluff, NE

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[00:00:03.859]I felt powerless because I voice my concerns
[00:00:06.540]and I see nothing being done to fix the problem.
[00:00:09.649]Call him David.
[00:00:10.700]That's not his real name.
[00:00:12.120]But the meat-packing worker asked to remain anonymous
[00:00:15.090]for fear of retaliation.
[00:00:17.270]He and his wife left their jobs
[00:00:18.990]at Grand Island's JBS processing plant last March
[00:00:23.320]when hundreds of COVID cases were tied to the plant.
[00:00:28.670]Their actions tell us they only care about having workers
[00:00:31.850]to produce meat.
[00:00:32.913]A person there has no value.
[00:00:35.230]With his family savings exhausted,
[00:00:37.810]David returned to JBS in December.
[00:00:40.180]The plant had taken some COVID prevention measures
[00:00:43.340]but not safe distancing for workers on the processing line.
[00:00:49.217]In the line, there are no plastic dividers.
[00:00:51.740]People are working shoulder to shoulder.
[00:00:54.120]If you make one wrong move,
[00:00:55.810]you can cut the person right next to you with a knife.
[00:00:58.680]We reached out to JBS several times for comment
[00:01:01.910]but haven't received a reply.
[00:01:03.680]JBS isn't the only Nebraska plant
[00:01:06.410]where workers have raised COVID safety concerns.
[00:01:09.900]And we sued this plant in particular
[00:01:11.760]because what we heard from workers
[00:01:13.280]was some of the worst conditions
[00:01:15.860]we've heard from across the state.
[00:01:17.460]That's Rose Godinez
[00:01:18.720]with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska.
[00:01:21.890]They're suing Noah's Ark Processors in Hastings
[00:01:25.720]based on claims that Noah's Ark doesn't provide masks,
[00:01:29.300]COVID testing,
[00:01:30.430]paid sick leave,
[00:01:31.660]and social distancing.
[00:01:33.530]So it really left workers
[00:01:35.090]with no other recourse but to sue.
[00:01:37.130]Noah's Ark Processors declined to comment
[00:01:39.410]on the situation.
[00:01:40.800]But several plants have taken action by giving masks,
[00:01:44.450]checking temperatures,
[00:01:45.570]and providing additional sanitation procedures.
[00:01:48.330]Most of the plants did take the recommendation.
[00:01:51.960]That is Derry Stover, the state's health department
[00:01:54.430]Epidemiology Surveillance Coordinator.
[00:01:57.040]He says Nebraska's general population
[00:01:59.320]has had nine COVID cases per every 100 people so far.
[00:02:04.600]Meanwhile, at the state's meat plant,
[00:02:07.090]there have been 24 COVID cases for every 100 workers.
[00:02:13.100]Crowded workplaces, or exposure to the public,
[00:02:16.170]put people at a higher risk.
[00:02:17.750]Stover says more than 2,600 of these workers
[00:02:20.990]have been infected with COVID in Nebraska.
[00:02:23.950]26 have died.
[00:02:26.220]Those numbers could be higher.
[00:02:29.590]Ever since the governor told meat-packing plants
[00:02:32.400]they don't have to report COVID cases,
[00:02:35.160]we have no idea who has COVID anymore.
[00:02:38.210]On May 6, a week after President Donald Trump
[00:02:41.300]ordered meat-processing plants to stay open,
[00:02:44.210]Nebraska's governor Pete Ricketts said
[00:02:46.450]processing plants would no longer disclose COVID cases.
[00:02:50.800]We at the state, we've got a policy.
[00:02:52.250]We're not disclosing that on a company-by-company basis.
[00:02:54.880]In January,
[00:02:55.740]Ricketts announced that they would start vaccinating
[00:02:58.100]meat-packing workers with one exception.
[00:03:00.520]If you're working in a plant,
[00:03:01.382]you're supposed to be here legally.
[00:03:02.995]So to get the vaccination,
[00:03:04.820]you gotta be working here legally
[00:03:06.720]to be able to be as part of the food-processing program.
[00:03:09.740]But there's a major issue.
[00:03:11.200]According to the Immigrant Legal Center,
[00:03:13.030]two-thirds of Nebraska's meat-processing workers
[00:03:16.210]are immigrants,
[00:03:17.530]and the estimates suggest at least 14% of those workers
[00:03:21.880]are undocumented.
[00:03:23.269]And because they don't understand,
[00:03:24.173]because there's such a language barrier,
[00:03:26.520]they get abused a lot more than anybody else does.
[00:03:28.600]That's the president
[00:03:29.433]of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local Union 293,
[00:03:33.730]Eric Reeder.
[00:03:34.980]Getting those workers to understand
[00:03:37.346]that we're there to help them,
[00:03:38.610]it's really hard.
[00:03:39.443]The fact that no one has reached out to do that,
[00:03:41.860]a lot of them don't trust us.
[00:03:43.530]In the end, it leaves these workers with the choice
[00:03:46.530]of either leaving their jobs
[00:03:48.770]or risking their health for another paycheck.
[00:03:53.224]We need to do whatever we can
[00:03:54.770]to protect our health and family,
[00:03:57.210]because the company won't do.
[00:03:59.170]I don't have a voice
[00:04:00.490]and I don't have a vote.
[00:04:03.150]For Care and NU News,
[00:04:04.720]I'm Natalie Saenz, reporting.

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Nebraska Meat Packers Threatened By COVID

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