Meat plant workers' jobs got more dangerous as South Dakota governor refused to help

[turbinetree]

By Associated Press -April 20, 2020 6:15 PM

Even before the coronavirus began sickening workers, jobs in the meatpacking industry were considered among the most dangerous in the U.S.

Kulule Amosa's husband earns $17.70 an hour at a South Dakota pork plant doing a job so physically demanding it can only be performed in 30-minute increments. After each shift last week, he left exhausted as usual — but he didn't want to go home.

He was scared he would infect his pregnant wife with the coronavirus — so much so that when he pulled into the parking lot of their apartment building, he would call Amosa to tell her he wasn't coming inside. When he eventually did, he would sleep separately from her in their two-bedroom apartment.

"I'm really, really scared and worried," Amosa said Monday.

This was no abstract worry: At the Smithfield Foods plant, the locker rooms were so tightly packed Amosa's husband told her he sometimes had to push his way through a crowd. Coughs echoed through the bathrooms. The plant in Sioux Falls clocked so many cases that it was forced to close this week. It has reported 518 infections in employees and another 126 in people connected to them as of Wednesday, making it among the largest known clusters in the United States. A 64-year-old employee who contracted COVID-19 died Tuesday, according to his pastor.

https://americanindependent.com/coronavirus-meatpacking-industry-south-dakota-smithfield-foods-sioux-falls-covid-19/

Hey Sen. Thune have you talked to your leaders about this issue or you just as fucking incompetent has she is..................

[KY_EnviroGuy]

1. America had NO pandemic response plan funded and in place.....

so therefore it did not work. The proposed one from President Obama's administration is still collecting dust on tRump's shelf.

A rational nation would have emergency response plans, regulations, teams and equipment in place or readily available including emergency rules for operating food supply plants, food growers and food transport systems.


Sorry, there I go being rational again......

[rurallib]

2. Not just South Dakota - It is Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota

Meat packers in those states pretty much tell governors when to jump and how high.

And just now (11:42 AM) Iowa governor Kim Reynolds just planted a big sloppy kiss of the butt of the meat packing industry at her daily presser. Claimed they had been implementing procedures and providing protective equipment early on. The very opposite of the stories that those working in the industry have told.

Also the opposite of the story told by Blackhawk (Waterloo) sheriff on the Rachel Maddow show last night.

I swear Reynolds is owned by the Koch brother(s) and BIG, BIG ag.