Meatpacking plants are epicenters of coronavirus. The Trump administration is blaming workers

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday May 07, 2020 · 7:53 AM PDT

2020/05/07 · 07:53

US President Donald Trump looks on as US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar steps down from the podium after speaking on protecting Americas seniors from the COVID-19 pandemic in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on April 30, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) — Alex Azar

The Trump administration is determined to keep meatpacking plants open and running fast even as they become epicenters of coronavirus—and administration officials are trying to distract from that by blaming the workers for getting sick. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recently told a bipartisan group of lawmakers that the high infection rates at meatpacking plants weren’t about the plants themselves but about the workers’ “home and social” lives.

”Their theory of the case is that [workers] are not becoming infected in the meat processing plant, they're becoming infected because of the way they live in their home,” Rep. Ann Kuster of New Hampshire told Politico about the call. This comes after workers at one Smithfield pork plant filed a complaint saying they could get in trouble for pausing their work long enough to cover their faces while coughing or sneezing, and after at least one company has threatened a union for going public with safety concerns. This work involves standing close together without time to wash or sanitize hands regularly—in part, because the Trump administration allowed a speed-up of pork processing lines.

Azar pointed to the fact that many meatpacking plant workers live in shared housing, which may increase spread of COVID-19. But that again is an industry issue—if workers aren’t paid enough to pay the rent, they’re going to have to live in crowded conditions.

And Azar’s big idea for reducing infection? Using law enforcement to police social distancing. In communities based around a workforce that’s 44% Latino and 25% Black, with many undocumented and refugee workers. Talk about a recipe for abuse.

Truly the Trump administration will go to any length to blame and abuse the powerless in the process of allowing the powerful to commit ever-greater abuses. The meat processing companies have created conditions in which workers cannot do the most basic things to protect themselves, leading to at least 6,500 COVID-19 infections among meatpacking workers, including at least 20 deaths, with close to 60% of workers at one plant testing positive. The Trump administration has at every turn given the companies the go-ahead to make workers’ jobs more difficult and dangerous in ways that make it more difficult for them to wash their hands or even cover up a cough. And now it’s the “home and social” lives of the workers that are blamed for the spread of the virus.

Comments are closed on this story.