In what has sadly become a routine response from the Trump Administration anytime it starts to look incompetent or at fault for a particularly heinous misstep, yet another member of the President’s cabinet has resorted to racist tactics to try and defend itself and its powerful campaign contributors. This time, the target of their rhetoric is the meat packing workers at facilities across the country.
As many Kos readers will have already seen in the news, my organization, Public Justice, filed suit against a Smithfield packing plant in Milan, Missouri on behalf of a courageous worker who stood up to demand safety protocols and equipment to protect herself, and her co-workers, from the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to her bravery, a national outcry was heard that put enormous pressure on Smithfield to implement changes and take small (though not by any means fully sufficient) steps in the right direction. Earlier this week, the judge in that case dismissed our lawsuit, citing OSHA as the proper regulatory authority. But OSHA’s oversight has been random and discretionary at best, and completely missing in action at worst. Though the workers in Milan have been given more protections than they had before the lawsuit (such as some ability to practice social distancing, mask policies, improved paid sick leave and stronger barriers between workers on the slaughter line), that was the direct result of the workers who spoke out and sued, and not because of the goodwill of Smithfield. The industry as a whole – and the government agencies responsible for overseeing them – have a long way to go.
Which brings us to this morning and an outrageous report from Politico about how Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has responded to calls for the federal government to step in and take action to protect workers. Even by this Administration’s admittedly low standards, Azar’s comments are shockingly racist.
According to Politico, Secretary Azar told a bipartisan group of lawmakers during a recent call that it isn’t the conditions inside meat packing plants that are to blame for the spread of COVID, but the “home and social” situations of workers. Azar reportedly went on to say that, rather than enforce social distancing at the plants where workers are being exposed due to a lack of social distancing policies (among other things), law enforcement should be sent into the communities where workers live to enforce social distancing there.
It’s no mystery to Azar, or anyone else, what he was implying here. The vast majority of workers in the meat packing industry are people of color, many of them immigrants and refugees. Indeed, the meat packing plant we sued in Missouri has an agreement with the local refugee resettlement office to place recent refugees in jobs at the plant. Many of the workers there are French-speaking refugees from Africa, and many others are Spanish-speaking immigrants from Central and South America. Like many corporate parrots within the Administration, Azar’s own comments mirror those of Smithfield executives themselves, who recently blamed a COVID outbreak at the company’s Sioux Falls, South Dakota plant on “certain cultures.” It doesn’t take a wild imagination to conclude which “cultures” the company was referring to.
The implication is clear. The rhetoric is racist. And the motivation – protecting corporate interests while leaving workers vulnerable during a pandemic - is unpardonable.
Though the most offensive action so far, Azar’s attack on workers is hardly the only example of the Trump Administration working to protect its campaign contributor buddies. Immediately after we filed suit against Smithfield, the President himself signed an executive order mandating that meat packing plants stay open, regardless of safety measures that were in place (or not), and the Department of Labor issued a statement declaring that it has authority to rely on the companies that own the plants to self-report their compliance with CDC and other guidance.
The fox is guarding the hen house, and the fox has now been exposed as a racist. None of us should be surprised at this point, but we should all be outraged at what is happening during a time of crisis.
Workers deserve better and basic human decency demands more.
It makes one wonder whatever happened to the “All Lives Matter” crowd.