Nati Harnik/AP Photo
Nebraska state Sen. Tony Vargas proposed a suspension of legislative rules on July 29 to allow for the introduction of a new bill to address safety measures at meatpacking plants.
Christian Muñoz worked the line alongside his father, Rogelio Muñoz Calderon, at a Tyson beef plant in Dakota City, Nebraska. Working the line can be grueling. Employees stand for eight-hour shifts and, using electric knives, perform the same repetitive motion as many as 100,000 times per shift. To ease the brutal nature of the job, Christian’s father would often sing while working.
The Tyson plant in Dakota City made national news earlier this year when it became one of the earliest and most severe COVID-19 hot spots in the Midwest. The plant, which employs around 4,300 people, closed for nearly a week in May to complete a deep-clean and await test results, after a rash of cases devastated the ranks of workers. According to the Food and Environment Reporting Network, which mapped infection rates across rural counties with and without meatpacking plants, Dakota City reported 669 positive cases, and Dakota County at large had a 7.8 percent infection rate per 100 people. Soon after the Dakota City outbreak, scores of counties with meatpacking plants would report a dramatic uptick in cases.
On August 6, Christian stood alone next to a portrait of his late father, and testified before the Nebraska state legislature in support of an amendment to a bill to enhance COVID-19 protective measures for meatpacking employees. “I’m here to honor my father,” Christian said in his testimony, “because the company never did.” Christian’s father, who worked at Tyson for 27 years, contracted COVID-19 and was soon hospitalized. He celebrated his 52nd birthday from a hospital bed and there he died, just days before the birth of his grandchild, Christian’s son.
Five thousand plant workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in Nebraska, representing nearly 20 percent of cases statewide, and at least 21 of those workers have died.
With the session scheduled to close on August 13, state Sen. Tony Vargas proposed a suspension of legislative rules on July 29 to allow for the introduction of a new bill to address safety measures at plants and a public hearing to hear directly from plant workers and employers. When this proposal fell two votes shy of the 30-vote threshold, Vargas filed an amendment to a pending bill he originally introduced to fund youth work opportunities and training, essentially rewriting the bill to instead address plant worker safety. Sen. Matt Hansen, chair of the Business and Labor Committee, granted Sen. Vargas a public hearing where lawmakers heard testimony from Christian Muñoz and others about safety concerns. “To my knowledge, this is the only public hearing that is investigating what is happening in our meatpacking plants,” Vargas told me over the phone.
The amendment would require plant employers across the state to enforce six feet of social distancing, regularly disinfect workspaces, provide face shields, and pay sick leave to those who test positive for COVID-19. The amendment would also require greater transparency from meatpacking plants by requiring them to report COVID-19 contact-tracing data to the state on a weekly basis. Throughout the pandemic, plants have been guarded about contact-tracing efforts, and noncommunicative with their employees about who is and isn’t sick.
Five thousand plant workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in Nebraska, representing nearly 20 percent of cases statewide, and at least 21 of those workers have died. Plants predominantly employ immigrants and refugees, consisting mostly of Latinos, but also Sudanese, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and other groups.
In his opening statement at the hearing, Sen. Vargas called attention to how COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting minority populations, especially Latinos. Vargas, who is the only Latino serving in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature and represents a robust Latino community in his district in southeast Omaha, told his colleagues that Latinos account for just 10 percent of the state’s population but make up 60 percent of the total cases and nearly 25 percent of the 347 reported deaths.
For Vargas, this amendment is personal. The son of Peruvian immigrants, both his parents worked in factories while he was growing up and his father, who lived in New York City, died from COVID-19 earlier this year.
More than 30 people testified during the three-hour-plus hearing, including community organizers, union reps, and plant workers. From these testimonies, a few common complaints arose, some of which were unique to COVID-19 while others aligned with long-standing grievances.
Historically, plant workers speaking up about their rights or safety concerns is viewed by employers as an act of insubordination and disciplined as such.
Even though workers’ pay increased at the plants, so too did their workload. With many still out sick, workers have been expected to keep up with line speeds operating at full capacity. Many workers live in multigenerational homes, and the coronavirus case and death figures cited by Sen. Vargas do not account for infected friends and family that could be traced back to plants. Finally, as has been the case historically, plant workers speaking up about their rights or safety concerns is viewed by employers as an act of insubordination and disciplined as such.
Several plant workers who testified were fired because of coronavirus-related incidents. With the aid of a translator, William Matamoros explained how meatpacking giant JBS in Grand Island fired him over a miscommunication regarding masks. Matamoros, who has a shaky command of the English language, removed his mask toward the end of an eight-hour shift to catch his breath. “It’s really hard to work for eight straight hours when your mask is wet and soiled,” he said with the aid of a translator. A supervisor confronted Matamoros about his mask, subsequently suspended him for three days for insubordination, and eventually fired him.
Eric Reeder, president of the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, rattled off a number of dire working conditions, including the failure to replace soiled masks and operating understaffed lines at full capacity, alongside other long-standing grievances such as worker fears of speaking out and poor ventilation, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. “What you have in front of you in the bill is a first step in helping,” said Reeder. “It’s not an answer, but it definitely moves things in the right direction.”
The stark difference between legislators’ working conditions and those of plant workers was not lost on some who testified. In the hearing, state senators were all socially distanced, with plexiglass dividers installed between them. Between testimonies, a page sanitized and wiped down the chair and desk where a giant dispenser of hand sanitizer sat. Most lawmakers wore masks.
Notably, no representatives from meatpacking companies appeared to testify. “It’s the first time in my recent memory as a legislator we didn’t have the opposition actually put themselves in front of senators to engage in the legislative and democratic process,” Vargas told me. He speculated there could be two reasons for the lack of participation. “They believe they are doing everything they can. Or they are concerned if they were questioned by senators they wouldn’t be able to actually support why COVID-19 cases have been overrepresented in this industry across the state. Either of those outcomes are terrible.”
Meatpacking is a huge industry in Nebraska, a state where cattle outnumber people three to one. The largest companies in the industry—Smithfield, Tyson, JBS, Cargill—operate multiple plants throughout the state.
As Nebraska’s summer legislative session comes to a close, those who testified in favor of the amendment feel as though they did indeed push the needle.
Just days before the public hearing, Smithfield went on the offensive, taking out full-page ads in The New York Times, Lincoln Journal Star, and Omaha World-Herald to defend its handling of the COVID-19 crisis and smear the media for “perpetuating a false narrative about the company.” While many companies have eagerly advertised new and enhanced safety measures in response to the pandemic, Smithfield’s criticism of the media and “their activist agenda” was a far more aggressive tactic.
“Why would a plant take out ads talking about what they’re doing to combat COVID-19 if not to address their public image,” said Vargas. “If I took [the ad] at face value, then there should be no problems with sharing COVID-19 data publicly with the state and public-health departments.”
Earlier this year, Tyson used a full-page ad in The New York Times to lobby President Trump and sound the alarm about potential meat shortages. Two days later, on April 28, Trump signed an executive order declaring meatpacking plants “critical infrastructure” to the nation’s food supply.
As Nebraska’s summer legislative session comes to a close, those who testified in favor of the amendment feel as though they did indeed push the needle. “We raised awareness that there’s a lack of enforcement, of what the Department of Labor can do, of what OSHA can do,” said former meatpacking worker Gabriela Pedroza.
On Tuesday, August 11, the Business and Labor Committee will vote on whether or not to advance the amended bill.
