Nearly 100 Worker, Environmental and Food Groups Call for Better Safety Protections and Hazard Pay for Meatpacking Workers at Risk Following Mandatory Return-to-Work Executive Order
NATIONAL - Nearly 100 worker, environmental and food and agriculture groups sent a letter to Labor Sec. Eugene Scalia and members of Congress calling on them to protect meatpacking and meat production workers and guarantee them hazard pay after the Trump Administration took executive action forcing meatpacking companies to remain open through the duration of the Coronavirus pandemic. This order impacts 194,000 employees around the country who are required to continue working in close proximity to others, some of whom are coming to work sick without proper PPE.
Safety regulations within these facilities are not nearly strict enough to protect workers from contracting Covid-19. The high-density working style, the lack of PPE and paid sick leave create an extremely hazardous environment for employees, putting them and their communities at risk of major disease spread. The House passed the HEROES Act on Friday, which included provisions to compel the Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an enforceable Emergency Temporary Standard aimed at protecting workers. However, those measures are unlikely to be taken up by the Senate.
In the letter, the organizations wrote, “At a time when frontline workers still do not have basic health and safety workplace protections and are dying on the job, we must strengthen worker protections--not weaken them. Sending workers into unsafe workplaces without adequate protection is completely unacceptable and will lead to more illness and deaths, both for workers, and for surrounding communities. Food workers are not disposable. Public health must be a priority over profits.”
Specifically, the letter calls for:
NATIONAL - Nearly 100 worker, environmental and food and agriculture groups sent a letter to Labor Sec. Eugene Scalia and members of Congress calling on them to protect meatpacking and meat production workers and guarantee them hazard pay after the Trump Administration took executive action forcing meatpacking companies to remain open through the duration of the Coronavirus pandemic. This order impacts 194,000 employees around the country who are required to continue working in close proximity to others, some of whom are coming to work sick without proper PPE.
Safety regulations within these facilities are not nearly strict enough to protect workers from contracting Covid-19. The high-density working style, the lack of PPE and paid sick leave create an extremely hazardous environment for employees, putting them and their communities at risk of major disease spread. The House passed the HEROES Act on Friday, which included provisions to compel the Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an enforceable Emergency Temporary Standard aimed at protecting workers. However, those measures are unlikely to be taken up by the Senate.
In the letter, the organizations wrote, “At a time when frontline workers still do not have basic health and safety workplace protections and are dying on the job, we must strengthen worker protections--not weaken them. Sending workers into unsafe workplaces without adequate protection is completely unacceptable and will lead to more illness and deaths, both for workers, and for surrounding communities. Food workers are not disposable. Public health must be a priority over profits.”
Specifically, the letter calls for: